On a very recent flight out of Nice airport, on the french riviera, I could observe a security breach. I report this story here to illustrate the way security and safety are dealt with in air-transport industry, and that even the stronger system is only as strong as its weakest element.
I don't know anything about how security is handled in Nice, but I've quite an idea how important access control is, particularly regarding access of passengers to planes. The security system is supposed to prevent any unauthorized access to planes or airside areas. As any system, it is made of equipments (doors, locks, badge readers, ...), procedures (who is allowed to open, what to monitor, close behind yourself, ...) and humans (staff, crews, ...).
This is often depicted as a triangle, and each possible risk relates to one of the angles, and is mitigated by one or both of the others. Typically, there are special procedures to cover an equipment failure, humans are monitoring the automatics in the equipment, and so on...
Now that we described the basic approach, let me tell you what I saw today while waiting for boarding. An airline crew was going to its plane via the waiting hall. For an unclear reason, they were not accompanied by any groud staff (procedure ?). Apparently the captain knew how to unlock the gate.
One of the flight attendant opened the second gate as the rest of the crew were going thourgh the first one. The captain probably did not saw that the second gate has been opened, but when the whole crew continued on its way to the airplane, this second gate remained open.
The abnormal thing here is that the flight attendant who opened the second gate did not closed it (human), and no-one crosschecked it (procedure / human). This gate remained open for approximately 45 minutes. There is an equipment question here, as there could be an alarm or a limit to the time a non-staffed gate can be open.
As a matter of fact, this gate was open without being staffed nor monitored for about 45 minutes, until I mentionned it to the boarding agent of my own flight when I did get on.
The question is then "how to make the system better, without preventing any business activity, and at affordable price ?". This is a very important question in the security and safety domains. Not leaving crews getting to their planes unaccompanied ? Not sure the airport can afford the necessary staff... Ring an alarm if a gate is opened without being staffed ? This could lead to tons of wrong alarms, and the equipment cost could be quite high. Insist on security in crews / staff recurent training ? Probably a good solution...
Showing posts with label Airport. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Airport. Show all posts
Saturday, 11 August 2007
Wednesday, 27 June 2007
Airport population - Faune control
This post is inspired by a recent event that lead to temporary closure of Milano Linate, which is Milano second airport, so may be not a major one, but not exactly the municipal airport.
Linate had to be closed, in a planned way, for several hours, for the purpose of chasing hares that were living here. This operation involved many kilometers of nets, and hundred of people to hunt the furry ones. You can find a complete coverage of this event by CBS.
Hare control is really an issue, but most of time the "Faune control units" at the airports deal with birds. The big issue is that large birds can not be easily ingested by engines, and could cause some damages to windshields, wings, and any part of an aircraft.
There is a whole business in chasing birds from airports, with various equipment, including, but not limited to:
-) Remote guns (producing sounds only)
-) Mini fireworks, silent and screaming
-) Loudspeakers prodcasting other birds noises (predator noises)
Part of the problem is also that many airports have open fields where they leave some grass for decoration or ease of maintenance purposes, and this attracts small animals (mice, rats, ...), and when the grass gets its periodical cutting, it does in turn attarcts more birds looking for easy food.
I know a place where they recently tried to leave the grass get longer, but then larger animals started to live here... and to eat the lighting system cables !
To fight against these problems all airports have some "Faune control", patrolling all day long, looking for birds, and trying to chase them.
Linate had to be closed, in a planned way, for several hours, for the purpose of chasing hares that were living here. This operation involved many kilometers of nets, and hundred of people to hunt the furry ones. You can find a complete coverage of this event by CBS.
Hare control is really an issue, but most of time the "Faune control units" at the airports deal with birds. The big issue is that large birds can not be easily ingested by engines, and could cause some damages to windshields, wings, and any part of an aircraft.
There is a whole business in chasing birds from airports, with various equipment, including, but not limited to:
-) Remote guns (producing sounds only)
-) Mini fireworks, silent and screaming
-) Loudspeakers prodcasting other birds noises (predator noises)
Part of the problem is also that many airports have open fields where they leave some grass for decoration or ease of maintenance purposes, and this attracts small animals (mice, rats, ...), and when the grass gets its periodical cutting, it does in turn attarcts more birds looking for easy food.
I know a place where they recently tried to leave the grass get longer, but then larger animals started to live here... and to eat the lighting system cables !
To fight against these problems all airports have some "Faune control", patrolling all day long, looking for birds, and trying to chase them.
Saturday, 23 June 2007
What planes can and can't do - Wind
One important thing when talking about aerodynamics is that the speed which is relevant in lift generation is the relative speed between air and wing. Speed relatively to ground has no influence, except for take-off and landing.
If wind is blowing, planes will take-off and land in opposite direction, so for the same air speed (needed to generate lift) the ground speed will be less, so the ground roll will be shorter, and more controllable.
The problem with wind start when they are fluctuating. If there is a sudden change in wind speed during an approach (what is called a "windshear"), the relative airspeed could be significantly changed, leading to potentailly strong changes in lift, then in vertical speed.
By chance, modern airliners have computers that know the airspeed from airspeed sensors, and groundspeed from GPS, so they can detect any windshear and notify them to pilots. The only "cure" is just to apply full power, and go arround for a second approach.
The other major issue with wind is when it is not blowing parallel to the runway. As the plane is moving relatively to air, the only way to maintain a straight ground track (needed for landing, isn'it ?) is to fly with the nose in the wind direction, flying in a "crabby" fashion.
This is perfectly ok to maintain a trajectory relatively to ground, but raises an issue, as the landing gear are not orientable, so immediately before (in some case after...) landing, the plane must be put in line with the runway.
Some examples of this technique are shows in the following video. Please understand that clearly, what you will see is indeed very good pilot skills, not bloody pilots missing their landings.
The next video is from a simulator (no airline will ever allow its pilots to even try such an approach), but it is very good for demonstration, as it shows the same approach from outsite and inside the planes, with angles that would be impossible to shoot from in reality.
The next time you will have a firm landing in crosswind conditions, or a go arround, please remind that this is how to do. And a go arround is never a bad option.
If wind is blowing, planes will take-off and land in opposite direction, so for the same air speed (needed to generate lift) the ground speed will be less, so the ground roll will be shorter, and more controllable.
The problem with wind start when they are fluctuating. If there is a sudden change in wind speed during an approach (what is called a "windshear"), the relative airspeed could be significantly changed, leading to potentailly strong changes in lift, then in vertical speed.
By chance, modern airliners have computers that know the airspeed from airspeed sensors, and groundspeed from GPS, so they can detect any windshear and notify them to pilots. The only "cure" is just to apply full power, and go arround for a second approach.
The other major issue with wind is when it is not blowing parallel to the runway. As the plane is moving relatively to air, the only way to maintain a straight ground track (needed for landing, isn'it ?) is to fly with the nose in the wind direction, flying in a "crabby" fashion.
This is perfectly ok to maintain a trajectory relatively to ground, but raises an issue, as the landing gear are not orientable, so immediately before (in some case after...) landing, the plane must be put in line with the runway.
Some examples of this technique are shows in the following video. Please understand that clearly, what you will see is indeed very good pilot skills, not bloody pilots missing their landings.
The next video is from a simulator (no airline will ever allow its pilots to even try such an approach), but it is very good for demonstration, as it shows the same approach from outsite and inside the planes, with angles that would be impossible to shoot from in reality.
The next time you will have a firm landing in crosswind conditions, or a go arround, please remind that this is how to do. And a go arround is never a bad option.
Wednesday, 20 June 2007
Airport population - The spotters
The spotters are definetly part of airport population, despite they are not working there (not earning money at least), and they are usually not allowed to get in.
They express their passion for aviation by taking pictures of planes, mostly from the airport fence. On good days, you can have dozen, if not hundreds of them, especially if there are some special planes scheduled.
Some of them are equipped with radio scanners to monitor the traffic, and even some radar-like (ADS-B) receivers to prepare their shots.
This could look like a strange hobby, but I must admit that they are really serious at it. Have a look at www.airliners.net, you will see how good their pictures are.
And please don't think this is useless, it even had strategical issues... do you remind when CIA was accused to illegaly transport war prisonners accross europe ? Some spotters could prove using their pictures that the agency did illegaly used the same plane with different registrations within days. How ? Because the spotters photos are so good that they could unambiguously identify the planes by their antenna locations, and also because of the scratches on the fuselage !
There is also a second kind of spotting activity, which is a bit harder for me to understand, which consists in noting the aircraft registrations seen by the spotter. At some airports with public observation desks, you can see them, with binoculars, looking at planes, then flipping pages of their booklets to tick the registration they just saw... and get very excited if this is a new one.
Some spotters club even require a certain ammount of new registration seen per member, otherwise the "bad" member no seeing enough new planes gets excluded !
During some renovations at Heathrow, the fence was coverd by kind of opaque plastic film, and the authority has been asked and pressured by spotters associations to do some holes in that, so they could continue their favorite activity ! That's how powerfull this funny lobby is.
The guy on this picture is a typical spotter being spotted in action... He is in fact Kurt Gorm Larsen, the editor of www.plane-spotter.com, another spotters website. And yes, that equipment is quite usual amongts spotters as they have to shoot their pictures from quite fare away, behind the fence.
They express their passion for aviation by taking pictures of planes, mostly from the airport fence. On good days, you can have dozen, if not hundreds of them, especially if there are some special planes scheduled.
Some of them are equipped with radio scanners to monitor the traffic, and even some radar-like (ADS-B) receivers to prepare their shots.
This could look like a strange hobby, but I must admit that they are really serious at it. Have a look at www.airliners.net, you will see how good their pictures are.
And please don't think this is useless, it even had strategical issues... do you remind when CIA was accused to illegaly transport war prisonners accross europe ? Some spotters could prove using their pictures that the agency did illegaly used the same plane with different registrations within days. How ? Because the spotters photos are so good that they could unambiguously identify the planes by their antenna locations, and also because of the scratches on the fuselage !
There is also a second kind of spotting activity, which is a bit harder for me to understand, which consists in noting the aircraft registrations seen by the spotter. At some airports with public observation desks, you can see them, with binoculars, looking at planes, then flipping pages of their booklets to tick the registration they just saw... and get very excited if this is a new one.
Some spotters club even require a certain ammount of new registration seen per member, otherwise the "bad" member no seeing enough new planes gets excluded !
During some renovations at Heathrow, the fence was coverd by kind of opaque plastic film, and the authority has been asked and pressured by spotters associations to do some holes in that, so they could continue their favorite activity ! That's how powerfull this funny lobby is.
The guy on this picture is a typical spotter being spotted in action... He is in fact Kurt Gorm Larsen, the editor of www.plane-spotter.com, another spotters website. And yes, that equipment is quite usual amongts spotters as they have to shoot their pictures from quite fare away, behind the fence.
Airport's best spot - Lighting system
Before writing this post, I had a long time thinking what my favorite place on an airport it. This is not a easy thing to determine as there are so many different interesting and funny places to be !Driving beside or even on runways (with a clearance, for sure) is good...
Walking arround planes at their stands offers the possiblity to see each and every details of them...
The view from control tower is definetily breathtaking...
But THE place to be is withing the approach light system. You know, this series of lights that extend for 900 meters from runway end, guiding pilots for the very final part of the approach.
Getting there is not an easy thing as this is in the sensitive area, and only people doing maintenance of the lights are allowed to go there, as well as the Instrument Landing System (ILS) technicians. But the place is really good, as it is the closes place in the runway axis you can access.
If you're facing take-offs, depending the runway lenght and type of aircraft taking off, you can have kind of a "face to face" with the pilots, and beleive me, they will see you as well.
But landings seen from there is really a paramount experience, as airplanes pass above you, at a height of about 10 to 15 meters with reduced power, gliding down to the runway, with light on, gear down... really exciting. After the plane passes, you can even hear the wake turbulence moving air arround, and feel those vortexes...
Far far away in time is the era where it was possible to buy a sandwich at noon and go there to eat it looking at planes (the new safety era...) but each opportunity to go there is a good time granted.
Both photos in this post are from the excellent www.airliners.net website, which photo database is fed by spotters worldwide, and has more that 1'000'000 photos in.
More about the spotters in the next post...
Thursday, 14 June 2007
Set the context...
An airport can hardly be compared to any other activity center... there are thousands of people working there, for hundreds of companies, each with different aims, some can be state operated, other are purely private companies... but by the end of the day, all want to keep the passengers (we call them PAX) happy, and the traffic smooth.
There are certainly bigger companies employing more people, but remind that an airport is not made of a single company, but many of them, typically including:
-Airport authority
-Air traffic control
-Airlines
-Police
-Firemen
-PAX security
-Handling (check-in and boarding)
-Fuel companies
-Catering
-Planes cleaning
-Aicraft maintenance
-Medical services
- ... and I probably forgot many.
and for most of these activities, airports have various companies offering services. Moreover, most airports are now shopping centers as well. A typical mid-size european airport (taking away Heathrow, Frankfurt, Charles-De-Gaule and Madrid) has something like 10'000 to 25'000 on site workers. Hopefully not all at the same time, as many of the services work with irregular schedules, 24 / 7.
What a normal PAX sees is may be 5 to 10% of the total spaces arround, and has no idea of what goes on behind the scene... so I'll reveal some to you...
In the next post, more on three of the most important actors: Airline - Airport - Air traffic control. The three A, with A lot of conflicts.
There are certainly bigger companies employing more people, but remind that an airport is not made of a single company, but many of them, typically including:
-Airport authority
-Air traffic control
-Airlines
-Police
-Firemen
-PAX security
-Handling (check-in and boarding)
-Fuel companies
-Catering
-Planes cleaning
-Aicraft maintenance
-Medical services
- ... and I probably forgot many.
and for most of these activities, airports have various companies offering services. Moreover, most airports are now shopping centers as well. A typical mid-size european airport (taking away Heathrow, Frankfurt, Charles-De-Gaule and Madrid) has something like 10'000 to 25'000 on site workers. Hopefully not all at the same time, as many of the services work with irregular schedules, 24 / 7.
What a normal PAX sees is may be 5 to 10% of the total spaces arround, and has no idea of what goes on behind the scene... so I'll reveal some to you...
In the next post, more on three of the most important actors: Airline - Airport - Air traffic control. The three A, with A lot of conflicts.
Welcome to the airport
I've been working in air travel industry for years now, and disucssing about it with familly and friends always raises tons of questions, and a strong interest. Sometimes I also take them with for a visit of the "airside" part of the airport, and this is a great moment each time.
There is something magic in airplanes, airports, pilots, cabin crew, control tower, and air travel as a whole... To be honest, I feel this as well, despite being in this business for quite a while.
My purpose here is to share this magic with the readers, and to give them an insight view of daily life in an airport.
For obvious and sad security reasons, I can't give any people name, or place, date, company name, but the air travel magic is beyond time, so it should not be problematic.
So, I'm happy to welcome you on this blog, and hope you'll enjoy it.
There is something magic in airplanes, airports, pilots, cabin crew, control tower, and air travel as a whole... To be honest, I feel this as well, despite being in this business for quite a while.
My purpose here is to share this magic with the readers, and to give them an insight view of daily life in an airport.
For obvious and sad security reasons, I can't give any people name, or place, date, company name, but the air travel magic is beyond time, so it should not be problematic.
So, I'm happy to welcome you on this blog, and hope you'll enjoy it.
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