Posts about stuff relating to airports
Hidden within the Data: Wildlife Strike Costs in Australia
From time to time, I like to write about wildlife-strike-related research. In my wrap-up of last September’s AAWHG Forum, I hinted at a presentation I delivered on wildlife strike costs in Australia and promised that more details were coming soon. Well, today is soon! A couple of nights ago, my first ever peer-reviewed academic journal article was published*, and it has the very scientific-sounding title of “Estimating the Cost of Wildlife Strikes in Australian Aviation Using Random Forest Modeling.”
Big Brother: Tracking Passengers
Passenger tracking technology has become an increasingly important part of modern airport management. From check-in to boarding, passenger tracking systems help airports monitor travellers' movement throughout the terminal to improve the overall passenger experience. In addition, with technological advances in various spaces, airports can gather swathes of data on people's movement around their terminals within tight budgets while being mindful of privacy concerns.
Introducing the 2023 Blogathon (with a little artificial help)
This is a terrible idea. I’ve got a lot to do right now but I’ve somehow convinced myself that this new technology (that is all the buzz) can help me do this. So, here goes…
Hashtag AAWHG 2022 Forum
Now that I’ve had a week to come down from an enormous couple of days at the Australian Aviation Wildlife Hazard Group’s (AAWHG) 2022 Forum, I thought I would share some of my highlights . The AAWHG Forum is the biennial migration of all manner of wildlife hazard management practitioners, researchers, consultants and stakeholders into a select location to discuss, present and chat about anything that relates to the intersection of aircraft and wildlife. But I haven’t the time to give you all a play by play. Instead, I’d like to share some of my bigger “take aways” and one big criticism.
Runway Strip Excursion: Bad Luck or Unintended Consequence?
A little over a week ago, there was another spectacular runway excursion event caught on film and shared across social and traditional media. On the 7th April, 2021, a DHL 757-200 veered off the runway at Juan Santamaria airport in Costa Rica. The aircraft was returning to the airport after declaring an emergency due to a hydraulic issue. The aircraft appeared to have landed safely but towards the end of its roll-out, it veered to the right and came to rest in a low area with its nose high and tail broken. Luckily, this was a freighter flight and the crew evacuated safely.
Header image: Grabbed off Google
COVID-19 Bird Strike Update #4
For quite a while now, I’ve been tracking the impact of the COVID-19 air traffic downturn on wildlife strike rates. Early warnings highlighted the potential for and early indications were that there was a risk of increased wildlife strike rates while the industry returned to the skies. Since then, a lot more research has been done and presented. I presented my full year 2020 findings at the Australian Aviation Wildlife Hazard Group’s (AAWHG) 2021 Webinar Series last October with the video going online last week.
Check it out here…
Header image: Asad Photo Maldives (via Pexels)
Don't Wait for the Investigation Report: Speculation Can Be Good
In these times of almost ubiquitous video, we are sometimes inundated with footage from all manner of safety incidents and accidents. Coupled with social media, professional and otherwise, this makes for lively discussions on causes and contributory factors as soon as the footage becomes available. Unfortunately, a lot of these discussions are not useful and are often met with calls to wait for the investigation report and resist the urge to speculate.
But I can’t say that I agree with the blanket call to avoid speculation and wait for an investigation report and here is why.
Header image: Francesco Ungaro (via Pexels)
Opening Up: What Surprises Lurk within your Aerodrome?
Depending on the nature of the COVID-19 outbreak in your area, aerodrome operations may have ground to a halt, barely hiccuped or maybe even increased. For those in the first category, that have struggled through intermittent and/or prolonged lockdowns, the end could be insight. But getting going again could be fraught with insidious risks.
Header image: Mateus Rauber (via Pexels)
Which Pipit to Report?
I was doing some research using the ATSB’s wildlife strike data file and came across a number of interesting little data artifacts. My goal was to maximise the number of reports with standard species names (common names, not the Latin) and this required a combination of Python programming and manual mapping.
And I found some interesting things, like the Richard’s Pipit.
Image credits: Richard’s Pipit (JJ Harrison via Wikipedia) & Australiasian Pipit (Sommerdrought via Wikipedia)
COVID-19 Bird Strike Update #3
It’s time for another update on the impact of COVID-19 traffic downturns on wildlife strikes. My first (and updated) post was looking at the initial months of the pandemic and the second looked at the northern summer period but it has been a big three months since I’ve looked at these numbers.
And in that time, someone published some statistics that don’t exactly match mine!
Obstacles, Collisions & Liability
Back in 2011, in the lovely northern NSW town of Old Bar, the locals were having a festival. Someone put up a Ferris wheel at the end of the local airstrip’s runway. An aircraft crashed into it and while no one was hurt physically, legal action ensued. A child riding on the Ferris wheel was awarded some pretty significant damages in some interesting legal ways.
Image credit: Isabelle Taylor (via Pexels)
Run the Runways 2020: My Version
Over the past 9 months, I’ve been seeing many people in my LinkedIn feed, let’s say, transitioning out of the airport/aviation industry. That’s a nice way of describing what must be a pretty tough time for either you or many of our colleagues. I feel very lucky that I still have a job in the industry that I love.
This December, I’m going to run the equivalent lengths of a bunch of runways I know in a hijack of the very worthy cause and challenge set by Aviation Action.
Header image credit: João Cabral (via Pexels)
COVID-19 Bird Strike Update #2
It’s been a couple of months since my first attempt at tracking bird strike rates following the COVID-19 traffic downturn. At that time, viral infection rates in Europe had settled down, Australia was coming down from its second wave and even the US seemed to be cresting its second phase. On the aviation safety front, bird strike rates were showing a pretty clear sign of exceeding the 5-year average.
So how are things looking three months on?
Image credit: Alan Wilson (via Wikipedia)
Aerodrome Geodata & The Aerodrome Local Ownership Plan (ALOP)
In light of COVID-19, partly because of it or exacerbated by it, the Australian Government has published an issues paper on the Future of Australia’s Aviation Sector with public consultation open until 13 November 2020. The paper is looking at a range of issues and not just COVID-recovery-related topics. They are also looking at regional access, airport regulation and funding.
One section in particular caught my eye and that was looking into the Aerodrome Local Ownership Plan (ALOP) and possible changes designed to free-up local government options. There is an interesting comment in this section that I wanted to explore using data-driven decision making (D3M) and some pretty cool data-visualisation tools that I have recently discovered.
Image credit: Catarina Sousa (via Pexels)
ASW #5: Some Friday Funnies
It’s Friday, it’s Friday! The theme for day 5 is “Wellbeing”. The old Oxford Dictionary defines that as “the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy” and today, I’m going to try to help out with that last one with some funny aviation-themed videos from YouTube.
ASW #4: (More than) A Couple of Words on Safety Management Systems (TBT)
Here we are on day 4 of Airport Safety Week and it’s a Thursday, so I am going to cheat a little here and do a massive Throwback Thursday post covering some of my favourite Safety Management System (SMS) related posts.
Image credit: Digital Buggu (via Pexels)
ASW #2: The Evolution of Human Factors (Infographic)
The theme for the second day of Airport Safety Week 2020, is “human factors in airport safety”. Now this is a really, really big topic and one that I love. I have studied human factors through two degrees, multiple short courses and a ton of personal research.
But instead of going full nerd, I have decided to take a different approach and create something of an infographic on the topic of the evolution of human factors. Check it out inside here.
ASW #1: COVID-19 & Safety: A Bow-Tie Risk Assessment Approach
Today’s theme is “maintaining airport safety through COVID-19”. Obviously, this can be a big topic. There are thousands of ways COVID-19 has impacted our daily lives - some large and some subtle. So, in thinking about this topic, I wanted to create a structure we could use to analyse the virus’s impact.
And I landed on the Bow-Tie model. Check it out.
Header: Karolina Grabowska (via Pexels)
Airport Safety Week is almost here...
It is nearly Airport Safety Week again! This year, it will, no doubt, feel different and for me, I am feeling particularly distant. But to help me celebrate the week and bring me a little closer to “home”, I am committing myself to writing a post a day with each one on the daily theme.