iafpa bulletin spring 2011

The magazine for aviation firefighting professionals

IafpaBulletin

eMERGENCY AT CHANGI

DISRUPTION: SNOW, ICE AND VOLCANIC

ERUPTIONS

SINGAPORE REVIEW

SPRING 2011

oN-WATER EXERCISE

MALAYSIA PROFILE

REGULATORY NEWS

www.InterActRisk.com

Hello, and welcome to the Spring 2011 issue of the IAFPA Bulletin. We have now returned from a

very successful conference in Singapore and our thanks and appreciation go out to Cletus Packiam and his experienced team. We would like to welcome into the IAFPA network our friends from the PR China, including Mr Wan Shiqin, Vice General Manager, Shanghai International Airport, and Mr Zhao Yuming, Dean, Civil Aviation Safety Academy of China. As is the tradition when holding an

event in Singapore, we held the Gala dinner in the Raffles Hotel, which was a brilliant night and we raised S$7,800 for the children’s charity CARE Singapore (Children-At-Risk Empowerment Association).We are now looking to the next

event, which is the14th Aeronautical International Fair to be held July 14-17, 2011. We have been speaking to the organisers of the event and would like

to take ARFF to the show and enlighten the delegates visiting on the scope and possibilities that our collective group can bring to them. See our website for more information on this forthcoming conference.Gillies Crichton, who was one of the

Founding Directors of the IAFPA has had to make the hard decision to take a step back from the Board and the day-to-day running of the association, due to his hectic personal and professional workloads. But anyone who knows Gillies will understand that he won’t be far away and he will be making every effort to attend the IAFPA conferences when he can (see the news section for a background on Gillies).I would like to welcome Pete McMahon

from Air Services Australia, who has taken on the role of looking after the IAFPA official web site and is available should you want to contact him to put your airport or training centre onto the site directory.

As you read through the IAFPA Bulletin you will notice the themes that run through the articles are the backbone of the IAFPA existence, ie training, familiarisation, and sharing the knowledge through which we can all learn, whether this be in written format or through networking at conferences and seminars. In this issue we cover a hands-on water

rescue exercise, dealing with an aircraft engine that refused to stop, through to taking on nature with the snow chaos at Heathrow and the Eyjafjallajökull eruptions that closed European air space.It is hoped that we can all learn from

these articles and IAFPA’s editorial team offers you the opportunity to enable others to learn from your experiences by submitting an article for inclusion in the IAFPA Bulletin. If you have an idea of an interesting topic that is worthy of sharing and need some help, then please contact us and we will endeavour to assist and get it published.

Colin Simpson discusses new membership, past and future IAFPA conferences, and the content of this issue, inviting readers to help others learn from their experience

IAFPA BULLETIN SPRING 2011 3

content * content * contentchairman

Welcome to this issue

Colin Simpson:John Trew:

Peter Stephenson: Colin Murray:

Cletus Packiam: Andrew Werner:

Paulo Barradas:

ChairmanDirectorDirectorDirectorDirectorDirectorFunctional Manager

IAFPA BULLETIN is published four times a year for the International Aviation Fire

Protection Association by FireNet International (www.fire.org.uk)

Copyright 2010 [email protected]

For editorial enquiries, please contact: Emily Hough, Editor: [email protected]

IAFPA BOARD OF DIRECTORS

iafpabULLETIN

4 IAFPA BULLETIN SPRING 2011

content * content * content

AIRPORT PROFILE: KUALA LUMPUR INTERNATIONALA look at how firefighters train and are equipped at Malaysia’s airports

100 YEARS OF SERVICETracing the history of a fire service provider across a century

MERSEY EXERCISEOne of the things to be aware of when organising a water-related exercise is that because such events are quite rare, everyone will want to take part

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CONTENTs

NEWS P.6Rebuilding Sendai Airport after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami of March 2011; IAFPA Vice President retires; Conference in Brazil is announced

QF32 AT CHANGI P.11Emily Hough looks at how everyone involved in handling the QF32 emergency worked in unison to bring a potentially disastrous incident to a safe conclusion

WILDFIRES IN AUSTRALIA P.15ARFF crews and equipment helped municipal firefighting crews as they were battling the wildfires that struck parts of Australia earlier this year

OPERATION NEPTUNE P. 18Simon Woodward describes the background to a multi-agency exercise run by Liverpool John Lennon Airport, which took place on the River Mersey

FAHRENHEIT CONTROL P.23An interview with Tuan Abdul Latif Hj. Hamzah, Senior Manager of the Airport Fire and Rescue Services Unit

FALCK: A PROFILE P.26Europe’s largest private emergency service, Falck, is definitely a business, writes John Trew. But it is a business that is based on people helping people, as this article explains


content * content * content CONTENTs

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EXTENSIVE DISRUPTIONHow airports, airlines and the regulators reacted to the closure of European airspace during the volcanic eruptions in Iceland a year ago

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REGULATORY UPDATE P.28Simon Webb looks at working group recommendations and projects in aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicles, firefighting media and CAFS

AIRPORT PARALYSIS P.29Power cuts triggered by an ice storm paralysed Moscow’s airports during peak travel dates, leaving crowds of people stuck in terminal buildings in deteriorating conditions, writes Lina Kolesnikova

EXTREME WEATHER P.31Some airports ground to a halt after unusually heavy snowfall just before Christmas 2010. Kevin Probert-Ehaver investigates the effects of December’s difficult weather conditions

WINTER RESILIENCE P.36A summary of Professor David Begg’s official report into Heathrow’s winter resilience

VOLCANIC DISRUPTION P.38 One year after the Eyjafjallajökull eruption closed down European airspace, Emily Hough examines the lessons learnt from the ensuing disruption

SINGAPORE REVIEW P.46Emily Hough reviews the recent IAFPA Conference that was held at Raffles Hotel in Singapore, while Rob Freese provides a participant’s perspective

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SAFE AND SOUNDKeeping passenger safety at the forefront during the QF32 emergency landing at Changi Airport

SNOWED UNDERA look behind the scenes during the snow disruption that affected British and European airports during winter 2010



OXYGEN GENERATORS USA: The (FAA) recently required the nation’s airlines to disable the oxygen generators located in all aircraft lavatories to eliminate a potential safety and security vulnerability. Airlines completed the work on the 6,000 aircraft in the US fleet on March 4. The FAA said it had made sure that the problem was eliminated before making the work public.

BOMB THREAT Greece: Greek fighter jets were scrambled to escort a British passenger plane on its way to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt after a bomb threat that had been received by an Egyptian news agency and was passed on. The crew put out a Mayday while over Greece and two jets escorted it to Athens International Airport. Passengers evacuated after landing and the aircraft was taken to a separate area of the airfields .

TERMINAL SHOOTING Italy: A terminal at Malpensa airport in Milan was evacuated when a man smashed his car into the terminal building and was shot in the foot by a police officer after the man tried to stab him.

FUEL FARM BLAZE USA: A massive fire at Miami International Airport’s fuel farm caused extensive damage and left the airport’s fuel pump operation completely out of service. According to a spokesperson from Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, the fire broke out at 23:00 hrs on Wednesday, March 23 and was brought under control around 01:00 hrs on Thursday morning. The airport had to use tanker trucks to fill aircraft while officials sourced temporary pumps to speed up refuelling – hundreds of flights were delayed. The cause of the blaze was being investigated by officials and experts as IAFPA Bulletin went to press.

SENDAI AIRPORT FLOODED BY TSUNAMIJapan: Sendai Airport was damaged by the earthquake on March 11, then suffered even more destruction after the 10-metre -high tsunami floodwaters flooded through it. Reports say that up to 1,300 people fled to the upper storeys of the airport and control tower to escape the water. They were rescued two days later.The flooding submerged the tarmac,

taxiways and runway. As well as the extensive damage caused by debris such as houses, trucks, cars and airfield equipment, the tsunami reached the second storey of the passenger terminal, damaging safety equipment and transformers, cutting off all electricity to the airport. American military personnel worked

with the Japanese Self Defence Force to clear the debris, restore power and make the airport operational once more. The priority was to clear the runway,

allowing military flights to bring in emergency supplies. Diesel-run generators were set up to power equipment. On March 20, a US Air Force C17 landed at the airport with relief cargo, and Sendai became a central distribution hub for water, blankets, food and other supplies.Work continues to make Sendai

operational and to to receive commercial and international flights once again.

news

Airmen assigned to the 320th Special Tactics Squadron check wind speed and temperature at Sendai Airport

US A

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The runway at Sendai was left under water and covered with debris


content * content * content news

IAFPA NEWS

Gillies Chrichton is retiring from his position as Vice Chairman of IAFPA.Gillies joined the Airport Fire Service at Edinburgh Airport in 1988. During his early years in the service, he was also a keen member of Lothian and Borders Fire Brigade, stationed at Tranent Fire Station as station commander. During his 17 years working for the BAA Fire Service, Gillies held the roles of Station Officer at Edinburgh Airport and Senior Airport Fire Manager at Glasgow Airport. Gillies attended numerous aircraft incidents both at the airport and with Lothian and Borders Fire Brigade. For the past six years, Gillies’ role

has been Head of Assurance for Glasgow Airport, responsible for Risk, Business Continuity and Emergency Planning, as well as Head of Health, Safety and Environment. Gillies successfully headed the team which managed to get Glasgow Airport up and running within the 24 hours following a terrorist attack in 2007.A Graduate of the Institution of Fire

Engineers, Member of the Emergency Planning Society and Associate Member of the Business Continuity Institute, Gillies has recently commenced on a journey of further discovery, undertaking a Masters Degree in Risk, Crisis and Disaster Management. Gillies was one of the Founding

Directors of IAFPA and has remained on the board since 1999. He has delivered a number of conferences and presentations on various topics but mainly on command and control and business recovery. Gillies is a well respected member of the IAFPA board and will be missed, not only the board, but by those who use Gillies’ knowledge for advice and experience.

Brazil: IAFPA has announced a conference to be held in Brazil this July. This world conference is dedicated to sharing the latest technological innovations, both theoretical and practical, as well as all other issues involved in air transportation safety and security. The conference theme is ‘Brazilian Airports: The challenges for the next five years.’This is a vital discussion forum for the

aviation security and safety industry and provides excellent opportunities for professional development and the exchange of knowledge, as well as opportunities to establish new links between national and international associations with the aeronautical community.IAFPA conferences attract hundreds

of delegates from around the world, as witnessed by the success of the association’s two most recent events in Australia and Singapore. This event will look at the importance

of ‘safety’ and ‘security’ during airport

construction. It will also examine how to identify, in the primary stages, the most common problems associated with large agglomerations of people in airport buildings. Speakers will discuss the importance of pre-planning and how much this contributes to the success of emergency and rescue operations in airport infrastructures, as well as looking at what strategies to follow when building or renovating airports. Other topics include a look at the primary challenges that an airport manager faces during a significant incident, along with ways of improving safety.The IAFPA conference will take place

alongside Expo Aero Brazil (EAB), the largest and most important aviation event in the country. This international aeronautical trade fair attracts more than 35,000 visitors, bringing together exhibitors from all segments of aviation. The event takes place at the DCTA, the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology in São José dos Campos, about 80km from the city of São Paulo. IAFPA Brazil 2011 takes place on July

14 – 17, 2011.www.iafpa.org.uk

AVIATION SAFETY AND SECURITY EVENT

All aspects of aviation fire safety and security will be discussed at

the IAFPA Brazil 2011 event this July

stock.xchng

SADNESS AT UNITED NATIONS PLANE CRASH“I am deeply saddened by this tragic

loss of life,” said UNDP Administrator Helen Clark in a statement issued by the agency saluting the dedication of those who died. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also

sent a letter to staff voicing his sorrow at the crash in Kinshasa, as well as the attack on a UN compound in Afghanistan and other recent deadly incidents involving UN staff in the Côte d’Ivoire and Haiti.

DRC: Senior United Nations officials voiced their shock and sadness after a plane crash in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in which a UN aircraft broke into pieces as it attempted to land at Kinshasa’s main airport, killing 32 people. Only one person survived, but

sustained multiple fractures.The UN Development Programme

(UNDP) confirmed that some of its staff were among the people killed.



AF447 PARTS RETRIEVED France: The Bureau d’Enquêtes et D’Analyses confirmed at press conference on April 4 that pieces of AF447 – which crashed into the Atlantic in 2009 with 228 people on board – had been recovered in an underwater search operation. Reports also said that human remains had been located. The wreckage was recovered by unmanned submarines, according to the BEA.The AF447 incident was the worst

loss of life involving an Air France plane in the airline’s history and its cause still remains a mystery, hence the continued attempts to find the plane’s flight recorders.

CLARIFICATION It has been reported to the IAFPA Bulletin that parts of the article ‘Fatal crash raises command issues’ have been taken by some to be critical of the Airport Fire Services involved. We can state categorically that this was certainly never the intention of the Bulletin. When publishing the piece, it did

not occur to any of the staff at IAFPA that aspersions were being cast. Indeed, the article intended to highlight the fact that all agencies – and officers – should know that the best, most appropriate and experienced agency to deal with any aviation incident at an airport or on its threshold has to be the ARFF service. We are both surprised and

disappointed that this article could have been interpreted in any other way and are happy to set the record straight by way of this clarification.

INQUIRY INTO FATAL CORK AIR CRASH Ireland: The country’s Aircraft Investiga-tion Unit has issued an interim report into an accident that killed six passengers at Cork Airport on February 10.The airport was in thick fog conditions

when the Manx2 aircraft missed two approaches, before crashing on its third attempt. Investigators say that the flight

crew tried to abort the third landing as well, but the aircraft deviated to the right of the runway centreline. “The aircraft rolled significantly to the

left,” says the AIU. This was immediately followed by a rapid roll to the right; the right wing tip hit the runway, the aircraft rolled over and struck the runway in a fully inverted position. Cork Tower promptly sounded the crash

alarm and the Airport Fire Service (AFS) rapidly located the wreckage despite the poor visibility. The AFS extinguished the engine fires, thereby preventing flames reaching the fuselage. The Regional Major Emergency Plan was activated and Local Authority emergency services attended the incident. The two flight crew and four passengers

were fatally injured. Six passengers were rescued and taken to hospital; four of them were seriously injured.

news

FAA for operators of the 737-300 fleet worldwide," said Michael Van den Ven, Southwest Airlines Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. He added: “We regret any Customer inconveniences as a result of the inspections currently underway. Delays and cancellations are never the preference, however we are taking every precaution we can to ensure that our operation is safe.”

USA: On April 1, Southwest Airlines Flight 812 experienced loss of pressurisation in the cabin, forcing it to divert to Yuma in Arizona. The plane, which had 118 passengers

and five crew members on board, lost pressure and oxygen masks were deployed. One of the flight attendants received a minor injury upon descent and one passenger was treated at the scene for minor injuries.Upon landing, the flight crew discovered

a hole in the top of the aircraft, approximately mid-cabin. The airline worked with the National

Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Boeing to determine the cause of the incident and undertook an inspection process of all its Boeing 737s for aircraft skin fatigue. As IAFPA Bulletin went to press, engineers had found two aircraft with cracks to their fuselage: “Testing did detect small, subsurface cracks. Further evaluation and potential repairs will be necessary before those planes are returned to service,” said a spokesperson."Boeing has since identified an

inspection programme for this section of the aircraft. Based on this incident and the additional findings; we expect further action from Boeing and the

DEPRESSURISATION TRIGGERS INSPECTIONS

Finland: The Accident Investigation Board of Finland appointed a representative to take part into an investigation into a Finnair Airbus A340 incident in Hong Kong, late last year in which the aircraft initiated take-off from a taxiway. In an official statement, the AIB said:

“The air traffic control noticed the occurrence and ordered the pilots to abort the take-off.”It added that there was no other traffic

on the taxiway and the incident caused no injuries or damage, but that it was serious enough for its representative to work with the Accident Investigation Division of the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department.

FINNAIR INCIDENT AT HONG KONG

BEA


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Dubai: The United Arab Emirates’ General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) says that the fire that caused a UPS Boeing 747-400 to crash near Dubai Airport is likely to have started in the main cargo deck just forward of the wings.The incident happened on September

3, 2010, when the plane left Dubai for Cologne, Germany. Twenty-two minutes into the flight the crew advised Bahrain Air Traffic Control that the fire warning systems for the cargo compartments indicated an onboard main deck fire. The crew declared an emergency and requested to return to Dubai, adding there was smoke in the cockpit that was obscuring the primary flight instruments and that radio frequency selection controls had become degraded.The GCAA’s interim report, published

in April, says: “Based on the information available to date, it is likely that less than five minutes after the fire indication on the main deck, smoke had entered the flight deck and intermittently degraded the visibility to the extent that the flight instruments could not effectively be monitored by the crew.It adds that during the emergency

descent, the Captain declared a lack of oxygen supply and, after a conversation

Air Force firefighters perform a simulated rescue of an injured victim in March, during the Silver Flag exercise at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The exercise consisted of several scenarios, including victim rescue and uncontained fires

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UPS CRASH: INTERIM REPORT PUBLISHED

Singapore: At the recent IAFPA conference in Singapore, Redkite Systems reached an understanding with IAFPA to market jointly the Redkite Systems range of products to the international fire community. Redkite Systems already supply all

ARFF services in licensed aerodromes throughout the UK (CAT 2 and above) in addition to 40 per cent of the civil fire services in England and Wales. The company is now marketing these products to fire services around the world. Redkite Systems also supplies airports in the United Arab Emirates, Bolivia and the States of Jersey.The Redkite Translation Toolbox is

available to help our international clients translate the wording used on the systems to meet the specific language and culture of the region, country, locality or even individual organisation.All products are tried and tested,

robust, scalable, auditable and web-based and automate labour intensive paper-based processes when providing, managing and administrating safety management and performance improvement.The agreement strengthens Redkite

Systems’ long-standing relationship with IAFPA where the company has supported IAFPA as a bronze sponsor at many of the IAFPA conferences, and Redkite is looking forward continuing this relationship into the future.For further information see:

www.redkitesystems.com

with the first officer, transferred the control of the aircraft to the First Officer and left his seat: “After which there is no further CVR information that indicates any further interaction from the CAPT for the remainder of the flight.”The aircraft missed Dubai airport,

crashing nine nautical miles south onto a military installation.The aircraft’s initial impact was on a

perimeter service road; the right hand wing struck several buildings, and the engines separated, before the fuselage went through a group of service sheds. The bulk of the airframe mounted a sand bank, where the tail section separated. The wings, centre and forward fuselage were spread over a 300 metre area, with the cargo; some of the aircraft systems and associated onboard equipment spread around the debris field. The majority of the wreckage was damaged in the post accident fire.“The accident was not survivable,”

according to the interim report.Following this incident, the FAA, EASA

and IACAO have all made a number of safety recommendations regarding the storage of lithium batteries after the incident. The investigation into the incident

continues.

REDKITE SYSTEMS AND IAFPA JOIN FORCES

David Arber receiving Honoury Membership of IAFPA in ‘Recognition of loyal and dedicated service’

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Often, an unfortunate convergence of actions and circumstances can turn a seemingly-routine event into a tragedy. Sometimes the reverse is true:

agencies and individuals involved in handling the QF32 emergency worked in unison smoothly, to bring a potentially disastrous incident to a safe

conclusion, writes Emily Hough

QF32 EMERGENCY AT CHANGIcontent * content * content Incident report

In November last year QF32 lost an engine and had to return to Changi Airport to make a complex landing, further complicated by its

fuel dumping system not working and one of its engines not shutting down when on the tarmac. The fact that there were no fatalities is neither accident nor coincidence. The actions of the crew on board, the response by Changi AES, improvements in aircraft design and increased flame retardant materials, all played a vital part in ensuring passenger safety, according to one of the rescuers.

On November 4, 2010, Flight QF32, an Airbus A380, departed from Changi Airport’s runway 20, bound for Sydney, Australia. On board were five flight crew, 24 cabin crew and 440 passengers.

After a normal take-off, the crew retracted the landing gear and flaps. While still climbing at around 7,000 feet, the crew heard two loud bangs, followed by indications of No. 2 engine failure.

The crew immediately advised Singapore Air Traffic Control (ATC) of the situation and were provided with radar vectors for a holding pattern. At 10:06 hrs local time, Changi Tower informed the Airport Emergency Service (AES) watch room operator two via direct line that QF32 had reported No.2 engine failure and suspected damage holes on the aircraft engine/wing. The pilot was unable to confirm that he was returning at that time, but did indicate that the aircraft was dumping fuel.

Captain Richard de Crespigny, the Pilot in Command, later explained to ABC’s Four Corners that it took 55 minutes to stabilise the aircraft, owing to the multiple failures involved. The flight crew then had to work out performance for landing and brief ATC, while keeping the cabin crew informed and reassuring passengers.

Upon confirmation of the flight crew’s intention to return to Changi Airport,

the AES Operations Commander Huang Weikang immediately declared Local Standby. At the recent IAFPA conference in Singapore (see page 46), Commander Huang explained that it had not been necessary to declare a full emergency at this stage because there was no fire, the pilot was attempting to dump fuel and was returning to the airport: to have declared a full emergency would have scaled the incident up to a national emergency with hospitals and all other agencies being put on standby.

Meanwhile, the immediacy of social media meant that rumours on Twitter and Facebook were alleging a Qantas plane had crashed, a fact that Qantas knew was untrue, thanks to the company’s Airborne Condition Monitoring System, which monitors all of the company’s planes in the air. What the Qantas Operations Centre also knew, however, was that a massive number of alert messages was flashing up and they could not talk to

content * content * contentIncident reportthe flight crew because satellite voice communication had been cut.

Captain de Crespigny told ABC that the runway at Changi is 4,000 metres long and that his aircraft usually requires 1,800 metres to stop. The aircraft had lost some spoilers, the leading edge slats, was 50 tonnes over its maximum landing weight as the fuel dumping system had failed, some of the anti-skid devices were inoperative on some of the brakes, fuel was pouring from a puncture in one of the tanks and fuel loss from the left hand wing meant it was up to 10 tonnes lighter than the right hand one. The flight crew calculated that they could land within 3,900 metres, leaving just 100 metres surplus.

AES Fire Station 2 and AES Fire Sub-Station 3 vehicles took up their respective standby positions. Two foam tenders (FT 6 and FT 8) and one water tender (WT 12) from Station 2 took up the centre standby position, while the third foam tender (FT 10) was deployed at the south standby position in anticipation that the aircraft would require the full length of the runway to stop.

In addition, the AES Ops Commander, together with AES Sub Station 3 fire vehicles (Domestic Tender 11 and FT4) took up positions at Parking Bay 205. Changi Tower gave the plane’s estimated time of arrival to be at 11:36 hrs. As the aircraft was approaching, Ops Commander Huang saw parts sticking out of one of the wings and fuel gushing from the aircraft: “This is not what you want to see,” he commented later.

Captain de Crespigny touched the wheels down at 11:47 hrs on Runway 2, 20C and had to get the nose wheel down as quickly as possible, then brake slowly to minimise the risk of the brakes overheating. He eventually pulled the aircraft to a stop 100m from the end of the runway: “I wanted to get to those fire crews as quickly as possible,” he said. He could see the fire engines at the end of the runway: “I wanted to be right next to them.”

Station 2 vehicles immediately requested clearance from Control Tower to enter the Runway.

Fuel was leaking from the port side


The passengers were deplaned using Changi Airport’s Emergency

Services’ Airstairs

wing, leading to concerns about the hot brakes triggering a fire. The second engine was badly damaged, with part of the engine cowling missing.

FT 10 took up tactical positioning at the portside fore of the aircraft while FT 8, FT 6 and WT 12 positioned themselves at the portside aft of the aircraft. FT 6 was subsequently redeployed to fore of aircraft where the bulk of the fuel spill gathered.

The Ops Commander then established communication with the pilot and asked him to shut down all engines. Captain de Crespigny told ABC Four Corners: “They said: ‘you must shut down the engines’. And we said: ‘we have’. And they said: ‘no you haven’t’. So in frustration, I slammed open the left hand window and put my head out, and I think I expressed an expletive and said: ‘engine number one is still running.’”

Large amounts of fuel were leaking from a puncture in the portside wing between No. 2 engine and the main body. Grey smoke was spewing from wheels Nos. 9, 10, 13 and 14, owing to the hot brakes. Subsequently, the fusible plugs of the No. 9 and 10 wheels blew, followed shortly by wheels Nos. 13 and 14.

Firefighters applied a foam blanket from the side lines of FT 10 and FT 8 to cover the fuel leak and the surrounding areas to which the fuel had spread.

At 12:04 hrs, after consultation with the pilot, AES attempted to shut down engine No. 1 using water streams from the foam tender monitor; all three attempts failed. Alan Milne, Head of Maintenance Operations for Qantas, told ABC: “Unfortunately, these engines are designed to fly through extreme rain conditions and no amount of water that we put down the front of that engine would actually shut it down.”

At 12:10 hrs, an incipient fire broke out at wheel 10 but this was immediately brought under control by the firefighters on standby and fully extinguished at 12:15 hrs.

In an interview with the Royal Aeronautical Society, Captain David Evans, who was in the observer’s seat during the incident, said: “I think most probably the most serious part of the

whole exercise, when you think back at it, was the time on the runway after we had stopped. Because we were very concerned and conscious of evacuating the aircraft using slides. We had 433 passengers on board, we had elderly, we had wheelchair passengers, so the moment you start evacuating, you are going to start injuring people. So a lot of discussion was had on the flight deck about where was the safest place for the passengers?

“We’ve got a situation where there is fuel, hot brakes and an engine that we can’t shut down. And really the safest place was on board the aircraft until such time as things changed. So we had the cabin crew with an alert phase the whole time through ready to evacuate, open doors, inflate slides at any moment. As time went by, that danger abated and, thankfully, we were lucky enough to get everybody off very calmly and very methodically through one set of stairs

At 12:13 hrs, once the pilot’s request to disembark the passengers was confirmed, ‘Local Action’ was declared and the Ops Commander asked for

passenger steps and buses. The AES has its own Rosenbauer

Emergency Airstairs, which, upon instruction from Commander Huang, were set up and docked on the aircraft starboard position (door M2R) at 12:20 hrs and passenger buses arrived at 12:34 hrs. Even though engine No. 1 was still running, the Commander had told the Tower and the pilot that disembarkation from the starboard side was safe and at 12:39 hrs disembarkation began. By 13:54 hrs, all passengers and flight crew had deplaned and all 469 people on board were accounted for.

Although numerous attempts were made by engineers to stop engine No. 1, it was finally shut down at 14:53 hrs by AES crew aiming jets of foam directly into it. As ground engineers proceeded to change the deflated tyres, ground handling services began offloading the passenger hand luggage left in the cabin.

Towing of the aircraft began at 16:52 hrs and Local Action was terminated at 16:53 hrs. As a precaution, AES escorted the aircraft while it was towed to parking bay 609, where it arrived at 18:49 hrs.

content * content * content Incident report



content * content * contentIncident reportThe situation was handed over to the

airport’s Chief Engineer, who asked for a fire vehicle to be on scene as his team needed to de-fuel the aircraft. At 19:07 hrs, the fuel spill had been washed from all parts of the runway and taxiway that were affected.

Commenting on lessons learnt from the AES perspective, Commander Huang said: “It is not by accident that no lives were lost.” He emphasised that the incident passed without fatality owing to developments in the safety design of planes, to improvements in fire resistant materials, the actions of the pilot and cabin crew and the response of the AES.

He added that it is vital that everyone handling different aspects of the job comes together in a smooth and co-ordinated manner, and they must: “Practise, practise, practise.” Changi Airport holds two exercises a year (one being held this April) – one full scale crash on land and one full scale crash at sea – and these exercises play a crucial role in bringing all the players together before an incident.

Personally, he thinks that information management can be refined further, as the influx of information from various agencies, the ATC tower, the pilot, engineers, and others can be difficult to

process. Media management was another issue: “The media was at the airport fence. And the media can blow things up.” The speed of social networks means that the wrong information can spread like wildfire: “How do you handle this?” he pondered.

Commander Huang also commented about crowd control. In this instance, thanks to the actions of the flight crew, the passengers remained calm and there was no panic.

Huang did wonder how emergency operations would have been affected had the passengers panicked and not done as they were told.

Access to the incident site was one further aspect – everyone wants to contribute, all responding agencies feel they need to be there, but personnel numbers must be kept under control. In a situation such as this, where an engine cannot be stopped. And in the heat of the incident, how can a commander determine exactly which engineers need

to be present?Once the passengers had been

deplaned and upon arrival at the terminal, Captain de Crespigny debriefed them and warned them about the intense media interest they would be facing when they left the airport. He told ABC how he gave passengers his mobile number and told them to contact him personally if they felt they weren’t being looked after properly. Needless to say, he received no complaints, but quite a few thanks and compliments.

Qantas had arranged hotel accommodation for all the affected passengers and, from there, onward transportation to their relevant destinations.

The latter arrangements were not as easy as it would appear. Because the cause of the accident was unknown, within 60 minutes the CEO of Qantas had grounded the company’s flagship fleet of A380s – not a decision to be taken lightly considering such action would disrupt 10,000 passengers around the world. However, this difficult decision reinforced the message that safety was the airline’s top priority and it both attracted praise and reinforced customer confidence.

At the IAFPA Conference in Singapore, a spokesperson from Qantas took the opportunity to thank the AES and Changi Airport for its operations, saying: “A great effort, thank you.”

Investigations into what caused the incident are ongoing.

Sources:

IAFPA Conference, Raffles Hotel, Singapore: www.iafpa.org.ukRoyal Aeronautical Society: www.aerosocietychannel.com Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Four Corners: www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20110328/qantasATSB Preliminary Investigation Report: www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2010/aair/ao-2010-089.aspx

Emily Hough is Editor of the IAFPA Bulletin and Editor in Chief of Crisis Response Journal

...It is not by accident that no lives were lost

in this incident...

This article outlines how Australian ARFF crews and equipment assisted in the effort to combat these disasters. ARFF

support is often requested through existing mutual aid arrangements with State and Territory Fire Services.

On the weekend of February5 and 6, Perth in Western Australia was experiencing typical summer high temperatures with a strong dry easterly wind. These conditions led to the Fire and Emergency Service Authority (FESA)

declaring a total fire ban.At approx 11:50 hrs on the Sunday, a

fire broke out in Roleystone, a hilly suburb 25 km south west of Perth. The blaze gained momentum quickly, fanned by the 40 – 50 km/h winds. The terrain and volume of trees and undergrowth added to the fire’s rapid spread. Many homes were engulfed.

Later that evening (approx 18:00 hrs), a mutual aid request from FESA was received to which ARFF dispatched one Ultra Large Fire Vehicle (ULFV) and

crew in addition to the senior fire officer from Perth Airport destined for the FESA Control Point in anticipation of tasking as part of the wider effort to combat the blaze.

In responding to the control point under Police escort, the ARFF crews encountered several difficulties in relation to negotiating the hilly terrain on roads that hampered the capacity of the ARFF vehicle to maintain a constant speed.

On arrival at the control point (a journey of approximately 1.5 hours in duration)

IFAPA BULLETIN SPRING 2011 15

ARFF helps out in Australian wildfiresReaders will, no doubt, have seen reports of the horrendous disasters

that struck parts of Australia earlier this year. Australian ARFF crews and equipment assisted in the efforts to combat these disasters, says

ACO Andrew Werner


the ARFF crew were immediately tasked with providing support to FESA crews utilising the capability of the vehicle roof monitor (turret) to effect a quick knock-down of the fire front threatening property which, in turn, enabled fire crews on the ground to contain the blaze through conventional means (hand lines).

The key role of ARFF throughout this support activity was to provide a water replenishment capability to the fire crews already established within the sector.

In addition to this replenishment function, the ARFF crew was called upon several times to utilise the rapid knock down capability of the vehicle throughout

the evening.At approximately 22:40 hrs a crew

rotation occurred and operations continued until 01:00 hrs when the area had been contained and most danger of flare-ups had diminished.

The ARFF crew was then re-tasked to another sector, which had developed several running fires and there was concern that this front would spread rapidly, with the prediction of strong easterly winds in the early morning. At 02:00 hrs, the vehicle arrived at the designated sector in anticipation of the predicted fire activity.

Three hours later, the expected strong

winds had not eventuated and the fire was considered by FESA to be contained, prompting the release of the ARFF contingent which then returned to Perth Airport.

Three days later, the fire was still to be totally extinguished with the area finally being declared safe by FESA on Sunday, April 13.

The total area of destruction was approx 1,245 hectares, with 73 houses destroyed and several others damaged.

The authorities later determined that the blaze had been started by a person using an angle grinder on a trailer in his backyard, near bushland.


content * content * contentINCIDENT REPORT

Most houses were lost owing to ember attack and fires starting in air-conditioning units



ARFF also helped in the aftermath of the flooding that struck Queensland. On Thursday, January 20, 2011, two teams, each consisting of six or seven specialised aviation firefighters, a ULFV, plus an additional four-wheel-drive and cleaning equipment, spent the weekend helping to clean mud from streets and arterial roads in the Hamilton and Yeronga areas.

They helped with the clean-up efforts

at the Rocklea Fresh Foods Market and at Virgin Blue’s Corporate Headquarters. Aviation firefighter water rescue crews also removed debris from the Brisbane River and Moreton Bay.

The Mk6 and Mk7 ULFVs being used in the clean up are capable of holding 6,500 and 10,000 litres of water respectively and of dispersing large quantities of water up to 77 metres through the use of a roof monitor.

“This capability is unique to Airservices aviation fire trucks and one which is proving to be quite useful in helping to clean large areas of the mud left behind by the flooding,” General Manager ARFF, Andrew Rushbrook said.

“While it is unusual to see these vehicles outside of one of our major aerodromes, Airservices was keen to do what it can to assist in the clean-up efforts happening across Brisbane.”

Flooding assistance provided by ARFF services

content * content * contentBP POLITICS


content * content * contentON EXERCISE

Like every licensed aerodrome in the UK, Liverpool John Lennon Airport is required to undertake testing and exercising of its

Emergency Plans, as laid down in Civil Aviation Publication 168 Licensing of aerodromes. This testing and exercising is required every two years and any significant findings or deficiencies must be addressed and tested in the intervening year.

aircraft to take-off and land over the water.

Planning for the airport’s 2010 exercise started early in the year with internal meetings to identify budgets and airport-specific objectives. These meetings were held prior to any multi-agency meetings to allow the airport to determine proposed timescales and costs within its own business plan.

A budget of £25,000 (US$39.88; €28.35) was ring fenced for the exercise, this figure being based on analysis and cots of previous exercises. A time and date for the exercise were also put forward, though the airport was mindful that these would need to be agreed by the Airport Emergency Liaison Group (AELG) before being submitted to the Local Resilience Forum Exercise Sub Group for final approval within the annual exercising and events calendar.

As the airport is next to a major water hazard, equipping and training Airport Fire and Rescue (AFR) personnel in swiftwater rescue was one of the factors which drove the design of the bi-annual

Liverpool John Lennon is a category 7 airport, which sits on the banks of the River Mersey. Its runway lies adjacent to and on a curving bend in the river approximately seven miles (11 km) from Liverpool city centre. It is a single runway airport, with the runway being 2.2km (1.36 miles) long and its ends lying at 090 degrees and 270 degrees on the compass. One end of the runway sits directly in line with the river, requiring

Simon Woodward describes the background behind the recent multi-agency exercise at Liverpool John Lennon Airport, which took place on the River Mersey and involved a specially-made inflatable aircraft fuselage

EXERCISE NEPTUNE


exercise in 2010. This, along with other objectives, was developed during meetings of the AELG. Another driving factor was that the airport had recently taken delivery of a new 60 person slide raft. This allows responders to deal with a crash involving a category seven aircraft (up to 49 metres in fuselage length with a five metre maximum fuselage width) into the river. The new procedures that had been written to deploy the raft also needed to be tested.

All of these airport specific requirements were taken to the initial formal AELG meeting set up to decide on the format of the exercise and the make-up of the exercise planning and management group.

At this meeting, the name and design of the exercise were discussed. Exercise Neptune was formally approved at the meeting and the format agreed. The exercise was going to be in two parts. Part one would be a live, small scale multi agency exercise which would take place on the river on November 7, 2010, during daylight hours at high tide. The second part of the exercise would take place approximately two weeks later and would be a tabletop format, which would continue the live exercise into the incident medium-term phase and would focus on some of the recovery phase issues. This area had been tested previously so would not need as much time or effort.

The amount of planning required for any multi-agency exercise should not be taken for granted. Agencies’ involvement can range from goodwill attendance at meetings all the way to full-scale resource commitment and complete help and support.

It is advantageous to know your partners when setting up any type of exercise. I was fortunate to have worked as the Operational Planning Manager for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service prior to taking up a position at Liverpool John Lennon Airport FRS, so my knowledge of the airport Emergency Liaison Group and all of the partner agencies had been built up over the previous six years within the Local Resilience Forum and in other varied multi-agency meetings and

exercises. This helped with the whole organisation of the exercises from start to finish. Knowing where your help and assistance will come from is invaluable.

After a decision on the basic scenario was taken and initial objectives drawn up, the relevant administrative notifications were undertaken. During these early stages, one of the primary tasks was to identify how we could simulate an aircraft crashed into the water. Given the nature of the area of the river that had been identified as being within 1,000m of the airport, it would prove impossible to get a tug or other medium size vessel to simulate an aircraft. Nor would either of these two options have been realistic enough to test responding resources and the techniques they would employ in the

event of a real aircraft incident. Previous tests in the river had used inflatable life rafts strapped together; but this was not ideal either.

After scouring the Internet and seeking advice, we came up with our own design for an inflatable aircraft. A draft design was put together and we approached Specialist Inflatable Technologies (SIT) in Preston to consider the design, determine its feasibility, and to provide us with some basic costs.

While this was being carried out, political manoeuvres were taking place at the airport to seek support for the proposal. We eventually secured both the design and the support from the airport senior management, with a proviso that the inflatable aircraft and both exercises

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content * content * content BPPOLITICScontent * content * contenton exercise


had to come in within the allocated £25,000 budget; a fairly tight demand, but a challenge for everyone concerned.

During the many meetings held between the initial proposal and the actual live exercise, a large event timeline developed; this proved extremely useful for all agencies concerned with learning the processes and cascade functions that take place whenever an incident occurs.

Many lessons were learned during the

in Wales proved extremely useful in identifying the objectives that the RAF would seek to test. Hugh Stewart and Spike Wright from the RAF were a great help during these talks.

Apart from supplying a Sea King deployment to the live exercise, a main objective for the RAF was to test the Combined Silver Air Cell (CSAC) – an arm of Silver Command that would communicate with, manage and task all airborne assets on behalf of the Silver Commander. This cell is initiated when an incident that uses airborne rescue assets occurs, and can be set up when such an incident involves aircraft from two different agencies, or two aircraft from one agency.

Initial indications for the live exercise demonstrated early commitment from the Police Air Support Unit, the Air Ambulance and the RAF Search and Rescue Force. This would really provide a test of CSAC in a realistic scenario.

The Exercise Neptune scenario was an A319 Airbus with 154 passengers and crew on board taking off from Liverpool Airport and experiencing a major bird strike, causing engine problems requiring the aircraft to return to the airport. Major engine failure led to the aircraft ditching in the river Mersey on its final approach.

The number of POB caused a major headache as simulating that number of passengers realistically is a difficult task, especially when the exercise risk assessment requires anyone working on the river to be swiftwater trained...

The way we got around this was to utilise airport-trained swiftwater responders as casualties and, for the first time, we managed to get buy-in from the Ambulance Hazardous Area Response Teams (HART), whose personnel played as ambulance response and which also supplied additional casualties on the aircraft simulator. Other casualties on the aircraft and in the river environment were simulated using dummies and life buoys provided by the local authority; we used road cones on the aircraft.

Live casualties were used along the adjacent riverbanks. Again, it proved difficult to get volunteers in sufficient numbers and in the end we got support

planning stages. Probably the greatest impact upon the exercise was the state of the economy during 2010. The actual buy-in from multi agency partners varied dramatically through the process and changed from the start of the process to the end.

One of the partner agencies that provided valuable input into the live exercise was the Royal Air Force (RAF). A visit to RAF Valley on Anglesey

The inflatable aircraft fuselage was specially designed and

constructed for this exercise


from three youth groups: the Fire Cadets and Princes Trust Teams from Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service and the Air Cadets. More than 50 of these young people provided a real test for the initial responding crews, who were faced with the dilemma of initial casualty care and dealing with an aircraft and casualties approximately 200 metres off shore. This also tested the initial incident commanders.

Response to the exercise was fantastic with the following agencies taking part:

• Liverpool Airport Fire & Rescue Service;

• Air Traffic Control;• Liverpool Airport support

services;• Merseyside Police;• Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service

including Inshore Rescue;• North West Ambulance Service

including HART Team;• RAF (Sea King) and CSAC

support;• HM Coastguard, including Mud

Rescue Teams;• Local Authority emergency

so during the exercise we kept a bronze command structure in place and the airport’s silver control was initiated and set up.

We had looked at a number of venues for the table top part of Exercise Neptune. In the end, the Stobart Stadium in Halton was chosen, based on the much valued support provided by Halton Borough Council and its Chief Emergency Planner Spencer Webster.

responders;• New Brighton inshore lifeboat and

hovercraft; and • Hoylake offshore lifeboat.During the planning process we had

taken full account of tidal conditions, and a complete analytical risk assessment had been undertaken to ensure all aspects of the exercise were accounted for, including risks posed to casualties and spectators. This planning had been undertaken with multi-agency support, which included trade union representatives from some local agencies (who were fully supportive of the exercise and its learning outcomes).

The one element that could not be planned for was the weather which, fortunately, on November 7, was like a summer’s day, with millpond conditions on the river.

The live exercise went well and lasted for approximately two hours. The incident and response were undertaken with emergency responders attending in real time. We had decided to keep the level of command as it would be in a one to two-hour timeframe in a real incident,

...The one method of communication that did work, and something other

agencies with large water risks should

consider, was the use of runners on jet skis

content * content * content on exercise


content * content * contenton exerciseOrganising a table top exercise so

soon after a live exercise proved to be challenging. We had 10 days from the live exercise to prepare the injects and timeline for the tabletop exercise, based on the final outcome of the live exercise.

The format of the tabletop was to set out agency-specific tables, with a top table of the Strategic Co-ordinating Group (SCG) or Gold Command.

Attendance on the day was excellent, with over 80 representatives taking part. This included over ten SCG players, which was a real achievement given the nature of the group’s jobs and the pressures normally applied in their roles.

There were a number of key issues that arose from both the exercise planning perspective and from the exercises in their own right.

One of the biggest issues was capturing all of the issues that arose. The live exercise had a hot debrief immediately after the end of live play. However, this debrief was difficult to achieve, owing to the large number of attending agencies and the type of resources required in a water-based emergency. It is hard to get RAF SAR and water-borne resources together with land-based responders.

It is also extremely difficult to gather responders together for a structured debrief, because of different work patterns and shift related duties. Furthermore, the nature of a response to a water-borne incident results in emergency responders attending from distant bases; many of these services also employ volunteers and it can be difficult to tie these down for attending debriefs at

strong tactical direction, which must be conveyed to all concerned, is required.

Therein lies another major issue that occurs at many exercises and live incidents. Good communication is essential. We tried to utilise as many different communication systems to deal with the live incident; although we had intended to deploy Airwave Bronze Interoperability handsets, this did not occur, and in a water-based environment they would have been extremely limited.

The one method of communication that did work, and something other agencies with large water risks should consider, was the use of runners on jet skis. Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service provided two jet skis for safety and to act as runners, deploying dummy casualties throughout the exercise. These proved more efficient for communication than any radio, as they could nip back and forth between the shoreline and the aircraft in seconds. They would have also proved extremely useful for transporting an Operations Commander or Sector Officer between the shore and rescue scenes to carry out assessments and decide upon tactics and task-based activities.

During the exercise we used the Airport’s Silver Control, which caused problems and actually put another level of command between Bronze and Silver. The terminology of Silver Control caused some confusion to responding commanders. The outcome of this will result in a name change to Forward Command Post (FCP) in line with Incident Command models.

If I have learned anything from the planning of these exercises, it is: ‘Don’t try to run a small-scale water related multi-agency exercise’. Such exercises do not happen every often, and because of this everyone wants to take part, play or observe when they get the chance. The other lesson I learnt is: ‘Pray for good weather.’ It sometimes pays off, even in November.

specific times.Another lesson learnt is never to

underestimate agency egos at a rescue-related exercise, or even incident. Each agency wants to be the rescuing agency. This can prove very difficult for Incident Commanders to manage and a

Simon Woodward (pictured left) is Watch Commander at the Liverpool John Lennon Airport Rescue and Firefighting Service and was co-ordinator and director of Exercise Neptune


An integral part of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Malaysia, the Airport’s Fire and Rescue

Services (AFRS) Unit plays a pivotal role in ensuring the continuous safety and security of the airport, as well as in keeping casualties – in the event of any unforeseen incidents – to a minimum.

With the AFRS Unit working around the clock, travellers and airport personnel have the peace of mind knowing that help is only three minutes away, the standard response time for the AFRS Unit to arrive at the scene of any fires or accidents in Resource Manager.

As the Senior Manager of the AFRS Unit at Malaysia Airports, Tuan Abdul Latif is wholly responsible for the welfare of the AFRS Units at all international and domestic airports, as well as STOLports (Short Take-Off and Landing Ports) across the country. Considering the importance of these units, there is no surprise that this task is a large responsibility for Tuan Abdul Latif, whose remit is to ensure that only

aircraft or buildings, and will bring the situation under control.

With nearly 30 years of experience in ARFF, Tuan Abdul Latif Hj. Hamzah started off as a fire superintendent after leaving University Kebangsaan Malaysia with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. Making his way through the ranks, he has held many positions throughout his career, including the Chief of AFRS, Airport Manager for Sultan Ismail Airport in Senai, Johor, and Human

FAHRENHEIT CONTROLTuan Abdul Latif Hj. Hamzah, Senior Manager of the Airport Fire and Rescue Services Unit, talks about airport firefighting personnel recruitment

and training before they are deployed at international and domestic airports in Malaysia

Left: Tuan Abdul Latif Hj. Hamzah, Senior Manager. Below: The Airport Fire and Rescue Service at Kuala Lumpur International Airport

content * content * content profile


content * content * contentPROFILE

proportionately mixed with aqueous film forming foam (AFFF).

Owing to the challenging aspects of the job, Tuan Abdul Latif points out the stringency of the selection process for all AFRS personnel. An arduous process, recruitment is carried out every two years during the months of April, where only 140 of the most qualified and physically fit candidates are selected. But more than just being in top form with good eyesight and hearing, candidates also need to be well-versed in English, mathematics and science. “Chemistry is the most essential,” stresses Tuan Abdul Latif: “As a firefighter, you need to know a little bit about science so you can put out fires efficiently.”

Members of the AFRS unit are not limited to just firefighting, as they are also trained to rescue trapped individuals, or navigate other dangerous life-threatening instances at the airport. As such, it is paramount that AFRS personnel are always up to the mark in discharging their duties in aircraft rescue and firefighting operations.

New recruits taken into service undergo six months of intensive training where they are taught how to act in a crisis and deal with dangerous situations. One aspect of this training requires them to exercise at the training rig, dubbed the

capacity to hold over 12,000 litres of water at a time, these Rosenbauer and Ziegler ULFTs are also occasionally taken for a drive around the nearby grounds for equipment tests, where the bumper and roof turrets are put to use. Capable of shooting 9,000 litres of water per minute, these apparatus – together with the hose reels – are tested to prevent the possibility of a malfunction, especially in times of need.

The bumper turret can shoot water up to a distance of 45 metres, while the roof turret can reach 85 metres.

Once tested, the ULFTs are then returned to the bay and refilled with water

the best and most adequate personnel are available to the airports.

“My role is to ensure that all the airports have enough manpower for their AFRS Unit to carry out their duties properly,” he says. “If there is not enough manpower, then our job is to supply it to them.” Currently, there are over 830 AFRS personnel in 39 airports across Malaysia.

At the KLIA Main Fire Station, the needs for adequate personnel are no different and Tuan Abdul Latif says that a minimum of 18 personnel must be available on standby over the course of the three shifts each day. Overseen by a Commanding Officer, the fire station is always assured enough staff – if there are absentees and there is an emergency, those available are required to report back for active duty.

As the occurrence of incidents and emergencies are rare, most of the crews’ responsibilities at the fire station include monitoring the aircraft movements on the runways and maintaining the eight firefighting vehicles in the bay for optimum performance. Thoroughly inspected from top to bottom, these 8x8 ultra large foam tenders (ULFTs) are checked from engine to steering wheel, roof to bumper turrets.

Chosen for their reliability and

KLIA says it spares no expense to

ensure that it is fully equipped with the

best AFRS personnel and the most

sophisticated fire and rescue equipment

INTERVIEW


run a certain distance within a stipulated time,” he says. “Those who fail this test are sent to an additional programme, as it means that their fitness level is below par and this needs to be addressed.” As such, AFRS personnel need to be conscious of their diets and fitness levels.

An essential extension for any airport, not just KLIA, the AFRS Unit plays a pivotal role in ensuring minimal casualties and loss of life in the event of a fire or accident. The true guardians of an airport’s safety and security, they work long hours and keep themselves at their optimum – physically and mentally.

But it is the dedication and commitment of these unsung heroes which, Tuan Abdul Latif Hj. Hamzah points out, is what has kept the number of casualties at KLIA at a record low after all these years.

equipment to do the job. But more than the training or the equipment is the constant push to keep up the competency of its staff.

To this end, Malaysia Airports has established a personnel operational competency programme to monitor and chart the levels of its staff’s performance. Known as the AFRS rating, the survey conducted in August 2009 achieved an amazing success rate of 99.04 per cent. Besides the AFRS rating survey, Malaysia Airports also conducts regular checks on the fitness levels of its personnel to gauge their performance.

Tuan Abdul Latif tells us that this is one of the more important aspects for members of the AFRS Unit, as they need to be fit to be able to conduct rescue services: “We have an annual fitness test, where AFRS members are required to

‘Smoke House’, where they conduct BA operations and train in simulated building collapses and structural fires.

Then there is the Training Tower, where firefighters rappel walls, one of the key factors that contributes greatly to the team’s efficiency and fast response time. The training centre also has a simulator for aircraft interior rescues.

Members of the Airport Fire and Rescue Services Unit are trained before they are deployed to various airports throughout the country and this training is not just limited to the newer members of the AFRS team: senior personnel are also tested with the occasional surprise airport emergency exercise.

As a world class airport, KLIA says it spares no expense to ensure that it is fully equipped with the best AFRS personnel and the most sophisticated fire and rescue

One of the airport’s fleet of 8 x 8 ultra large foam tenders

Malaysia Airports manages and operates 39 airports in Malaysia: five international, 16 domestic and 18 Short Take-Off and Landing Ports (STOLports). It also has operations in India and Turkey. On November 30, 1999, Malaysia Airports became the first airport company to be listed in Asia. KL International Airport (KLIA), its flagship airport was thrice voted as the Best Airport (15-25 million passengers per

annum) in the 2005 AETRA awards, 2006 ACI-ASQ awards and 2007 ACI-ASQ awards while the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT-KLIA) was named CAPA Low Cost Airport of the Year at the CAPA Aviation Awards for Excellence 2006. KLIA has also taken a big stride in the realisation of becoming a global integrated hub by launching the Next Generation Hub concept, an initiative aiming to position the ultra-modern

airport as a complete hub for all. Malaysia Airports has also received numerous awards that acknowledge its commitment in service, community engagement, corporate responsibility and organisational excellence. Convergence is the official magazine for Malaysia Airports.

Article reprinted with the permission of Malaysia Airports. 2011 © Malaysia Airports / Adaikalaraj Media Group / Convergence



content * content * contentib PROFILEcontent * content * contentprofile

Appalled by the chaotic rescue work during a devastating fire of the Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen, Denmark,

Sophus Falck established a rescue service business in 1906 based on people helping people in an organised and systematic manner.

A hundred years later, millions of people all over the world each year stand face-to-face with a Falck employee when a fire breaks out, when involved in a traffic accident, when becoming ill or when being taught about accident prevention.

Falck is a Scandinavian-based organisation with activities in most of Europe and which has representation on

five continents. All of Falck’s activities are directed at preventing accidents and disease; providing assistance in situations of emergency, accidents or need; and helping people move on with their lives after illness or accidents.

In recent years in particular, Falck has grown vigorously and now consists of four different business areas: Emergency; Assistance; Healthcare; and Training. Emergency is the largest, mainly consisting of ambulance and helicopter emergency medical services, firefighting activities and patient transportation.

In close collaboration with the relevant authorities, Falck provides ambulance services to the general public in seven European countries and in Brazil. As the

only cross-border ambulance company in Europe, Falck has more than 1,000 ambulances, which respond to over one million emergency calls each year: people who are critically ill, women in labour and accident victims. Falck also participates in a large number of other pre-hospital activities, including rapid response units with paramedics, nurses and doctors and emergency helicopters.

Falck bought its first ambulance in 1907 – the first automobile ambulance in Scandinavia. Today, the company provides 85 per cent of all Danish ambulance operations. In the 1990s, Falck ambulances were put into operation in Poland and Sweden and after the turn of the millennium, Belgium, Finland and

HELPING PEOPLE FOR 100 YEARS

Europe’s largest private emergency service, Falck, is definitely a business. But it is a business that is based on people helping people, as John Trew

describes in this article


Norway were added to the list. In 2006, Falck became the largest

ambulance company in Slovakia via an invitation for tenders for Slovakian ambulance services. And in 2010, Falck established itself in Brazil. Falck also operates helicopter emergency medical services based in Denmark, Sweden and the northern part of Germany.

The company began providing firefighting services in 1922 and soon its fire brigades were fighting blazes in most of Denmark. Today, it provides firefighting services in two thirds of the Danish municipalities, closely co-operating with the authorities.

Falck set up an independent division – Fire and Safety, in 2007. This division provides fire brigades, safety training and safety consultancy to clients outside Denmark from both the industrial and the public sector. Since then, Falck has obtained firefighting contracts in Brazil, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Within the Emergency business area Falck has recently established Airport Services, which offers firefighting services and assistance to passengers with reduced mobility, as well as healthcare services.

“All our business initiatives are still based on the fundamental vision that Falck is about people helping people. Therefore empathy, combined with action, is a natural part of the DNA of our employees, and our goal is to contribute to making the world a safer and more secure place to live,” says Falck CEO Allan Søgaard Larsen.

Falck is also a world leader in rescue and safety courses, particularly in the offshore and maritime sector. The company services the chemical industry, fire services, the aviation industry and military defence at more than 30 training centres worldwide.

In Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Estonia, Falck provides a wide range of services within the roadside assistance and home safety field.

And in Denmark, Falck is the leading private healthcare provider. Each year, the company’s doctors, nurses, psychologists, physiotherapists and other specialists help thousands of people to avoid or overcome physical or mental problems.

...millions of people all over the world each year stand face-to-face with a Falck employee when a fire breaks out, when involved in a traffic accident, when becoming ill or when being taught about accident prevention...

John Trew is Vice President of Falck Danmark Airport Services



Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting Service (RFFS) vehicles are high-performance vehicles designed to get to an aircraft

crash site within minutes to extinguish fires and save the lives of passengers and crews. The number of rollover incidents of RFFS vehicles in the last few years has caused concern to the industry and the regulator, so it was decided to form a cross-industry group to review such incidents and to and identify areas for improvement.

The working group has now published its report (see box for where to find it) and its recommendations and actions focus upon three main areas – driving, the vehicles and firefighting media. The action plan to implement the recommendations has been agreed and the 2011 Fire Service Managers Seminars will enable the project to engage with aviation senior managers.

With regards to firefighting media, a proposal to introduce a new performance level for firefighting foam has been submitted to ICAO, after extensive testing. Level C is over 22 per cent more effective than the current Level B and will provide more options when airport rescue and firefighting services are making

decisions on aviation firefighting media.

There has been a debate surrounding the environmental impact of firefighting foams and this is an area that can become confusing because of its complex scientific basis. The CAA and Dr RA Klein are working to develop an Environmental Impact System that can inform purchasers and users of the impact of foam on the environment. The system is based on the UK government’s guidance on environmental management systems and the provision of environmental point of sale data. It will cover the relevant risks to the environment and provide visual and background information. It is intended to link the provision of environmental information with third party performance certification of foam to give purchasers the necessary information on performance and environmental impact. The next steps are to carry out a peer review to ensure it stands scrutiny.

It is one thing to appreciate the enhanced performance of foam delivered by a Compressed Air Foam System (CAFS), however a greater challenge is to develop a performance test protocol to rate the produced foam and benchmark it to other production means. The CAA

has this challenge in its safety plan and hopes to develop such a test working with industry and international partners. The work is ensuring collaboration with bodies championing relevant standards such as the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and the International Compressed Air Foam Association (ICAFA). If approved, the tests are planned to take place in September 2011 at an accredited test laboratory.

Meanwhile, Understanding Foam is the name of a project to increase the knowledge and provide a learning package around foam, systems and environmental effects. The CAA would like to work with other stakeholders to produce a consistent, comprehensive but easy to understand package that could be adopted by anyone using or procuring foam. Over the next few months the project will be developed and it is hoped to provide more details at the Emergency Services Show in the UK this November.

content * content * contentBP POLITICS

Regulatory developmentsSimon Webb looks at working group recommendations and projects in

aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicles, firefighting media and CAFS

ABOUT SIMON WEBBSimon is Aerodrome Standards Officer with the Civil Aviation Authority and International Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Rescue and Firefighting Working Group Member

CAA & ICAOby Simon Webb

content * content * contentupdates

http://afoaweb.co.uk/Documents/Vehicle%20Rollover%20Group%20

Report%20V2.0.pdf


Sheremetyevo, which then started to experience problems in dealing with the ensuing increased number of flights.

Meanwhile, passengers continued to arrive, either in transit, or people who had not checked the situation before leaving for the airports.

On December 26, Domodedovo delayed more than 100 flights and Sheremetyevo more than 60. Many passengers found themselves in an awkward situation – they were stuck.

Those who lived in Moscow could not leave the airport because express trains wouldn’t work without electricity and a traffic jam of several kilometres stretched back down the highway. Those who did decide to return home had to walk several kilometres, with their cases, to a road where they could find taxis. Travel agencies could not provide updated information and a hot line number was of limited use.

ATMs were out of action. There were no hot meals at the airport and in any event, it was unwise to buy cold food because the refrigerators had stopped working. Airline representatives did not staff the counters because they were afraid of being asked questions that they could not answer.

That Sunday evening, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held an urgent meeting with leading Ministries (EMERCOM of Russia, Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Energy) to discuss the response to the situation. Partial electricity supply to Domodedovo was restored late that evening and EMERCOM of Russia delivered three diesel generator sets.

However, the following day the situation deteriorated further. Russia’s largest air company Aeroflot, based at Sheremetyevo, said it had used up its monthly stocks of de-icing fluid in the previous three days. This information was not relayed to travellers. Airport

In February 2010, Moscow was hit by a massive snowstorm. In the summer, it suffered from an extreme heat wave (average temperature +39

Celsius – see CRJ 6:3). December 2010, however, brought heavy freezing rain.

This is a rare natural occurrence when the height 1.5 km in the atmosphere is much higher than at ground level. When rain falls, it turns to ice upon hitting the ground, coating tree branches and electrical wires and cables with layers of heavy ice.

About 12,000 trees and nine power supply line supports collapsed after being coated with ice, leaving tens of thousands of inhabitants in Moscow without electricity – and, in some cases without heating – for weeks.

Serious disruption between Moscow and Nizhny-Novgorod (Russia’s third largest city) paralysed rail traffic between the two regions.

Moscow’s three airports were badly affected with Domodedovo, Russia’s largest airport and Sheremetyevo experiencing a total collapse in services. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the weekend of December 25-26 was the start of the winter holidays in Russia. Thousands of Muscovites, and other Russians who use Moscow’s airports as transfer hubs, were leaving for other countries or headed to popular Russian destinations.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled or delayed, stranding about 20,000 passengers.

On December 26, managers of Domodedovo announced that the airport was experiencing an unprecedented situation as it had no energy supplies for its facilities – external power supplies to all airport infrastructure had been lost. The Russian Aviation Service asked passengers to avoid the airport.

Some passengers already at the terminals were transferred to

information boards provided limited or sometimes controversial advice. People were still arriving and, because of a lack of seating, sat on the floor. When the floor became packed, they stood on the stairs.

Although the company knew that the de-icing fluid had to be brought in from Germany, Aeroflot promised to start departure processes as soon as possible, which contributed hugely to the further development of this crisis. Had people known that this delay would last for several days, most would have returned home to await further information.

In the evening, the atmosphere turned ugly at the overcrowded airport – people were tired, hungry and angry. Hotel rooms were not provided, queues for the free meals – which comprised tea and two chocolate bars – were extremely long. There was no pharmacy open in the airport, making it impossible to buy medicine or hygiene products.

Throughout Sunday the toilets experienced running water and plumbing problems. Bottled water supplies were sold out. The ventilation not working and the overcrowding affected air quality and the general smell.

However, a duty-free store remained open selling cheap alcohol.

At both airports passengers started to express nervousness by

MOSCOW’S AIR TRANSPORT COLLAPSE

Last year was an exceptional one for

weather extremes in Moscow, writes Lina

Kolesnikova, with 2010 culminating in a severe ice storm that paralysed the capital’s

airports, causing serious distress

to people stuck in terminal buildings

content * content * content disruption


content * content * contentdisruption

nor respond to, this crisis effectively. The official response showed a lack of co-ordination between agencies and companies. Questions remain as to why simple actions were not taken, such as proving stranded passengers with food, water and transportation back to the city. Airports and airline staff failed to provide even basic assistance or information about changes in flight schedules.

Minister of Transport Igor Levitin held a special conference on Aeroflot’s management during the airport collapse. He insisted that the main error was the absence of a temporary flight schedule, so passengers did not receive updated information about their flights. Foreign air companies which use Sheremetyevo were able to inform their passengers about flight delays.

The Minister demanded that the Boards of Directors of Sheremetyevo and Aeroflot reconsider crisis management tools to ensure such mistakes are not repeated in the future. Domodedovo Airport is owned by a private company. None of its top officials made any public statements during the crisis, though the airport’s director issued a plea for help to government agencies on Monday, December 27.

The transport public prosecutor’s office has instituted five proceedings against air companies (Aeroflot among them) accusing them of ignoring their responsibilities to customers. Passengers should be provided with free shelter, food and drink. Those with children are entitled to special attention.

An unprecedented multimillion-dollar lawsuit against carriers and airports on behalf of stranded passengers is being prepared by some lawyers in Moscow.

only to be denied boarding repeatedly. Passengers staged a sit-in and smashed clothing bins on the floors at security checkpoints. Security staff at the airport changed into plain clothes after the incident to avoid provoking new assaults.

Many decision-makers could not depart for their vacations. The experience prompted the Head of the Russian Parliament’s Transport Committee to initiate the scrutiny of new bill in draft form on: Airports and activities in airports in the Russian Federation.Commenting on this initiative, the politician said that existing laws were obviously deficient as there were no clear legal definitions of – or delineation between – rules and responsibilities for airport and airport operators. “We see today that the existing laws allow officials, airport operators and carriers to lay the blame on each other, and we cannot find the last one in line,” he said.

The transportation collapse showed that the management of Russia’s largest airports and airlines did not function in,

demanding meetings with air company representatives. The airports reacted by calling in police civil unrest units.

On Monday, December 27, Domodedovo was dimly lit, the entrance and exit bars to the airport did not work; luggage carousels and escalators remained motionless.

According to passengers at Domodedovo there was also a problem with air conditioning. People who had passed through passport control were trapped airside at the departure gates. Smokers began to light up inside the building because they could not leave the enclosed space. Tired after two days waiting, some people were in hysterics. Other passengers with health problems and who had left their medications in their suitcases to comply with hand luggage security regulations regarding liquids, began to panic.

On Tuesday, there were scuffles between airport officials and passengers in Sheremetyevo’s Terminal D who had been redirected to several different gates,

Lina Kolesnikova is an Associate with CS&A Risk and Crisis Management Consultancy, an expert for OSCE, member of the European Speakers’ Buerau and of Crisis Response Journal’s Editorial Advisory Panel. This article was first published in Crisis Response Journalwww.crisis-response.com

The atmosphere turned ugly: even basic assistance or information about changes in flight schedules was not available

photoshot


by snow and made surface access to and from the airport challenging for all airport users.

The previous winter – that of 2008/9 – was described at the time as ‘a one in 20 year event’, and Gatwick’s runway closed on several occasions. Gatwick attributed its improved response in December 2010 to lessons learnt from this experience, together with £8 million in investment in new snow equipment implemented by the airport’s new owners. Gatwick spokeswoman Andrea Hopkins told IAFPA Bulletin that effective command and control was key to the success of the airport’s response: “Our command and control contingency process was central to our ability to react swiftly in a co-

December 2010 saw difficult winter weather conditions and disruption to air travel across Europe. Brussels,

Paris Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt airports were all affected. In the UK, first Gatwick and then Heathrow airports were closed for significant periods. The general media coverage of these events, which was enormous, subjected the latter airport in particular to harsh criticism, while occasional media comment sought to explain why Northern European airports can cope with winter while British airports could not.

According to some media comment for example, airports in Scandinavia benefit from “heated runways” and “do not face situations where there is heavy snowfall followed by a sudden drop in temperature”.

This article explodes these particular two myths and attempts to get a balanced picture of the problems.

Gatwick airport was hit by severe weather twice in one month. Despite the efforts of 100 staff, the runway was closed for two days on the December 1 and 2, when measured snow depth went from zero to 27cm in little over two days, accumulating at up to five centimetres per hour. The airport was closed again for several hours on December 18. This second period saw snow accumulations of up to ten centimetres at Gatwick early in the day, resulting in the closure of the airfield at 10:00 hrs. The airfield reopened at 14:45 hrs after a 150-member team cleared snow and ice from the runway and the first flight departed at 15.15 hrs. After the second snowfall, 80,000 tonnes of snow was cleared from 1.8 million square feet of runway and taxiways.

While the airfield was operational again after only four hours, cancellations and delays affected around 200,000 air passengers. In addition, local road and rail networks remained severely affected

COPING WITH EXTREME WEATHERSome airports ground to a halt in December’s difficult weather conditions. Kevin Probert-Ehaver investigates

Gatw

ick Airport

Kevin Probert-Ehaver is an emergency planning consultant and regular writer for Crisis Response Journal. He was in Estonia completing a project when Cyclone Monika struck



content * content * contentib PROFILEcontent * content * contentdisruptionthose who had no other option than to remain at Gatwick. Many of our office-based staff volunteered to offer help, support and assistance to passengers in both our terminals and over 120 non-operations staff were deployed. This was supplemented by volunteer co-ordinators whose role was to direct the staff volunteers.”

When Gatwick was closed in early December 2010, Heathrow remained open, as the airport experienced minimal snowfall which did not settle. Heathrow was also the only major UK airport to escape closure during the winter of 2009/10. As the new winter began, Heathrow was confident of its ability to cope: “With an extra half a million pounds invested in equipment this year, Heathrow’s airside department runs constant checks of runway and taxiway areas, applying de-icing and, of course, clearing any snow and debris away. Airside operations teams have spent the summer refreshing their training with plans being discussed with airlines, baggage handlers and air traffic control to ensure a coordinated response,” said a BAA press release on November 11, 2010.

people and persons with reduced mobility and directed them to designated comfort zones with camp beds, drinking water, food snacks and access to 24-hour TV news. Staff remained on duty 24/7. In some instances, we organised hotel accommodation at the airport.

“We ensured that passengers stranded abroad would not receive additional car-parking charges. We also made internet kiosk and Wi-fi access free to enable passengers to rebook or make alternative travel arrangements.”

She continued: “A priority was to communicate the latest information to airline passengers, their friends and families. We used a range of channels to communicate with passengers, including national and regional print and broadcast media, multi-lingual leaflets, terminal information screens, our website including online enquiry service and Twitter, which saw over 18,000 ‘followers’ tracking us. We continually advised passengers to check with their airlines for flight updates and, if possible, to leave the airport and return home or use a local hotel. Once we had reduced the number of passengers we focused on providing welfare for

ordinated manner to minimise the impact of snow. We had ongoing liaison with our airlines, ground handlers, UK Borders Agency, police and other airport partners to ensure adequate preparations ahead of, and speedy recovery from, each heavy snowfall.”

Of course, while runways are being cleared of snow, passengers who have reached the airport find themselves in a difficult situation in an environment which is designed for the speedy transit of passengers and not as a place where they can wait comfortably overnight (or indeed, for several nights). According to Gatwick Airport, on both occasions when the airport was closed, contingency plans were put into operation to assist passengers. Ms Hopkins described Gatwick’s strategy for assisting stranded passengers when the runway was closed on Saturday, December 18: “We maintained a dedicated focus on passenger welfare. Over the weekend and into Monday we gave out thousands of bottles of water and hundreds of blankets, mattresses and cots to delayed airline passengers. Our terminal staff identified vulnerable passengers, such as families with small children, older

Some of Gatwick Airport’s new snow kit

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at Stockholm Arlanda Airport, told IAFPA Bulletin that heavy snowfall followed by a sudden drop in temperature is not that unusual in Sweden.“It happens every now and then during the winter season. If it is -10 degrees the snow is usually dry and easy to plough and blow. When it is around zero or down to -3, snow is wet and heavy. Wet snow can then freeze, when it is frozen it is difficult to move, so we must respond very quickly,” he said.

Mr Ledin added that snow can fall for hours at a time and that 10cm is not all that unusual. Snowstorms with strong winds and poor visibility do cause problems for Arlanda. Even so, Arlanda has always been able to keep at least one of its three runways open, though of course delays may occur to flights.

Andrus Tedremäe, the Maintenance Service Manager at Tallinn airport in Estonia, agreed that heavy snowfall followed by a fall in temperature is not unusual. “We can also have rain which then freezes” he added. “We just have to work hard to clear it. For us 10cm of snowfall happens every other day. Last winter we cleared 200,000 m3 of snow, which represents 15,000 large tipper truckloads, the trucks clocked up

still the longest ice rink in the world.”Prime Minister David Cameron

expressed his “frustration” at the length of time it was taking to get Heathrow fully operational, while European Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas denounced as ‘unacceptable’ disruption to air travel in Britain, France, Belgium and other countries. He said the last few years had shown that snow is far from an unusual occurrence in Western Europe, and that: “Better preparedness, in line with what is done in Northern Europe, is not an optional extra. It must be planned for and with the necessary investment, particularly on the side of the airports.”

BAA Heathrow spokeswoman Mary Kearney told IAFPA Bulletin that a combination of factors caused the problems. Following the initial heavy snowfall, a temperature fluctuation created very icy conditions which rendered runway de-icer useless, because this is effective only up to half an inch of snow and ice. Most of the 200 aircraft stands at Heathrow were full, and it is extremely difficult to use heavy machinery to clear 30 tons of snow and ice from under the aircraft.

Anders Ledin of the COO Department

And yet Heathrow was paralysed for days after a blizzard dumped nine centimetres of snow on the airport on the morning of December 18, 2010. On Sunday, the north runway was cleared, but only 20 flights moved, while just one third of planned flights operated on Monday and Tuesday; the south runway was only reopened at 16:30 hrs Tuesday, December 21, and the airport was not fully operational until 09:00 hrs on Wednesday, December 22. Over 500,000 passengers saw their travel plans disrupted, and travellers were warned that delays and cancellations might continue until Christmas Day.

The problems at Heathrow attracted criticism from many sources. The Times newspaper, for example, quoted a ‘senior airline executive’ as saying: “Over the weekend there was a tangible lack of urgency and the problems we are experiencing now are a direct consequence of that initial 24 hours when they seemed paralysed... Senior directors apologised and admitted that there was a lack of manpower to clear the ice. We were given assurances that both runways would be clear on Monday morning but we woke up and the southern runway was

Snow can fall for hours at a time at Stockholm Arlanda Airport in Sweden

Gatw

ick Airport




60,000km to deposit the snow in an area of the airfield away from the runway. Our runway is 3km long and 45m wide. To clear it we normally employ five snowploughs in formation and if there is a snowstorm then we have to employ up to ten ploughs together.”

Anders Ledin said that at Arlanda: “From November to late April a special department is in operation which only deals with snow clearing. Last Season we

collected 750,000 m3 of snow”. Arlanda may not operate at 98 per cent

capacity like Heathrow, but at peak times, which last four to five hours a day, all the gates are occupied. Fortunately, Arlanda has remote stands which can be brought into operation to ease the situation.

Keeping gates clear of snow: “Is a typical problem. The gates are difficult to clear, we have special units with specially trained people to clear snow at the gates.

There are lots of organisations working there, the space is narrow and you must not touch the aircraft. I do sympathise with the problems that Heathrow had clearing the gates with aircraft at them,” according to Mr Ledin.

Neither Tallinn nor Arlanda airports have heated runways. “I have heard this myth about heated runways in the media,” said Mr Ledin, “I don’t know anywhere in the world where there are heated runways – it would be incredibly expensive. But at Arlanda we do have heated apron areas and gates”.

BAA Heathrow also blamed disruption on the fact that de-icing liquid has to be reapplied to aircraft within about 20 minutes if they have not taken off, and that at Heathrow the taxi time may be longer than this, meaning that aircraft must return to the gates for de-icing. However, some other major airports appear to have found a solution to this – Schiphol Airport in The Netherlands for example has two remote de-icing facilities along the taxiways, one of which has been in operation since early 2000, the other since the winter of 2006-7 and, together, it has room for six aircraft at a time.

Ninety per cent of de-icings are carried out at the remote facilities and only 10 per cent take place at the gates.

On December 23 the Chief Executive of BAA Colin Matthews announced that an external panel of experts had been appointed to establish the lessons which can be learned from the events at Heathrow. Their report on Heathrow’s winter resilience is summarised on page 36 of this issue.

Anders Ledin from Arlanda said in January 2011 he had talked to colleagues from Heathrow who wanted to know how to organise for winter conditions. “But it is difficult to train and to keep equipment in peak condition when you might have no snow for an entire winter,” he said.

On the edge of Scandinavia, in EU transport Commissioner Siim Kallas’ home country of Estonia, Tallinn airport is used to coping with winter conditions and, relative to its turnover, has invested far more than either Gatwick or Heathrow in snow clearing

Tallinn Airport Heathrow Airport Gatwick Airport

Period during which runway(s) closed

December 10, 2010 December 18-21, 2010

December 18, 2010

Annual income (aeronautical) (£)

16m 989.51 244.12

Flights per annum 33,587 (2010) 460,026 (2009) 252,000 (2009)

Passengers per annum 1.4m (2010) 65.9m (2009) 32m

Investment in snow clearing equipment (£)

6.2m 6.5m3 32m

Tallinn AirportCurent snow clearing investment as % of annual turnover

38.75 0.66 3.3

Amount of snow clearing equipment available during critical period

27 over 60 475

Personnel deployed in airside snow clearance operations during critical period

10-15 50 150

Amount of de-icer held at start of critical period

100,000 litres 500,000 litres 340,000 litres

Passengers whose travel plans were affected during the critical period

nearly 1,000 over 500,000 approx 200,000

Snowfall during critical period

Winds of up to 20m/s in Talinn, zero visibility

at times. Measured snowfall at Tallinn is inaccurate, owing to drifting; maximum snowfall elsewhere in Estonia was up to 38cm in 24 hours

9cm in two hours (12-15cm in one hour

– information from BAA Heathrow)

27cm in two days (early December);

10cm in a few hours (morning of

December 18)

1 Estimate based on published income of £742.1m for the nine months to September 30, 2010. Aeronauti-cal income only; 2 12 months to March 31, 2010, Aeronautical income only; 3 To be increased by £10m (Statement by BAA Chief Executive, January 2011); 4 To be increased by another £8m (Gatwick press re-lease December 2012); 5 To be increased to 95, putting Gatwick on a par with Oslo Airport (Gatwick press release December 2010)


equipment – indeed, by the start of December 2010 this small airport had invested almost exactly the same amount of money as the world’s busiest airport (see comparison table). Severe weather brought disruption to Tallinn airport in early December. Cyclone Monika hit Estonia on December 9 and 10, 2010, bringing extreme weather conditions, with snowfall of up to 38cm in 24 hours and winds of up to 26 m/s, creating huge drifts.

Snowfall and drifting though the night closed most minor roads in the north of the country, while municipal services in the capital Tallinn fought through the night to keep city streets clear. The enormity of their task can be gauged from the fact that in normal circumstances a snow-clearing cycle of the city streets takes five hours, and that to achieve the same result during Cyclone Monika they would have had to complete a cycle in only one hour.

Nevertheless, by morning rush hour on December 10, the main roads were clear and traffic was moving almost normally, though commuters in the suburbs had difficulties digging their cars out.

Tallinn airport is situated a mere 10 minute drive from the city centre. The airport’s single runway was kept clear of snow by a team of 15 staff who had access to 27 specialised modern vehicles. Even so, the runway was closed for most of the morning, owing to crosswinds and poor visibility. Each day there are about 100 air movements at Tallinn, during the morning of December 10, only two out of a scheduled 12 flights took off and no aircraft landed. Small airports generally do not work at capacity and so can recover more quickly from runway closures than an airport like Heathrow. Even so, nearly 1,000 passengers had the unpleasant experience of disruption to their travel plans.

Airports, which are designed to facilitate the fast throughput of both passengers and aircraft, face an unenviable task when the transport flow breaks down. The bigger and busier the airport, the worse the problem. Vast numbers of people may be left in limbo at a major international airport.

Gatwick said that it endeavoured to keep stakeholders in government, parliament, the local community and the media informed of what was happening and how the airport was dealing with the situation. If its track record on press releases is anything to go by, it does seem to have made creditable efforts in this respect: Between December 17 and 20, Gatwick issued 11 weather-related press releases, while Heathrow issued none at all.

For an airport the problems are exacerbated by the fact that a passenger is technically the customer of one of many airlines which may use the airport, meaning that hard work is needed to ensure that a co-ordinated message is given to passengers by both airport operator and airline. At one point at Heathrow contradictory messages were being given to travellers by BAA and by the airlines, with airlines advising passengers to turn up and BAA loudspeaker announcements in the terminals asking people to go home.

In a crisis situation such as exceptionally heavy snowfall closing the runway, the airport operator may only be guessing at when the problem will be resolved – resulting in an uncertain message for unhappy passengers. The communication problem seems intractable and if there is a satisfactory solution it probably requires a radical revision of the way in which airlines and airports deal with their passengers.

So, ultimately, how did the British airports of Gatwick and Heathrow perform in comparison to Arlanda and Tallinn? After the closure of airports elsewhere in Europe on the weekend of December 17-19, even Tallinn

Airport Board Member Erik Sakkov admitted that: “We have good equipment to maintain the runway and enough experienced men. Even so as we have effectively had a snowstorm going on for four weeks, we are actually working at the limits of our ability.”

And as Anders Ledin explained, it is difficult to maintain staff and equipment in prime readiness if snow is only an occasional problem.

The author of this article proposes that major UK airports send airside snow clearing staff for short periods each winter to Nordic airports where the same equipment is in use, so they can get regular work experience.

Last December Gatwick appears to have coped better than it did the previous year. Resources thrown at airside snow clearance greatly exceeded those of Heathrow (see table), while public relations and communication with their partners appears to have been significantly superior.

The fact that Tallinn airport’s investment in financial terms equals that at Heathrow seems a telling statistic. Of course we would not expect English airports to make the same proportional investment as one where winter can last from November to April, but it is significant that Gatwick’s investment as a percentage of income was five times that of Heathrow. Even though Heathrow announced an extra £10m investment after the crisis, Gatwick said it would put in an extra £8m, which will bring its comparative investment up to 6.5 per cent. To catch up with Gatwick in comparative terms, Heathrow would have to invest £58m.

Perhaps this is not necessary, but the existing investment in snow clearing equipment of little over 0.5 per cent of annual aeronautical income at Heathrow seems, with hindsight, inadequate. According to BAA, last December’s disruption cost the airport £19 million.

The independent enquiry into Heathrow’s winter resilience, which was published in April, has thrown more light on the events and on what can be done to prevent a repetition of these events (see page 36 for more details).

...it is difficult to train and to keep equipment in peak condition when you might have no snow for an entire winter...




BAA has announced that it is developing a £50 million Heathrow resilience investment plan, which it

will recommend to airlines and the Civil Aviation Authority in April.

The plan will allow Heathrow to implement all the recommendations of the Begg Winter Resilience Report and proposed improvements include:

• Revised airport snow plans, including new equipment, increased staff resources and training crisis management processes;

• Systems for command and control and communication between the airport community (including airlines) and passengers; and

• Passenger care and support, in addition to that provided by airlines under EU legislation.

BAA’s chief executive Colin Matthews, who commissioned the report, said: “Following December’s disruption, we invested in new equipment, people and training to enable us to respond better to snow in future. We are now putting together a comprehensive action plan to implement all 14 Begg recommendations.

“I am pleased to have secured agreement from the chief executives of British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, British Midland International, NATS and the CAA to establish a Heathrow partnership for passengers, which meets regularly to publicly reinforce Heathrow’s collective commitment to make every passenger’s journey better than the last one.

“Our aim is to better serve passengers in normal times and at times of disruption, whatever the cause. I thank David Begg and his panel members for exploring what happened at Heathrow in December and providing these important recommendations.

“If the entire Heathrow community learns from this report, and works more collaboratively to promote passengers’ interests, then this is a pivotal moment for the airport and its reputation.

“We clearly understand our role in keeping Heathrow open, unless for emergency or safety reasons, but to do that and to achieve the highest standards

of passenger care, we need to work more closely and collaboratively with airlines and them with us, and all agree on the necessary training and investment.

“Heathrow is among the most congested airports in the world and the lack of spare capacity means that unlike every other British or European airport, we have literally no room to move when disruption occurs. This means that any problem, large or small, that slows down the rate of aircraft arriving at or leaving from Heathrow, will disrupt many people,” he said.

Professor Begg’s report found that the unusual weather conditions experienced in Heathrow in December caused disruption on a number of fronts. Passengers were unable to travel at an important time of the year; over 4,000 flights were cancelled, causing significant effects on airline schedules globally and damaging Heathrow Airport’s reputation.

The Enquiry’s report focuses on the lessons that BAA – working closely with Heathrow’s airlines and other external agencies – needs to learn so that it can strengthen the airport’s resilience by improving its ability to plan and respond to adverse weather incidents, as well as to deliver quality services to passengers during such periods. While the focus of the Enquiry was on how BAA and the airline community responds to future adverse weather events, the panel said that many of the lessons to be learned are important in relation to how BAA plans, tests and responds to resilience threats

more generally.The Enquiry focused on three areas:

Heathrow’s plan in preparation for the adverse weather forecast; Heathrow’s execution of the crisis management plan and response of the operation during the period of adverse weather disruption; and Heathrow’s recovery of operations after the adverse weather disruption had passed.

“BAA has historically demonstrated its ability to respond well to earlier weather events such as those in February 2009, January and November 2010,” says the report, emphasising that the Panel’s main focus is on lessons to be learnt from the

IAFPA Bulletin presents the summary of the Heathrow Winter Resilience Report, headed by Professor David Begg

LEARNING THE LESSONS FROM WINTER 2010


welfare that are focused on the needs of the passenger.”

The report supports work by the CEO of BAA to establish a Strategic Board in order to improve Heathrow’s resilience, led by BAA, with senior representatives from airlines, NATS and the CAA. It notes that: “BAA needs to own the snow plan and ensure that it is reviewed, improved and tested regularly by all airport stakeholders.”

Command and Control comes under the spotlight, with the report noting that BAA needs to adapt its approach to emergency planning, response and recovery to better align with best practice. It recommends that the crisis management process should be simplified to the standard three-tier process used by central, regional and local government and the emergency services across the UK. It adds that this process must have the “full and structured” engagement of stakeholders, especially airlines and ground handlers, as well as the police, fire and rescue services.”

The report recommends that a single physical control centre should be established to manage major incidents and improved processes need to be established for the rapid flow of information between airfield status, airline flight schedules and airport information systems. The report says this: “Should also extend to establishing a clear agreement with airlines and handlers on the manner in which decisions will be taken and communicated to passengers, media, government and the public at large.” Communications to passengers must be improved.

Passenger welfare is important and, it is recommended that BAA, airlines and retailers should prepare and test a sustainable welfare plan that can be triggered immediately.

BAA Chairman Sir Nigel Rudd said: “The Board fully supports the decision to accept the recommendations in David Begg’s report and develop the executive plan.”www.baa.com/assets/Internet/BAA%20Airports/Downloads/Static%20files/BeggReport220311_BAA.pdf

co-ordination within BAA, and between BAA and airlines, which led to ineffective engagement between different parties, resulting in ineffective situational awareness and a delay in response and escalation;

• Confused and conflicting messages caused incorrect signals to go to airlines, to passengers, and from airlines to passengers; and

• The Executive Crisis Management Team (ECMT) and the Capacity Constraints Group (CCG) proved effective in managing the crisis once invoked. Both groups should have been mobilised earlier.

The report says: “Passengers experienced distress as a result of the disruption at Heathrow,” adding that some of the distress was the result of: “An apparent lack of compliance, by some airlines, with EC Regulation 261/04,” which sets out obligations on airlines to provide compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of cancellation, long delays and being denied boarding. The “different and conflicting messages to passengers about the state of the airport and of flights” further contributed to this distress, as did “A slow reaction to terminal congestion by BAA.” However, from December 20 onwards, the report notes that BAA’s response to terminal congestion and support for passenger welfare was “increasingly effective.”

Because of Heathrow Airport’s critical importance to air transport in the UK and globally – the Panel advises that it should adopt an improved resilience target that the airport: “Never closes as a result of circumstances under its control, except for immediate safety or other emergency threats. “Achieving this target will require BAA to lead a collaborative programme of work and investment with the airlines, other airport stakeholders, NATS and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The panel recommends that these constituents actively work together to implement improved snow plans, improve command and control processes, and establish approaches to passenger

response to the weather conditions on December 18 – 23, 2010.

“The weather during the month of December was unusual. It was the coldest December for 100 years,” it says. “There were two extended snowfalls during the month, the first early in December, with Gatwick and Stansted experiencing significant snowfalls, but with less snow at Heathrow.”

All three airports were affected by the second snowfall. The actual snowfall at Heathrow (over the crisis period) occurred on the morning of Saturday, December 18 – which resulted in a maximum snow depth of nine centimetres. The snow accumulated rapidly, with seven centimetres falling in the hour before midday. The Met Office has confirmed that this level of snowfall was unusual, particularly with reference to recent years, and that the rate of accumulation was rare.

The report finds that: “There was no single event or decision which led to the disruption experienced during the 18 – 23 December period,” and outlines the most important factors which, when taken together, led to the events on those days:

• The potential impact of the weather forecast was not fully anticipated in the days preceding the event. This led to a low state of preparedness ahead of the snow and insufficient stock of critical supplies;

• Stand clearance rate was slower than required and slower than rates achieved elsewhere. This was because the condition of snow on stands became very difficult as a result of earlier aircraft de-icing and stand gritting. Airlines and BAA had not agreed priorities and protocols for dealing with and resourcing this situation. BAA did not have specialised equipment for under aircraft stand clearance;

• BAA’s crisis management system was invoked on Friday, December 17, to deal with congestion in Terminal 5. The response to the snow on 18 December was initially not effective. There were failures in communication and




On April 14, 2010, a massive volcano erupted on Mount Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland, throwing up

volcanic ash to a height of 30,000 feet, which then spread across a huge area of Europe, especially over the UK and as far down as Spain and Northern Africa. The resulting ash cloud led to the closure of European air space for six days, owing to safety fears for aircraft.

Over the next few days thousands of flights were cancelled, more than 300 airports were closed and hundreds more experienced extreme disruption. Millions of passengers were affected, many of them stuck at increasingly overcrowded airports. Passengers were treated differently depending on where they were stranded and which airline they were flying with. The pressure on airports was immense, especially when considering that these buildings are designed to process people through onto aircraft, not to house people – in very large numbers – for a long period of time. Many people became uncomfortable and upset, a situation that was worsened by uncertainty over when flights would resume and a perceived lack of information, further pressurising airport and airline personnel.

In a discussion paper for the Royal Aeronautical Society, Professor Keith

VOLCANIC DISRUPTION

One year after the Eyjafjallajökull eruption closed

down European airspace, Emily Hough looks at what lessons

have been learnt

photo used with the kind permission of Henrik Thorburn


Hayward, Head of Research, explains that this particular eruption involved a high proportion of fine ash that settled in the atmosphere rather than settling close to the volcano. The magma from the volcano had pierced a glacier so the ash was mixed with gas and the combination of ash and water generated aerosol conditions with particularly high potential for corrosion.

“Volcanic ash is very abrasive and statically charged and capable of short-circuiting electrical and electronic equipment. Noxious volcanic gases may also seep into the aircraft cabin, affecting crew and passengers. The ash particle abrades and damages part of an aircraft’s structure, such as cockpit windows, leading edges, paint, antennae, probes and ice detectors. But the engines are the main focus of the severest effects,” he says. When the ash enters aircraft engines can cause surging and, in the past, this has led to total engine shutdown.

He adds: “Given enough space in the sky and, crucially, knowledge of where the ash cloud is, pilots can steer around an ash cloud or, depending on the height and extent of the cloud, fly over it. However, there are risks – overflights have no safe place to descend in the event of trouble.”

Given the congested airspace in Europe, such an option was not feasible and neither was visual avoidance possible as this ash cloud was often invisible to the human eye.

According to Professor Hayward, the usual process is to establish a regime under which operators and industry will work things out for themselves, but the CAA could not wait for ICAO or the European Aviation Safety Agency to act. He says that the airspace restrictions were a straightforward decision based on ICAO rules and procedures. However, as the crisis carried on, discussions between the various parties led to a: “More sophisticated approach.”

Enter Žarko Sivčev, who advises the COO at Eurocontrol’s recently-established Network Management Directorate. Žarko helped to develop and implement Eurocontrol’s Central Flow Management Unit and has been involved

team, which was working closely with the European Commission.

“We were requested to come up with ways of resolving this crisis and eventually formulated three proposals, which were presented to the Eurocontrol Provisional Council and the EU Transport Ministers Council,” he says. At a teleconference on April 19, one of these proposals – option three – was adopted and deployed the next day.

This involved plotting charts, with a no fly zone, a contaminated zone where operations could be permitted, and clear areas. “The aim was to assist states in their decision-making,” Žarko explains.

There was huge pressure from the media, politicians and the travelling public to get flights operational again. “What was put in place was a plan which had been agreed at official level, which helped to unlock the crisis,” Žarko emphasises.

When asked about accusations of being over cautious and whether this is down to a lack of understanding of the issues involved, he reminds me of the difficulties in getting people to join the group or discussions before last year’s eruption.

Perhaps there may have been less criticism, and more understanding, had people bothered to get involved in the volcanic ash taskforce and exercises before the event? But Žarko is far too diplomatic to comment.

As he mentioned previously, questions still remain unanswered, but at least there is now more experience and information upon which to base further research. The big question still revolves around decision-making and in particular whether volcanic ash is a state issue, or should airlines be allowed to take decisions whether to fly or not.

So what for the future? The ICAO International Volcanic Taskforce met July last year in Montreal and created four subgroups. The first focuses on ash prediction and meteorologists are looking at models used to establish ash dispersion forecasts; the second is the Science subgroup, which is tasked with developing means and methods of detecting ash. The third group – that of

in the ICAO/EUR/ANT Volcanic Ash Task Force and the ICAO International Volcanic Task Force. He is co-leader of the ICAO Volcanic Ash exercise, VOLCEX 11/01, which is scheduled for April 13-14, 2011.

Žarko explains that the Volcanic Ash Contingency Plan for Europe was prompted by an eruption of the Grimsvotn volcano in Iceland in 2004: “This led to an unco-ordinated response and some confusion; a few flights were cancelled,” he says. “The impact was limited, but it was clear that there was no co-ordinated response in Europe and this triggered discussion at IACO meetings.”

The Europe and North Atlantic sector of ICAO was asked to start work on a contingency plan for volcanic ash events. The task force was established and the first version was produced in 2005.

“There were many questions at the time. And these questions were still unanswered when the crisis started last year,” Zarko muses. In fact, the most basic questions revolving around safety – what levels of volcanic ash are dangerous – still have not been established.

“Given that no answers were available, the contingency plan had to be based on what information was available at the time, so the plan was established in accordance with the ICAO guidelines. But as these events don’t happen very often, IACO agreed that regular exercises should be performed,” he explains.

One of the immediate hurdles to be overcome was finding commonalities between the diverse range of stakeholders involved in an aviation volcanic ash scenario – these include aviation experts, air traffic management, pilots, meteorologists and engine manufacturers, to name but a few. “Finding this mutual understanding was quite a challenge.”

Another obstacle was the difficulty in getting people interested enough to take part.

In April last year, Žarko was working on other projects and was stranded in Vienna when European air space was closed. He managed to get the train back to Brussels and went to the Eurocontrol operations room where he was immediately incorporated into the crisis



content * content * contentdisruptionairworthiness – is probably the trickiest, as it is looking to determine what levels of ash are hazardous for air operations. Finally, the fourth subgroup is working on air traffic management procedures and response to volcanic ash events. Progress reports will be presented in July 2011.

Further, Eurocontrol and the European Commission have established the European Aviation Crisis Co-ordination Cell (EACCC). This will deal with any crisis affecting aviation in Europe – whether this be nuclear, pandemics, etc – and is made up of high level representatives from air navigation service providers, airlines, and the military, etc.

The EACC is still establishing its procedures and defining its role; there have been several recent occasions where it has been on alert, but not activated. These instances include industrial action in Spain and France, which had a major impact upon aviation last year, the snow at several major European airports (see previous pages) in December 2010, and the Etna eruption in January, as well as events in Japan and Libya. “It is on alert for the time being and if, necessary, will be activated,” says Žarko.

The impact of the mass stranding has been documented clearly: tales of travellers making their way home by train, boat and other means abounded, with creativity and pathos alike. Some airlines provided compensation and helped travellers, others did not, claiming the volcanic eruption was an ‘Act of God’. The financial damage to aviation was vast; the knock-on effects to tourism and business even greater.

But what of the air carrier whose operations were right at the epicentre of the crisis? Last year, Icelandair carried 1.5 million passengers on its scheduled flights between Iceland, Europe and North America to a total of 26 destinations. Being based in Iceland itself, the air carrier has experience of volcanic eruptions, but how did it fare during these events? IAFPA bulletin spoke to Birkir Holm Gudnason, CEO of Icelandair, and Guðjón Arngrímsson, VP of Corporate Communications. They explained that a minor eruption

of Eyjafjallajökull occurred on March 21: “It only affected us for one day with some follow-on delays – much like a bad weather situation. This was the first signal that the company might be in for a difficult time, but as the eruption seemed to quieten down, spirits were more relaxed.”

Iceland has a countrywide volcanic eruption plan, and so does the airline. Each eruption is different, however, and thus affects the airline in different ways.

On April 14, when the ash plume erupted in earnest, Icelandair activated its crisis management organisation. “The company has trained regularly for crisis and emergency situations and has had a strong relationship with various service providers such as Kenyon International

and FEI Behavioural Health for several years,” explains Guðjón. The usual decision-makers were put on alert.

It was decided to keep on operating the network for as long as possible and to use all available tools and tactics to get the message across that Icelandair was open for business.

The company held crisis meetings at its HQ three times a day. Special rescue flights were organised to the very few airports that remained open, such as Glasgow in Scotland, Sundsvall in Sweden and Trondheim in Norway.

As European airspace began to reopen, Icelandair’s home hub airport in Keflavik

Birkir Holm Gudnason, CEO, Icelandair: “The

company managed to get the message

across that it was doing everything

possible to help its customers through

the situation and get people to their

destinations”

Guðjón Arngrímsson, VP, Corporate Communications: “Over 80 press releases were issued in several languages and 250 online web updates were posted on 19 sites in 15 languages.”

Above: The Central Flow Management Unit at EUROCONTROL


been established. A key aspect was flexibility and willingness to do what it takes to resolve the situation. Almost all employees were, in one way or the other engaged in this task. We were all proud of our work over this period.”

And a word of advice to others who might face the same situation: “Flexibility. Make your plans flexible enough that they can change quickly, for volcanic ash, do not plan too far ahead of time. The situation will change in the next 36 hours. Or at least plan for various scenarios and how you are going to get to each one, based on your current situation.”

Importantly, a new understanding was

were issued in several languages and 250 online web updates were posted on 19 sites in 15 languages. This was supplemented by over 200 updates on Twitter and Facebook and a 200 per cent increase in the number of answered telephone calls and text messages sent to passengers.”

Regular daily contact was maintained with key tour operators and travel agents.

“Icelandair managed to get the message across that it was doing everything possible to help its customers through the situation and get people to their destinations,” explains Birkir.

“A confidence within the company in dealing with crisis situations has

closed down. The company moved its whole hub – along with 200 staff – to Glasgow Airport in Scotland for ten days. It ran up to 36 flights a day and carried between four and six thousand passengers during this period, with shuttle flights to Akureyi Airport in North Iceland and busses running 24 hours a day to Reykjavik.

“Having a hub in a different location brings its own challenges,” says Birkir. Personnel were working with unfamiliar locations and machinery and because of the time it takes to obtain security clearance, the staff had to be accompanied at all times. Lodging and other necessities had to be provided. Communications had to be established and procedures modified to take into account the new environment.

“And the uncertainty around the opening of the airspace, and the length of time involved, added to the stress of the heavy workload,” he noted.

“With over 150 schedule changes and tens of thousands of passengers affected during a three-week period, communication was pivotal,” according to Guðjón. “Over 80 press releases

Below: Glasgow Airport in Scotland, where Icelandair set up a temporary hub, moving 200

staff to Scotland for ten days (Right)

Orri Eiriksson



content * content * contentdisruptionreached with the political leadership of Iceland and with the tourism industry with regards to co-operation in the crisis.

This experienced was echoed by Yeo Kia Thye, Director of Airport Operations at the Changi Airport Group in Singapore. At the recent IAFPA conference, he highlighted the fact that the effects of natural disasters are no longer limited to the immediate locality where they occur: “Such disasters have repercussions at airports further afield.”

While people in Europe saw airports closed down completely, with all the logistical headaches that this involved for airport and airline staff alike, the situation was different for Changi and airports elsewhere around the world.

“We started to observe the build-up of passenger numbers and flights to Europe were being turned back,” he commented. “The complexity of the situation meant that no single organisation at the airport could handle this alone, so the airport called together all stakeholders, including police, luggage handlers, airlines, etc, to put the pieces together and build up a common picture.”

In Europe, because all flights were cancelled, airport buildings could be turned over to accommodating stranded passengers. But at Changi, only six per cent of passengers were destined for Europe; the airport’s operations to other areas continued, meaning that large areas could not be closed off in order to provide temporary accommodation for passengers. And – like most airports – Changi is not designed to hold a large number of people for a long period of time. To intensify the problems, Singapore was hosting several large conferences at that time, and there were few hotel rooms available. So the airport provided sleeping bags, hygiene kits, showers and internet access to try to make the situation more comfortable for those affected.

Many airlines were having difficulties in sourcing hotel rooms, so Changi Airport took on the task of overall co-ordination, liaising with Singapore Tourism and passing information about hotels on to the airlines. Changi also contacted embassies to provide

photo used with the kind permission of Henrik Thorburn


assistance, gave regular information updates to passengers, and set up a temporary call centre for airlines.

Kia Thye said: “As the incident became more prolonged, we knew we would have to provide other facilities.” To keep people entertained, airport tours were organised.

Again, communication was key: “There were too many questions, too few answers,” he said, adding: “The less you communicate with people, the more they speculate.”

Mass communication was achieved via the airport’s website and one of the challenges was to stop people travelling to Changi in the first place, or from catching connecting flights from other airports in the hope that flights would resume from Singapore. This is another area where liaison with the embassies paid off.

This incident highlighted the importance of business continuity for Changi Airport: “Of course you can’t plan for every scenario, so we have a business continuity plan that can be tailored. The Indian air traffic control strike in the 1990s led to a lot of stranded passengers, so our mass stranded passenger plan which we had developed provided a good basis for last year’s incident,” he told delegates.

According to Kia Thye it is vital to provide basic necessities: food, water, and clean environment and basic comforts are essential, and all should be supplied with a friendly and warm service.

Mr Bernard Lim, Director for International Relations and Security with the Ministry of Transport, Singapore, also has some key lessons for airport and airlines that have been learnt from the volcanic eruption.

In a paper published within the Journal of Aviation Management, he highlights the need for all levels of management and all stakeholders to be aware that such disruptions can occur at any time. He emphasises that up-to-date business continuity plans are essential, highlighting the importance of regular drills and exercises. Again, information management and dissemination are



content * content * contentdisruptioncritical, and he points out that effective communication can help affected passengers to understand the gravity of the prevailing situation: “In most of these incidents where disruptions are caused by natural calamities, it is beyond the control of the airlines and airports. There is little that they can do to change the situation.”

But one of the most essential elements of any response to an incident that leads to the mass stranding of passengers is that of ‘creature comforts’. Mr Lim says that a number of basic needs must be met to tide over the first few days of the crisis, the first of these being food. “Airport and beverage outlets should be asked to stay open for longer hours, or even 24 hours, if need be,” he says. “There would also be passengers who would be low on money and may turn to the airlines for assistance in providing them with meals in the interim period.”

Mr Lim covers the issue of temporary accommodation and says that prior arrangements should be made with hotels and that airlines should consider flying passengers to other destinations that are not affected, thereby relieving pressure on the worst affected airports. Ground transportation is another element of the overall business continuity plan, because passengers will need to be ferried to their temporary accommodation. “When the flights resume, passengers would similarly need to make their way back to the airport quickly and en masse.”

Sanitation should not be overlooked (see Lina Kolesnikova’s article on page 29). “It is imperative that airports pay close attention to the sanitation needs and ensure that the airport toilets and shower facilities are kept clean and serviceable. During such crises, when thousands of passengers are stranded at the airport, the airport’s sanitation facilities would certainly be heavily utilised and it would be of relief to these stranded passengers to know that they have access to clean toilets and shower facilities during that time of need.”

A further area for consideration revolves around passengers with special needs, including the elderly, infants and passengers who are physically challenged. Airport shops may be asked

to assist in providing items such as milk powder for infants; airport pharmacies and clinics should provide insulin for diabetic passengers who are stranded.

Mr Lim mentions airport ground handling and ramp support: “In such situations, we can expect many aircraft to be grounded at airports. Aside from the airports needing to plan for contingency aircraft parking space, it would be useful for the airports and airlines to work with the ground and ramp handling, refuelling, catering and aircraft cleaning companies to be prepared to provide additional airport ramp support.”

Finally, immigration controls must not be overlooked. Bona fide visitors, who may not have a valid visa but who might be forced to stay in the country longer than expected, or whose flights have been diverted from another country, should be helped to stay on temporarily until they can resume their journeys.

It is clear that the mass grounding of aircraft, and subsequent stranding of thousands of passengers, have widespread

effects, on economies, businesses, and the lives of both personnel and those who are stranded. Whether such groundings are caused by volcanic activity, power cuts, snow or other factors, a whole raft of stakeholders is involved, from international bodies such as the ICAO and the European Commission, to governments and national bodies, such as civil aviation authorities, from airport management, to tourist operators and airlines, to cleaning operatives and pharmacies – all have an important part to play in ensuring the comfort and safety of those affected.

It is inevitable that airport fire services and airport security services have an important role to play as well, not least because of the increased risk involved in the sheer number of people stuck in airport terminals, who will be utilising these buildings – and spaces within them – in ways for which they were not designed to be used. And this holds true for airports in the area that is immediately affected, and for those further afield. The complex interaction between such a vast number of organisations, replicated on an international scale, makes for a colossal challenge.

All those who might be involved in planning or responding to such an event should bear in mind the three points outlined by Yoe Kia Thye when he emphasised the need to preserve the dignity of those affected – ie it is essential to organise a fast and co-ordinated response; the basic needs of stranded passengers must be satisfied; and clear and regular communication are essential.

Sources:International Aviation Fire Protection Association Asia Pacific Conference 2011, Coping with Natural Disasters – Flight disruptions at Changi Airport, Yoe Kia Thye, Director, Airport Operations, Changi Airport Group; www.iafpa.org.uk;Journal of Aviation Management 2010, Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, Key lessons for airports and airlines from the volcanic Eruption of Mount Eyjafjallajökull, Mr Bernard Lim, Director for International Relations and Security, Ministry of Transport, Singapore; www.saa.com.sg;Emily Hough: Interview with Žarko Sivčev, Advisor to the Chief Operating Officer of the Directorate Network Management (EUROCONTROL) and co-leader of the ICAO Volcanic Ash exercise VOLCEX 11/01 scheduled for 13-14 April 2011; www.eurocontrol.int;Emily Hough: Interview with Birkir Holm Gudnason, CEO, and Guðjón Arngrímsson, VP, Corporate Communications, Icelandair; www.icelandair.com.Royal Aeronautical Society, February 2011, Flying Through an Era of Volcanic Ash, Prof. Keith Hayward, FRAeS, RAeS, Head of Research; www.raes.org.uk

...It is inevitable that airport fire services and airport security services – as well as contingency planners – have a vital role to

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content * content * contentevents

The event attracted a wide audience from across the Asia Pacific region, as well as from

further afield, including the Middle East and Europe.Proceedings began as Colin Simpson,

the Chairman of the IAFPA, welcomed participants. He commented that the previous conferences organised in Singapore in 2003 and 2007 had been excellent events, held in great venues, but in choosing Raffles as a venue, the AES had surpassed itself. Cletus Packiam, Chief of the Airport

Emergency Service at Changi Airport, took to the stage, echoing Colin’s welcome and introducing Mr Foo Sek Min, Executive Vice President, Airport Management, of the Changi Airport Group. Mr Foo discussed passenger number

projections, noting that the Asia Pacific region is booming in terms of

Aviation fire and rescue: 2020 and beyond

This year’s IAFPA Asia Pacific Conference was held at Raffles Hotel, Singapore. Emily Hough reports


air passengers. He said that although security incidents or abnormal weather phenomenon may divert media attention: “Aviation safety remains the core focus of our business. Although accidents are relatively low, we can’t lose our focus.” He also mentioned the QF32 A380 incident in Singapore (see page 11).Mr Yeo Kia Thye, Director, Airport

Operations, Changi Airport Group, spoke about natural disasters and their effects on Singapore, more particularly, upon the airport and its operations. Although most natural disasters in Singapore relate to flooding, he explained, the impact of a natural disaster elsewhere in the world has far reaching ramifications, affecting airports further afield. He described the effects of the European flight cancellations of April 2010 on Changi Airport (see page 38 for more details). He also shared some of the passenger comments on the way they

were treated at Changi. These included: “I am thankful for the way we were looked after in difficult and uncertain conditions. When reflecting, I am grateful that I was delayed at Changi Airport...” and: “... They had given us access to communication channels. They had provided us with security and enabled us to maintain some dignity so far from home...” Mr Huang Weikang, Operations

Commander at Changi Airport, who was in charge of the response to the QF32 on November 4, 2010, described the incident in detail. He showed delegates footage of firefighters resorting to using foam in order to shut down the A380’s No.1 engine.The title of the next presentation was

‘Thinking outside the box for safety and efficiency’ by Kim Olsen, Assistant Chief of Copenhagen Airport. Kim looked at developments in ARFF over the years, ending up with a discussion about AFFF foam and environmental issues. A lively panel discussion ensued, with

the first question being about who bore the cost of the delays at Changi Airport during the flight cancellations. Yeo Kia Thye replied: “Some airlines went all the way, some took hotel rooms for their passengers, others said it was ‘an Act of God’.” There has been no overall calculation of the cost. And who

Singapore’s harbour skyline

events


bore this cost? He answered: “Airlines incurred costs and each one bore its own. The airport took a partnership approach and didn’t undertake a cost recovery exercise as this would not have been in the right spirit.”Another delegate asked Commander

Huang about communications between agencies and interoperability of radios. He commented that good hand signals between fire service personnel played an important role. Because of the engines running: “It was very noisy,” on the fireground, he said.Roz Wheatley from Qantas was next

on the agenda. She shared an airline’s perspective with the emergency services present, listing a variety of incidents such as SARS, terminal fires, turbulence, terrorism, snow in the UK, flooding in Queensland, civil unrest in Cairo, saying that not many of these events involved an aircraft directly, but all affected airline operations and required a common crisis platform. Ms Wheatley also provided delegates with an insight into the QF32 incident from an airline crisis response point of view. Mr Mao Guoha, General Manager of

the Fire Control and Emergency Security Department at Shanghai International Airport in China, gave some background and history to firefighting at the airport. He moved on to describe the incident on November 28, 2009, when a Boeing/

McDonnell Douglas MD-11 crashed on take-off from runway 35L at Pudong Airport in Shanghai. The aircraft was destroyed by fire and three of the seven crew members on board were killed. Mr Mao showed a video of the crash to delegates, saying that the rescue vehicles had rushed to the scene and started operations immediately. They tried to save the crew first, then fought the fire, as well as providing first aid to the injured before they were sent to hospitals in Shanghai. The third session of the day turned

to technology, with Ralph Schmid of Rosenbauer International giving a thoughtful presentation on expected scenarios and the concomitant demands upon and, developments in, ARFF vehicle design. Ultra large airliners such as the A380 and the Dreamliner will become commonplace, he said, and developments in aircraft design will see more specialised vehicles, such as escape stairs, added to the fleets of many airports.At the same time, developing countries

are still using ‘old’ aircraft: “So the burn through time of 90 seconds remains an issue,” he commented. Mr Schmid also pointed out that the

scenarios at which ARFF crews might be called upon to respond are evolving, with the threat of terrorism; fuel farms are potential targets, and laser attacks on landing aircraft could also cause major

incidents.He touched upon environmental

factors, safety developments and legal changes, all of which are affecting ARFF vehicle evolution. Demographic changes are another important area, he said, as people are living longer, they are working longer, so this must lead to ergonomic evolution in vehicles. And if people are living longer, it is a natural assumption that passengers will also be getting older, leading to evacuation issues. So the challenge for a manufacturer

of ARFF vehicles on a global level is, according to Mr Schmid: “To cover the full variety of budgets, technological, ecological and legal demands,” while maintaining high quality manufacturing methods.James Johnson, President of the Fire

and Emergency Business Segment of the Oshkosh Corporation, described the processes behind the design of his company’s Striker ARFF vehicle, telling delegates that the design objectives were: Fire suppression; chassis performance; reliability and durability; safety systems; and design. Among the fire suppression features

of the Striker, Mr Johnson described the cross lay hose-bed, pressure-governed system and advanced fire suppression technologies fitted to the vehicle. He described the improved chassis performance and safety features

Guests at the gala dinner raised money for the charity Care Singapore, an amount that was matched by IAFPA and the total was presented by Colin Simpson, Chairman (above left). Right: Delegates and speakers in

the ballroom at Raffles Hotel, where the event was held

content * content * contentevents


and the design aspects, which included higher floors, taller openings and increased storage space in the vehicle’s compartment design. Other features included a walk-in service port and ergonomic developments in the cab design.Terrorism and aviation disasters were

the theme of the following session, with Ng Chak Hwee, Marine Craft Officer at Changi Airport, describing facilities and planning for incidents at sea. He said: “Expect a large SAR area, poor visibility, fuel spillage, aircraft in parts, life rafts obstructing operations and bad weather.” He discussed the development of a

water rescue plan and outlined the roles of training and communications within such a plan. He then homed in on Changi Airport itself, describing the AES’s water rescue equipment, which includes two hovercraft, two fire command boats, two RIBs and one spare of each. Future challenges include new larger aircraft and changing regulatory and legal landscapes.In the next presentation John Trew,

Vice President of Falck Danmark Airport Services (see page 26), wanted to prompt delegates to reflect on their plans for response to terrorist incidents. He said: “Terrorist attack on aviation has its peaks and troughs, but for those terrorists wishing to damage and cause maximum publicity, aviation is an easy hit.” Mr Trew described past hijacking

incidents. “Now it is harder to hijack aircraft, so terrorists are looking for other ways,” he noted, reminding delegates of the 1985 attacks on check-in desks at Rome and Vienna airports, before talking about the Lockerbie incident and its impact.Moving to today’s terrorist landscape,

Mr Trew referred to the recent cargo bomb plots, saying that the total cost of these attacks has been put at $4,200. Had the plot been successful, it would have caused millions of dollars’ worth of damage. He mentioned the recent threats in Germany and France, the alleged attack planned for the end of November – where airports and train stations were under particular threat – as well as the Domodedovo suicide bombing this January. The point of this,

and control – a poignant warning to firefighters of the consequences when things go wrong.Psychology was next on the agenda,

as Dr Lim Yun Chin, A Psychologist at Raffles Medical Hospital, talked about the behaviour of passengers after a crash. He told delegates that emotional responses change over time and that many of these are protective responses which are part of the healing process. “A person will be scarred forever, they cannot forget what happened, but the pain will have gone,” he said, adding: “People can grow from a painful experience, there is life after loss. It won’t be the same, but it is life.”The problems begin when an individual

gets stuck in one of the stages. Much of his presentation was based on the book Down around Midnight by Robert Sabbag, which recounts a plane crash that the author survived in the 1970s.Saras Atra, a counsellor and

therapist, outlined how Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) treatment can help with PTSD sufferers.The Air India Express crash reported

upon in the Winter 2010 edition of the IAFPA Bulletin was covered by Ajith Kumar, head of Airport Rescue Fire Fighting at Bangalore Airport. In a graphic presentation, he explained how the response was complicated by difficult access, both in terms of terrain and because members of the public obstructed emergency vehicles. Among the lessons to be learnt, he

said, were that scene management and cordons must be improved, media management is essential, a greater understanding between different responding agencies must be developed and, for airports with difficult terrain, access for emergency vehicles at least 1,000 metres from the threshold must be ensured.John Trew provided the final

presentation of the day with a look a the BA38 crash on January 17, 2008 (see IAFPA Bulletin, July 2008 for full report).Finally Cletus Packiam rounded off the

conference with a closing address and presentations of tokens of appreciation to the speakers.

according to Mr Trew, is that: “Every aspect of the globe is a potential target. Al-Qaeda targets aviation, crowded places, transport infrastructure, major economic centres, racially and nationally segregated people, and disgruntled citizens in various countries.”Incident management for responding

to terrorist attacks currently includes fixed, well-established plans, but: “Perhaps we need to be cleverer, especially with regards to invacuations and evacuation.” He pointed out that many contingency plans involve pre-arranged rendezvous points in terminals, public signs that are illuminated, saying ‘rendezvous’ – useful for a terrorist who wishes to pinpoint secondary targets. Next, Colin Murray’s presentation

discussed the manifold environmental challenges of aviation firefighting and training. The Airport Fire Manager of Edinburgh Airport set out to explain how environmental aspects of aviation fire protection and human factors in ARFF training can affect the effectiveness of crews – both at stations and at incidents. He outlined the environmental

challenges and some solutions with regards to simulators and training areas, training centres, appliances and fuel, media and equipment and resource minimisation. Solutions and ideas ranged from the use of reed beds to recycling fire hose into handbags. Moving on to human factors, Colin

Murray talked about crew resource management, teamwork and leadership; he also outlined the importance of situational awareness, decision-making and communication, as well as describing the signs that people are reaching their personal limitations.He used the tragic case of a 22-year-

old-woman who died of smoke inhalation after the flat below her was deliberately set alight. Despite both passers-by and firefighters hearing her cries for help, she was not rescued and died later. A whole chain of failure was said

to have affected the outcome of this incident, including a negative organisational culture, lack of communication on a number of levels, and failures in training and command

content * content * content view from industry


The challenges to the Airport Fire Service are many, from looming security concerns, changing

technology and shrinking budget constraints, to the desire to provide for the best response possible under conditions of extreme adversity. When that call comes for action, everything is expected to work as it was designed, seamlessly towards the preservation of life and property. The excitement of all the forces of

training, sharing best practices, and revealing of new technology and techniques came together at the recent IAFPA conference hosted by Changi Airport in Singapore. The whole event was conducive to a learning environment where I can’t imagine anyone was disappointed with the outcome. The world is just a little bit safer today

for it and we are all just a little bit better prepared to respond.Changi Airport Emergency Services

can certainly be proud of the event they organised and hosted, bringing together airport fire departments from around the globe for the sharing of this experience. The pre-eminent truck manufacturers for this market were present – Oshkosh and Rosenbauer – whose experts both shared a glimpse of the future. There were training support tools for all to learn more effectively, and Globe was also there to display the latest in personal protective clothing. Talking about planning for the extreme,

Globe showed the virtues of its G-Xtreme turnout gear specifically for the airport market. The G-Xtreme is a high feature system designed to move the way the human body moves. Globe has committed itself to using its strong relationships with outstanding academic institutions to bring the latest in technology to the harshest environments encountered by the airport firefighter. The highest range of motion in the industry, coupled with materials designed specifically for the environment where they are deployed, are just a couple of the key elements where personal protective apparel for the proximity environment has achieved new levels. No cookie cutter approach here: a proper

fit, design, and feature set customised to the individual as well as the department’s response tactics.It takes a lot more work to choose a

proper specification, complete individual sizing, train in the protective qualities and limitations, but the final result is an experience like no other within the personal protection arena. Several airports around the world have moved to this personal protective platform after coming to the conclusion that if the firefighter can’t move to do his or her job, little else matters.This gear is fully compliant with NFPA

1971 standards in proximity for the specific application and exceeds them in every way. Globe has been protecting firefighters

around the world longer than any other manufacturer, having invented the category in 1887. The gear is manufactured in facilities owned by the

The world is a little bit safer

fourth generation family of the founder, with pride in quality and craftsmanship exuding from every nuance and detail. The company has nearly 500 employees dedicated to the singular focus of using technology, not just to provide better protection, but also better designs more in keeping with technical athletic clothing rather than fire suits.Globe has an impressive list of long-

time customers and now Changi Airport also uses its gear. Give the company a call, contact us

on the Web, or talk to the company on Facebook. Just like the attendees who learned so

much at the IAFPA conference, you can talk and get the answers directly from the owners of the company and their very dedicated technical staff.It is time again to evaluate your

personal protection. Switched yet?www.globecares.com

Rob Freese, Senior Vice President Marketing of the Globe Manufacturing Company LLC, gives his impressions of the recent event

in Singapore

Chief Civil Defence Professionals; Chief Emergency Planning; EU Officers;

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We collate and analyse vital information, gathered by acknowledged experts in worldwide disaster management

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This information helps save lives, protect business assets and preserve the environment

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Crisis Response Journal is a subscription based quarterly journal covering all practical, operational, tactical and command aspectsof response to large scale disasters. The aim is to bridge the gap between academic research and political response to the threat of emergencies. This is done through ground-breaking feature articles on incident analysis, techniques, horizon scanning and both international and inter-service co-operation issues.

www.crisis-response.com

iafpa bulletin spring 2011

Documents

iafpa existence

iafpa network

future iafpa conferences

iafpa official web site

gillies crichton

shanghai international

eyjafjallajkull eruptions

issuecolin simpson