Blog Archives
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What To Do When The Only Deicing Truck Breaks Down
By John Goglia - Tuesday January 22, 2013
So much attention is paid to large commercial service airports that we sometimes forget what it’s like at the hundreds of smaller airports that don’t have access to the same resources. When expensive equipment breaks down, it may not be possible to immediately get a backup, either your own or a borrowed one from someone else on the airport. This point was brought home to me when I was visiting a medium-sized airport in New England last week – one with commercial service, but no scheduled airlines – and the airport’s one-and-only deicing truck broke down. Fortunately, the truck deiced three aircraft before it broke down. But there was still one left to go. There was no question of skipping the deicing process – the weather... -
Avoiding GSE Runway Incursions With GPS
By John Goglia - Tuesday January 8, 2013
For busy airports with not a lot of room to maneuver, runway incursions involving ground equipment happen all too frequently. While most do not cause significant injuries or damage to aircraft or the ground equipment involved, they do often result in operational delays that can be expensive in and of themselves. Clearly, if a runway incursion requires a go-around, there are added fuel costs and the costs inherent in delayed schedules. But even when no go-around results, there are certainly reams of paperwork to be filled out and questions to be answered by everyone involved. Of course, runway incursions always carry the risk of something more catastrophic – an actual collision with an aircraft. So avoiding these incursions has been... -
Help Wanted: FBO Management Certificate Courses
By John Goglia - Tuesday December 18, 2012As you may know, I am president of the Independent Fixed Base Operators Association whose mission it is to assist wherever we can small to medium-sized FBOs. It's a competitive world out there and competing against some of the major players can be a daily challenge. And the competition extends to the most qualified supervisors and managers. I am constantly hearing from operators how difficult it is to recruit qualified managers, especially when employee turnover is high as people leave FBOs for higher-paying jobs, often with the airlines. One of our missions at the association is to help provide the knowledge and skills FBO employees require to manage their organizations. To that end, I have been working with an aeronautical college... -
Does Cutting Manpower On The Ramp Really Save Money?
By John Goglia - Tuesday November 27, 2012
Sitting at the terminal at Incheon International Airport after a quick trip to Seoul, Korea (well, not that quick if you include the flying time), I watched a new Airbus A-380 being towed to the gate. Soon thereafter catering trucks started toward the aircraft to prepare it for departure. What struck me was that the trucks were being marshaled into position. Not one, but two human beings were actually making sure the catering truck got as close as it needed to the aircraft – but no closer. As you all know, this is not a common sight at U.S. airports these days as it needs to be. For years now, the thinking all over the United States has been if a job could be done with less staff, then by all means eliminate the staff and save on... -
Distaster Recovery After Hurricane Sandy
By John Goglia - Tuesday November 13, 2012
If you lived through or still are living through the effects of Hurricane Sandy, you know that many disaster recovery plans failed for the simple reason that they did not adequately consider the worst case scenarios that actually developed. So while the weather people did a very good job of predicting the confluence of at least two major storm systems and the potential storm surges, many major institutions were still apparently caught short when water flooded out their basements and first floors where emergency generators were located. The extent of gas shortages in the New York and New Jersey area has brought rationing back for the first time in more than three decades. There’s enough finger-pointing to go around about who is to... -
Does An Air Traffic Tower’s Looks Matter?
By John Goglia - Tuesday October 30, 2012
My first job as a mechanic was with United at JFK. But we would regularly be sent over to LaGuardia to work on aircraft. It was 1964 and those were heady days in the borough of Queens. On the drive from JFK we would look over at the futuristic buildings rising on the grounds of the New York’s World’s Fair. Once on the ramp, we were greeted by the Jetson-looking air traffic control tower, which was also completed in 1964, just in time for the World’s Fair that year. Looking up from working on the ramp and seeing that tower made aviation’s future seem bright and hopeful to the young mechanic that I was. I have to say I miss that old tower. Landing at LaGuardia is just not the same. On my near weekly trips to NY – I co-teach two... -
Life Sentence For Baggage Handler
By John Goglia - Tuesday October 23, 2012
Three cheers for New York Federal District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis for sentencing a baggage handler at John F. Kennedy International Airport to life in prison for running a drug-smuggling ring at the airport. As reported by the New York Times , not only was baggage handler Victor Bourne found guilty of smuggling cocaine, he was also found guilty of removing wing panels from passenger jets to access the cocaine “which actions could have brought the plane down during flight.” There is no question that a baggage handler has no business dismantling a wing panel for any reason, let alone to carry out cocaine smuggling activities. It’s frightening to think what damage he could have done and the consequences it could have had... -
Whistle Blowers On The Ramp
By John Goglia - Tuesday October 9, 2012
I’m sure most of you have heard of the allegations of a fueler at Sea-Tac who says he was suspended from his job for raising safety concerns regarding fueling operations at the airport, including broken equipment and fuel leaks. The fueling company denies the allegations and claims the worker was suspended for other reasons. I don’t know the truth of those allegations. The FAA has investigated and was not able to find evidence of the violations alleged – which could mean any number of things, including that the violations were cleaned up in the intervening weeks or that they never existed or a number of possibilities in between. Regardless of the facts of that particular case, the story I’ve been following in the press reminds... -
An Emergency Plan Sitting On A Shelf Is Like No Emergency Plan At All
By John Goglia - Tuesday September 25, 2012
As I participated in another regularly scheduled emergency drill at Logan Airport this past week, I thought of how important these drills are in the event of a real emergency. I have worked in disaster response and emergency planning for decades and it’s clear to me that a well-practiced plan is simply the only way to coordinate an appropriate response in the event of an actual emergency, especially when multiple public and private entities are involved. How practiced is your well-practiced plan? Watching Massport’s drill also got me thinking of how many companies I’ve worked with that prepare elaborate emergency plans – only to never quite find the time to practice them. So often, the only time a plan actually gets used for... -
What Does a Forgotten Chock Tell You?
By John Goglia - Tuesday September 11, 2012
Pushing back from Logan International Airport this week, I – and all the other passengers on the crowded Airbus 320 – felt the unmistakable jolts, sounds and vibrations of the aircraft running over something. Sure enough, as the aircraft completed its 90-degree turn to prepare for departure under its own power, I could plainly see the chocks that had been run over by the aircraft as it was being pushed off the gate. No damage to the chocks – they’re pretty hardy, of course. And there did not appear to be damage to the aircraft – although you don’t want to run over too many objects and damage the tires as that can cause potentially significant safety problems But that’s not the focus of my concern. When chocks are left...
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- 06/17/13 - 06/23/13
- Paris Air Show
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Conference/Expo, Paris,
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- 06/18/13 - 06/19/13
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Training, Andover, KS
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- 06/19/13 - 06/20/13
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Conference/Expo, Shenyang,
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- 06/24/13 - 06/24/13
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Training, Houston, TX
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- 06/25/13 - 06/27/13
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Conference/Expo, Jakarta,
