Blog Archives
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Boston Marathon Bombings Add Renewed Focus To Airport Emergency Plans
By John Goglia - Tuesday May 21, 2013
All over the country, airport managers I’ve spoken with have been re-checking their emergency plans in light of recent mass shootings. Active shooter scenarios have been added to many emergency drills at large airports in various parts of the country. But clearly the Boston Marathon bombings - with the specter of terrorism - have added an even greater sense of urgency in reviewing and testing these plans. As I have urged in other postings, all operators on an airport – whether large, medium or small – need to have their own emergency plans and need to be familiar with their airport’s emergency plans. Of course, it is not enough to have a plan, you need to update and test it at regular intervals. A plan gathering dust on a... -
Chilling Bagram 747 Video Hints At Accident's Cause
By John Goglia - Tuesday May 7, 2013Of course the facts are not all in and the accident investigation will take many months, but as a long-time accident investigator the video certainly hints of an aircraft stall that could have been caused by a sudden shift in the cargo load. In this case, we know from media reports that the cargo included heavy vehicles that would make a shift in load particularly significant. A stall at such a low altitude on takeoff is almost impossible for any flight crew to recover from. And we saw the tragic consequences with all seven people on board killed. A sudden shift in cargo can mean several things. Either the cargo was improperly loaded, improperly secured, the restraints broke or any combination of the above. As with most jobs in... -
FBO Management Course
By John Goglia - Monday April 22, 2013
As you may remember, several months ago I asked for Ground Support Worldwide readers’ help in preparing an FBO management program . As president of the Independent Fixed Base Operators Association, I had heard over and over from our members of the difficulty to recruit supervisors and managers with the knowledge and skills necessary to supervise and manage an FBO operation. To that end, we asked Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in NY – where I am an adjunct professor - to develop FBO courses that would lead to a certificate in FBO management. A number of you responded to my request for help by posting comments on this Web site or on LinkedIn or emailing me directly. All were very helpful, some particularly... -
Is High Turnover On The Ramp Causing Simple Errors?
By John Goglia - Tuesday April 9, 2013
When I read reports of mistakes no novice should even make, I worry that high turnover is eroding safety margins on ramps and airports. The l atest incident that came to my attention took place in Ottawa, Canada, but could have taken place anywhere in the United States or the world - at least the parts of the world that need aircraft deicing, where high turnover makes training and staffing a challenge. In this particular incident, a Sunwing 737 headed for Varadaro, Cuba had to make an emergency landing back to Ottawa after smoke was reported in the cabin. The smoke turned out to be vapor from anti-icing fluid, which as you all know, when it gets into an engine will vaporize and can then be drawn into the cabin through the... -
A Dangerous Reminder For GSE Operators Everywhere
By John Goglia - Monday March 25, 2013
Reading about the driverless van incident at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport reminds me of how much we can learn from each other’s mistakes and, hopefully, keep from making them ourselves. According to Canadian news reports, the incident involved an unattended van that was left running and in gear. That driverless van started rolling and managed to roll across an active runway just as an Air Canada flight was landing. Much of the news focused on why the Air Canada flight didn’t abort its landing after allegedly being ordered to do so more than once by air traffic controllers. But for ramp operators, the more important question is, of course, why was that van left running in gear without a driver? Normal precautions would... -
A Little Attention Can Go A Long Way To Prevent Annoying Delays At Baggage Claim
By John Goglia - Tuesday March 12, 2013Among all the delays that passengers find annoying – right up there with long security lines – are the waits to pick up checked bags. Especially when passengers now pay a fee for the privilege of checking those bags. Your flight has ended and you just want to get home or to your meeting or whatever your next destination is. But you’re waiting, and sometimes waiting for half hour or more, for your bag to show up. Well, bad enough is the normal wait time for a checked bag, but to then be waiting because of a preventable baggage jam clogging the chute is truly annoying. Yes, I just experienced that at LAX, coming back from a very long flight from China. The last thing I wanted to do was wait around longer than usual for my bag... -
View From The Ramp: Taipei’s International Airport
By John Goglia - Tuesday February 19, 2013
It has been many years since I last visited Taiwan – so many in fact that it was principally known as Formosa way back when I last landed there more than 40 years ago. At the time I was working for a cargo carrier with contracts all over the world – particularly in far-flung places where the major freight haulers preferred not to go. And for good reason. Many of those remote airports were in what were then called third-world countries, with politically unstable governments and inadequate and even unsafe airport facilities. That was largely true of Taiwan’s airport way back then. In those days, not only was the airport itself in disrepair but the best that could be said of any of the ramp equipment was that it was worn and... -
Electric GSE : Battery Inspections Matter
By John Goglia - Tuesday February 5, 2013
All this talk of the Boeing 787’s problems with lithium ion batteries has caused some talk among electric GSE owners and those considering buying electric GSE – regardless of the type of battery. Of course, anyone using any battery to power their equipment needs to be concerned about how those batteries work and whether there is any possibility of a fire starting. Naturally, a fire on the ground doesn’t begin to compare with a fire on an aircraft at altitude, but is nonetheless a cause for concern. The Boeing 787 battery that caused a fire on the ground at Boston’s Logan International Airport did considerable damage to the aircraft and could have caused injuries and worse but for the quick thinking cleaners who immediately... -
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...
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