Why can planes take off at night but not in fog?

Question

Some of our major airports were closed today for fog and I wondered why they cant take off in fog but can take off in the dark?

Answer 1

of course you cant see with fog. but you can see in the dark. duhh,..

Answer 2

F0G IS A HIGH REDUCER 0F VISABILITY, WHERE THE NITE SKY, U CAN SEE T0 THE STARS

Answer 3

sometimes the fog has mountains inside of it.

Answer 4

Cuz you can shine light in the dark

But if you shine light in fog, itll just bounce back, make your vision worse.

Answer 5

Planes can usually take off in the fog (I've been on one that did that) but they have problems landing.  I think it is very important to be able to see the runway a bit before putting wheels down on it.  You are right, though, it should be possible to land with zero visibility in the near future using differential GPS technology.

Answer 6

Planes can take off at night and in the fog. It all depends on what they are rated for and what the runway is rated for.

If both are rated so-called CAT3 then the aircarft, the pilot(s) and runway are certified for minimum visibility take off and/or landing. In poor visibility the latter happens on so-called ILS (instrument landing system) connected to the auto-pilot and, in fact, the computer lands the plane all the way to when the speed is reduced to about 40 knots (from 120 knots landing speed!) when the auto-pilot will disengage and the pilot will need to steer manually.

Others have answered why light doesn't shine through the fog, I won't repeat that. I am a sport pilot license holder. I can fly VFR (visual flight reference) during day and night. But I can't fly when the visibility is less that 4 kilometers. Sometimes the tower controller gives me permission to fly with lesser visibility under the SVFR (Special visual flight reference) rule. But never in fog.

Answer 7

In the night visibility can be improved with powerful head lights whereas fog will not allow light to pass through it and hence visibility can not be improved.

Answer 8

I'm guessing the same reason you can drive your car at night, but not in heavy fog (without a lot of risk).  Trying to take off and land on a runway without being able to see could cause a couple problems I think.

Answer 9

Because light can not travel through something thick like fog. if you really think about it darkness is not relly there it is just lack of light. but if you put light back into darkness you can see again. you can also think of a falshlight in the yard at night time.

Answer 10

well what i know is that they can take off but cant land in fog because at night, the runway has lights on the sides of it. but what i think about taking off is that at night, the plane's lights can be used to see through the dark but not fog.

Answer 11

I would think the obvious reason is because as night you can see the landing strip lights, in fog you have zero guidance because the lights aren't visible.  Plus airports aren't that dark, there's c**p loads of lights everywhere on the runway.