Posts about stuff relating to airports
Safety Hero: Roger Boisjoly
It's a slice of history every safety professional should know - the night before the Challenger disaster, engineers at NASA-contractor Morton Thiokol made a recommendation that the launch not proceed. One of the engineers that really tried to stop it died today.
"Compliance Doesn't Equal Safety"
I've heard this saying quite a bit over the last few months and in at least one aspect, I agree with the statement. It tends to be true that regulations have failed to keep pace with industry. As such, blind compliance with the regulation no longer ensures an accident-free existence. So what is the solution?
Image: Tanathip Rattanatum
Unhappy? No, but...
After a short hiatus and a new job, I've decided to start blogging again. This time on topics related to my new job. My old blog was slanted towards airport safety but with my shift into a more general and strategic role, I thought I'd shift the blogging to a new home and recommence putting my thoughts out there. The name of this blog comes from a chapter in James Reason's 1997 book, managing the risks of organisational accidents. In it, Professor Reason provided a number of reasons why the regulator's lot is an unhappy one.
Image credit: Andrea Piacquadio (via Pexels)
A Change of Scene
As you can no doubt tell, I haven't been blogging much over the last couple of months. The reason behind this is that I went and got myself a new job. Same place but a new role. I'm no longer an aerodrome inspector. Instead, I've moved into a much more strategic role in the Safety Systems Office at the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.
Header image: Alexas Fotos (via Pexels)
Doing the Right Thing for the Right Reasons
A couple of weeks ago a question came into the Aerodromes Inspectorate at work regarding the accuracy of airline scales at airports. In Australia, that's not necessarily an airport operator's responsibility and is not covered by our aerodrome regulations. Anyway, that's not the point of this post. This earlier event made me notice this story from the LA Times on the same topic, so I read with interest to see what other countries do. I couldn't exactly work out whether it was the airport or airlines responsibility but in Los Angeles at least, a government department comes in to give the scales the big tick of approval. But the angle of the story was what really stood out.
Image credit: Jens Johnsson (via Pexels)
Bird Control Dessert: Fungrass*
Last week I blogged about the ACRP's new synthesis report on bird control techniques and on that very day, Airport International News reported on deterrent grass developed in New Zealand. This new grass is still being tested in NZ so its no wonder it didn't make it into the ACRP's report…
Header image: abdul7amid alfadhly (via Pexels)
Wrong Runway, Go'Round
If you're not into aviation, like most Australian airport operators, you might think that some of those stories you hear from fanatics like me are a bit far-fetched. In my early days in aviation, I thought the same about the stories involving pilots putting their aircraft down on the wrong runway. Surely not...
Unfortunately, it has happened with the latest incident occurring less than two months ago. This time it involved a CRJ-200 and a new but not yet operational parallel runway. Luckily, according to this site, no one was injured.
Header image: William Mattey (via Pexels)
Airport Heavy Metal
For those engineers, works supervisors and general road-works warriors out there, here is a cool new video of trucks, asphalt, men and some more trucks as they overlay one of Melbourne Airport's runways. Enjoy :).
5 Ways to Improve Your Aerodrome Manual
I've seen my fair share of aerodrome manuals. Every audit begins with a review of an aerodrome manual and in my past life as a consultant, I wrote a few as well. Unfortunately, the state of the vast majority of aerodrome manuals I've encountered, including my own, could best be described as "needs improvement". But before we get to the tips, let’s just rehash the aerodrome manual rationale. Why do we have this document?
ATI Inspector Form
Very few aerodromes I visit take the time to make sure the person or persons who carry out their aerodrome technical inspections meet the qualification and experience requirements laid out in CASR 139.240. So, to help you out, I developed an easy to use form that helps guide you through the process and satisfy the record keeping expectations of regulators.
Image credit: Andrea Piacquadio (via Pexels)
The Bird Control Smörgåsbord
The Airport Cooperative Research Program has just released a synthesis of the many and varied bird control techniques in use at airports today. Its official title is ACRP Synthesis 23: Bird Harassment, Repellent, and Deterrent Techniques for Use on and Near Airports and its appears to have been no small undertaking.
FODtube.com*
Last week's post on Foreign Object Debris got me surfing youtube.com for some videos: First up is a short video on some of Denver Airport's FOD control activities - pretty low tech stuff but they appear happy with it.
Runways Made Safer? Yeah but…
I caught this story on the web last week. According to the press release (eh, I mean) article, aircraft are falling apart during take-off and landing and the frontline of defence, airport safety officers, are prone to error. Enter the saviour – FOD radar. Okay, that's a cruel, exaggerated (mis)representation.
I will admit that Foreign Object Debris (FOD) is a very real problem for aviation and airports, in particular. Skybrary puts the yearly cost at $4 billion per year (including wildlife) and the list of FOD-induced crashes is often headlined by the 2000 Concorde disaster.
It's the mis-characterisation of runway inspections that gets to me as it seems that the article is trying to paint the following picture:
Image credit: Darli Donizete (via Pexels)
Obstacle Limitation Surface 3D Visualisation
Here is the product of a couple more nights drawing on my mac. They are the MOS 139 compliant (or there abouts) obstacle limitation surfaces for the main runway at Brisbane Airport.
Header image: Aleksandar Pasaric (via Pexels)
Wildlife Management & SMS Integration
I may have suggested a couple of weeks ago that I was not going to carry on with material from my Indonesia trip in June but I really wanted to share this fictional case study with you. In order to highlight the interaction between strategic level SMS risk management and the more operational level risk management found in wildlife management plans, I developed the case study below. Its not really based on anything I've seen in action but more based on how I would approach the problem if anyone put me in charge.
Image credit: Adrianna Calvo (via Pexels)
Good Management Practice
I was skulking around on the web the other day and I came across this blog post* featuring a Q&A with Rehbein AOS's Ben Hargreaves. While the post isn't talking airport safety, it does go into the role of airports in the regional/remote environment and it does mention a couple of good management practices. I like the discussion on the role of the airport in a regional community.
Guyana & Runway Safety
This week's news of a runway excursion in the South American country of Guyana got me thinking of the current focus on runway safety. So, I turned my mind to writing something on the subject. Unfortunately, I turned too slowly and Andy Pasztor at the Wall Street Journal beat me to it! Thats what I get for having a day job :(.
Header image: Jonathan Borba (via Pexels)
The Simian Menace
There's more whacky animal-airport news this week. This time, its India with a rampaging group of monkeys sending aircraft on go-arounds! This story has got the works - poor planning in the placement of a garbage dump nearby, the hard work being done by airport staff to mitigate the risk as best they can and the need for a coordinated response with some success.
Header image: Jimmy Chan (via Pexels)
Next Global Initiative: Taxiway Safety?
Last month I mentioned the widespread attention being paid to runway safety (runway incursions, excursions etc.) but over the last few months, and the last few weeks in particular, we've had quite a few high-profile taxiway accidents. So much so that maybe the next global safety initiative will be taxiway safety (excursions, clearances, traffic etc.). Recent Boo-boos
Image credit: Marina Hinic