A Look Into How To Construct A Passenger Aircraft | Heathrow | Spark

[Music] london heathrow europe's biggest and busiest airport transporting more than 74 million passengers every year just your password please you've got your boarding cards in your hand ladies this is so big this is so complex it's gatwick on steroids with a flight taking off or landing every 45 seconds [Music] heathrow is operating at full capacity and there's no room for error you know if heathrow sneezes the rest of europe and the world catches a coal we could have blown some of it is that what you're saying even the smallest problem can cause chaos 915 and 919 have been cancelled nothing is landing nothing's taken off and cost the multi-billion pound business of fortune in fines and lost revenue we lost about 3 000 pounds just because of you sir this series goes behind the scenes this is the bet no one sees to follow the hidden army of staff working against the clock to get thousands of planes away on time every second counts the size of a small city heathrow has its own police force excuse me sir i'll ask you to come with me please paramedics and vets from the baggage handlers and security officers look at that ah you can't take down the aeroplane no no to the air traffic controllers and pilots i'm not gonna say i'm living the dream but i everyone has a vital role to play in keeping britain's most famous airport flying it's in the hands of god really [Music] scuba 203 glaston push and start approved heath rowe is one of the busiest international airports in the world it's home to 80 airlines flying to 185 destinations in 84 countries it's 8 a.m in a terminal 3 american airlines is facing one of its busiest days of the year thanksgiving you're celebrating god taking care of you through a rough time it's a big one we all meet for thanksgiving dinner ham turkey and all the fixings cranberry stuffing potatoes corn green beans wine lots of wine to deal with family right and all the women will be cooking and the men we kind of hang out watch football go cowboys you know while passengers build up a check-in on the airfield one of the airline's fleet needs some essential maintenance work before it can fly the park's just arrived we're just just trying to work out how to get into 583 the aircraft needs a new radome the tip of the nose cone that houses the plane's radar and communication antenna the aircraft we're going to work on is going at 11 30. so it's going to be close to get it all done the team only have two and a half hours before passengers start boarding and engineer steve wants to be well clear before then the last thing a passenger wants to see let's be honest about it as a maintenance engineer on board the airplane you know we like it when the passengers don't see us that means our job is done and the airplane's serviceable the plane's pilots have been reporting interference with their vhf radio the radar has caused this interference just a breakdown of the the radome through time the radio is the satcom these are all stuff that he uses and he's normal flying a long time basically for all sorts of different reasons i mean sometimes they want to just listen to the football match to be honest with you know but i want you to do that but you know but they can the team are working against the clock but already engineer ralph has spotted a problem there's covered in tape somebody's stuck sticky tape all over the radar and we can't leave it on because it'll just paint a massive stripe on the weather radar as the radar sweep so we need to get it off but where it's so old and weatherised it's going to be a nightmare to take off it's going to slow the job right down let's see if we can get it cleaned off [Music] yeah it's just it's so old it's just breaking down there's now only an hour and a half left before boarding and passengers are making their way through security please remove as much metallic items from yourself as possible you're walking through a metal detector with the clock ticking down ralph and steve have decided to crack on with the job and come back to the tape later and obviously as you see i'm not tall enough to do any of the manual work so i'm going to get the big guys into there my big guns as i call them a new radome costs more than 40 000 pounds [Music] just let me know you want to unralph it wiggle please give it a little wiggle that's it just a little one rubber through there's so many fine details and they have to be right once you've made a mistake there's no going back so you've just got to get it right that's where you have to take your time while you've got it but time is not on their side back in the terminal passengers are already making their way to the gate [Music] oh that's a tree fleeting tree with minutes to go before boarding begins the radome is on but one sticky problem still remains right tape unless they can remove the tape this flight will be grounded so ralph is forced to improvise you know the trays they serve the food on we need to get one of them a rigid plastic tray [Music] i'm getting there voila sir oh i slipped my ass when i was at six weeks old man we're done perfect we've managed to get it off of the aeroplane and get it refitted to our new aircraft just in time a nice piece of rigid plastic did the [Music] job each day more than 200 000 passengers passed through heathrow to keep the cascade of travelers moving smoothly the airport employs an army of passenger experience managers you okay so you look a little bit lost they say that here i got their niche sorry and they are asking me now to pay 338 pounds right and i got here on time in terminal 4 sunita is in the middle of a busy day shift hello are you trying to recap no no no we're just organizing yeah okay do you think you have to be bossy to do your job i don't think you have to be bossy sometimes you have to be assertive in order to get certain things done right sir you were late they tried to help you and there is no choice but to have to pay that is not [ __ ] with over 25 000 passengers passing through the terminal each day sunita must be ready for anything sorry could you repeat that please get a passenger with me saying that she's just lost her girl she's been missing somewhere here but she can't find her i'm on my way have you lost your child yes i have how old is she two and a half yes what is she wearing you know that jumper one thing um like an all-in-one suit yeah yeah yeah yellow we have a missing child two and a half year old last seen zone d she's wearing a yellow top with black dots on it we've got a missing child at the moment you've just heard the call yeah brilliant's over there lucky thank you very much indeed guys i need some help we've lost the child can you just spread out and see if you can find the young lady [Music] it's an environment where there's so many people milling around and not everybody is a traveler and actually all you can see is the tops of heads here it's now been almost 10 minutes since the child was last seen right over that way i'm gonna go this way i've got trolleys looking as well are you alright was she with anybody she just wandered off did she is that what happened i think so yeah i think she called me when i was going my colleague here he actually found a young young girl she was um waiting near the john a be near the qatar checky so i picked up coming there so you were the hero thank you job well done well done sailing [Music] heathrow employs over 75 000 people and they all have to work in sync to get passengers away on time one of the main bottlenecks is security where staff have to process over one hundred thousand travelers a day [Music] thank you very much please take out your laptop's ipads out of your bags can you just clear your bags [Music] a passenger and five of his family are running late for their flight but security officer tony needs to take him for a private search when i touched him i could feel something it's obviously i need to get it clear after being delayed at check-in the man is now running out of time to claim back a 500-pound vat refund the airline's waiting outside for him because i went beauty he said don't have time we poured out people over the years i'm not happy the airline guy who's in charge he said that if he goes for his v80 they're going to offload them so that's why he's not really happy about that we have children should give me too much problem we just thought he said look at the keycards later we'll try we'll have a word with them and see if they can uh just quickly i'm not batman shared the passenger has been cleared by security but is now very late for his flight and a chaperone is waiting to escort him to the plane he's uh gonna miss the fight now because this is all ready for this passer please you help me please you help me no you're fighting we don't have any time for vit the pushback was two minutes ago three minutes ago so we can upload you or can make the flight and they do it by posting another pokemon if they wish to go for vit we can't hold them they will miss the flight and it'll cost them a lot more money time perhaps tomorrow the day after they're gonna see to go back to their country it's their choice the flight is now late for its departure and the family could be offloaded at any minute to make matters worse one of their bags has been flagged for a search nothing's gonna go back in the way it came in again the airline is closing the gate so tony lends a hand to try and help them make the flight problem the family make it with seconds to spare but the holdup has repercussions for the airline we lost the slot next slide might be in half an hour two hours when we don't know when actual airliner now will have to pay extra money for being at the gate passengers 340 of them they will perhaps miss connections going to india and so it's a knock on effect i did feel sorry for him i always try to help everyone who i can't help well that's my aim here come here do what i can do try bet the passengers happy these guys done a wonderful job thank you take care one love each year over 470 000 planes take off and land at heathrow carrying up to 75 million passengers but not everyone is welcome at the [Music] airport [Music] today airside safety officer chris has been assigned one of the department's most important jobs most people wouldn't believe in if you said it they probably laugh but we have to spend part of our day making sure that we disperse dispersed burns heathrow attracts a hell of a lot of birds you've got a lot of grass where they can hide from prey there's a lot of food source around and aircraft and birds just do not mix when the aircraft is taken off they'll hit a point called v1 which basically means where an aircraft cannot stop it has to it has to take off and that's when the engines are working at maximum power if you've got an impact of a bird that exact moment i mean the worst case scenario it could bring an aircraft down birds are right up there with something that can can cause a major accident and uh impact on an aircraft safety at the end of the departing runway a flock of starlings is gathered on top of the instrument landing system [Music] see all those birds there on top of the ils so this is a uh one of our methods for dispersing birds called scarecrime we can select uh whatever birds we are we need to disperse so we'd go to styling and basically play the sound it's a distress call [Applause] that one was um a very distressed goose yeah that's that was that sounded pretty um graphic the birds are refusing to budge and with a plane taking off every 80 seconds chris needs to move fast so these are pyrotechnic shoes kind of like a small firework so you just load it up in the gun fire in the air it'll shoot up and just make a loud bang noise and that should just deter the birds and scare them to just shoot them off i've scared them enough that they've vacated the grass area so bird dispersal while chris keeps passengers safe in the sky someone else is looking out for them in a terminal london ambulance service employs a team of cycling paramedics at heathrow bikes are a fantastic way of us just getting around and giving a really quick response to jobs um with everything on the bike that we could possibly need as a mini ambulance paramedic izzy has been called to a passenger complaining of severe abdominal pain you okay you feel okay just a pain right do you want to sit on here for a minute where it's a little bit more comfortable lovely so abdominal pain both sides worst on the left okay when did it start like a week ago but very very faint yeah okay and is it what today is it got really really bad yeah i could leave the bed today okay have you taken any pain relief no because i am pregnant oh okay so you're pregnant yeah right okay first baby yeah and she's moving sorry she's moving she's moving yeah that's even it's a she you sure yeah awesome lovely little girl beautiful okay leticia and rafael are already checked in and are keen to get home to brazil but izzy insists on a thorough check to make sure letitia is fit to fly so i know you're saying that you've had this for about a week and it's gradually got worse yeah yeah but has it changed in area at all or is it always been concentrated always been there okay so the problem is that as the belly gets bigger in pregnancy you can get kind of pains like this but because something in there is very very precious and very very important we never tend to mess around with pregnant ladies okay so i'd like you to go to hospital please yeah yeah okay it could be nothing at all but we don't want to risk baby of course or you you know where are you flying to it's about 11 yeah they they can rebook your flight okay okay all right thank you good no problem whatsoever organize an ambulance for you my love could i have an ambulance please for my patient she needs a checkup at maternity over keep yourself nice and warm okay after a visit to hospital letitia was given the all clear and the couple flew back to brazil the following day [Music] checked okay done i targeted usb bird one six six 500 okay guys happy that i've got the freeze on now okay on the outskirts of the airport british airways global learning academy houses one of the most sophisticated training facilities in the world [Music] today three of their top pilots are practicing to fly a brand new addition to their fleet an updated version of an aircraft named the dreamliner simulator is so sophisticated and it's certified for us to be able to train our pilots so actually the first time that they operate the aircraft for real will be with passengers at a touch of a button on these screens here i can make it daylight we can bring it down to dusk we can put on weather effects so we can put on some rain and hail we get puddles on the tarmac it is just like the real thing at london's heathrow it's not just for fun i mean it really is important that we are able to operate these aircraft in all of these conditions i imagine it's quite fun as well of course it is yeah and it won't be long before pilots have the chance to fly the new aircraft for real because back on the airfield it's being [Music] delivered in less than two weeks the 185 million pound plane will set off on its inaugural flight to kuala lumpur and there's a lot at stake for the airline everybody's watching that dreamliner for the first time going off to kuala lumpur so we don't leave on time we may not arrive on time a vast amount of people within ba all focus on that inaugural flight to kuala lumpur back at the learning academy cabin crew are being drilled in the art of service and flight attendant claudia will be looking after first class passengers on the maiden voyage i'm just gonna see if my training is still up to scratch if i'm at the acceptable level along with seven other trainees claudia is brushing up on the airline's afternoon tea service led by instructors david and jazz [Music] please a lot of our customers from around the world will book a british airways ticket um the opportunity because they like the britishness of us thank you we have the cup then the milk [ __ ] the sugar bowl with sugar tongs and then the teapot the handles must all point to four o'clock just to give it symmetry does one enjoy afternoon tea more if cups resources are placed at 45 degrees it's symmetry everything in in such an angle and that it looks pleasing and to not just enjoy but to look at as well in just 12 days time claudio will be put to the test on the inaugural flight it is a very important flight it's a high profile and we want to showcase this flight we want to get it 100 on this flight [Music] absolutely it's the last friday before christmas and the busiest airport in britain is about to get even busier at the north end of terminal four beam and bangladesh have started checking in passengers passport and tickets please and check-in agent lacey and her team are facing a challenging afternoon it's daunting more than anything because it will be busier today than it is i can imagine any other day of the year it's just over 400 passengers they want to get into bangladesh before christmas so we have to make sure that we do work as a team to get the aircraft gone on time because if it doesn't go on time then big penalties for delayed flights so we don't like delays here but it's not just the number of passengers that's a challenge beeman's luggage allowance is 40 kilos a person double the amount of most airlines if you can put the first bag on the scale for me all together you can check in 10 pieces of luggage at 200 kilos okay and beam and passengers are renowned for using every last gram okay and your next five sleeves did you wear your bags at home yeah we did 200 kilos exactly exactly you did very well lacey and her team have less than three hours to check in all 400 passengers and 18 tons of luggage [Music] waiting in line is mr ahmed who's traveling with his wife and five children so shall we start putting them in how many do you have at the moment eighteen pieces with the three cabin bags great including three cabin bags you seem to have a lot of bags yeah we don't wash our clothes there because when you do it get funny color so we just use and put them away using put them away for one month when we come back we got my wife's got a lot of cleaning to do a lot of laundry the belt's just stopped at the moment [Music] lacey's team have only an hour left to close check-in but they've hit a problem the buyers got stuck just on the corner and when there's an outboard of bags they're all just going to clog on top of each other so we had no choice but to smack the emergency button it's really not good for us worst case scenario the flight is delayed there's and obviously that's big penalties for delayed flights while the beam and check-in grinds to a halt security officer john and his team are trying to keep passengers moving all liquids must be removed please out of your bags the security department have to clear more than 73 million bags a year all right here we go and luggage that's been flagged by the x-ray machine has to be searched by hand okay it would appear possibly liquids in your bag let's just confirm that yeah that's a strong possibility if you can unzip the main zips but please do not insert your hands inside and we'll start the search following a foiled terraplot in 2006 all liquids coming through must be less than a hundred milliliters and placed in a clear resealable plastic bag okay so let's look at the item that's the one item started with this so basically this is considered as a liquid creams gel paste yeah but it's okay it's not over 100 ml so you'll find there right so we'll put that in the liquid bag and we'll do a quick test any liquids found in luggage must be tested for explosives okay madam if you can just bear with us we just have a activation on this liquid i'm just going to call my security manager i'm just going to run through a few questions with you this has been checked and when i put the swab in activation the bag has been isolated from the passenger [Music] john needs to conduct further tests on the liquid meanwhile his security manager questions the passenger we're going today applying to dublin what's your profession i'm a lion cook any contact with any chemical i'm from colorado like there's weed all over the place there's wheat all over my house and hash oil and stuff no no no i thought i don't know okay all clear can i return to the passion forget it right fortunately for the passenger john's additional tests have come through clear guys are nicer than tsa well i always played straight as you like to be treated exactly right we're all human right thank you same peace have a good journey i shall you have a wonderful day thank you mom it was a little unnerving i come from colorado so i feel like that even though he said that's not an issue i'm around a lot of hash oil and weird stuff like that all the time it could have just been my hair dye that set it off where are you up to now i'm off to dublin i want to hang out with irishmen and kids do they wear kilts in ireland or is that just scotland [Music] back at the beam and check-in the baggage belt is still down and engineers have been called [Music] it's been down 15 minutes now so it's really it's really not good for us when we need to we'll close checking in 55 minutes we all work to time and if one of us falls it's a domino effect it's sort of it causes chaos for everyone here after a 20-minute delay the engineers finally fixed the belt lacie's team now have only 50 minutes to check in the rest of the passengers it's doable she says fingers crossed [Applause] [Music] it wasn't a smooth check-in today i don't think but we still managed to close on time [Music] as night falls on the airport animal vet liz is preparing for the arrival of some exotic cargo they're going to bring them in there yes back there the animals have flown over 11 000 miles from the other side of the world the ones you see today are not going to be at their most relaxed obviously because they'll be taken out of a crate and all the rest of it they're going to be a bit it's jumpy and strange annually liz and her colleagues at the animal reception center deal with over a quarter of a million animals and tonight's shipment is the biggest of the year [Music] the ones for holland and belgium have holland and belgium neck tags on so it's easily picked up right helping liz is expert keeper steve who's traveled with the animals for more than 30 hours the series are quite highly strung so we just have to be careful with those as long as you know how to handle them you know the mannerisms of them you know where to place yourself there shouldn't be any problem at all i've gone through all the health certificates and checked them on here and we're doing it all from here oh my god we flew over with 78 alpaca from new zealand we've got one for the uk three for sweden a couple for belgium and holland 32 for france and the rest of germany liz and steve must now separate the jet lagged alpaca into smaller groups ready to be shipped just stand back just stand back let him let him just walk around in the compound with the alpaca not cooperating with liz and the team steve steps in and shows them how it's done come on come on come on good boy good boy you can quite easily hold them don't you leave it here yeah right in here these alpaca will be farmed for their sought after fleece and they don't come cheap they range from around 5000 australian dollars up to around 25 000. that's what we're looking at you're probably talking about 600 000 over the 78 that's actually quite a small shipment you know we've had animals worth 175 thousand dollars each yeah fair work of money but for steve it's not all about the money it's always pretty sad when you actually say wave goodbye to them at the end of the day but hey it's uh their next phase of their life across europe and uh it's good to see as the alpaca continue their journey at terminal 5 another flight is preparing to leave tonight marks the inaugural flight to kuala lumpur for british airways new dreamliner inaugural flight 787 900 one of our newest ones to kl all a bit uh excited for that yes key aspects obviously it's an awkward flight lots of people are watching it rest of ba want to get it off on on time would appreciate that while the crew make their way to the gate on the tarmac turnaround manager alan and his team are working hard to make sure the departure goes to plan i was just inquiring about whether the flight deck will be in a position to go early they're up for it we want to be the world's uh punctual airline but that's what i'm here for to get a plane away early or on time at best before takeoff the plane needs to be filled up and jet fuel is a flight's biggest cost but the dreamliner's state-of-the-art design means it saves the airline 20 to 30 percent on their bill i kicked off 25 years ago on a 757 and to come and develop into this sort of aircraft is fantastic it's very exciting the dreamliner is one of the fastest commercial airplanes in the world reaching a ground speed of over 675 miles an hour i'm not going to say i'm living the dream but yeah but [Music] in charge of guiding the plane out of its parking space is 25 year old anastasia i'm the headset operator and then i'm normally paired with a driver and we just push back aircraft on departures i come home all the time with like black all over my face so i never bothered to do my hair and makeup even though i've got it on tonight back inside cabin crew aboarding the plane and this will be the first time claudia has stepped foot on a dreamliner hello everybody [Music] welcome to the dreamliner this is our brand new aircraft this is first class i would like to travel like this it's got a vanity mirror oh yes i'm here beneath the wing co-captain meredith is doing her final checks before the plane is deemed fit to fly and looking that the blades are rotating any damage within the the engine itself any unusual marks on the aircraft really so if we found something and we weren't quite sure quite not quite sure is not good enough [Music] boarding has now commenced and with less than 30 minutes until departure everyone must pull together to ensure the plane leaves on time it's now giving me the ability to communicate so i shall request a route may i take a jacket sir helen good evening hello can i take the grandparent yeah thank you [Music] with passengers fully boarded it's now down to allen 102 is departure time and we're hoping we might be able to get it on its way five minutes early just downstairs that i'm hoping it's coming together and it looks like it's doing just that [Music] hello site i just need to get an update um from the refueller because he hasn't budged yet i'm not sure if his vehicle's working the plane is ready to go with five minutes to spare but there's a problem the refuelling rig is how we take on us he can't move it at terminal five british airways new dreamliner is about to take off on its inaugural flight to kuala lumpur just downstairs that i'm hoping he's coming together and it looks like he's doing just that but with only five minutes until its departure time push back crew leader anastasia has noticed a problem hi the refueller's not budging it just won't move and then when he puts his foot down accelerator like loads of black smoke comes up he's just behind the engine the refueling truck is stuck under the wing blocking the plane in hey daddy hey help me send someone to me okay so all organized somebody are coming out with 50. yes yeah on the way down he's getting the response team out to move the vehicle so i guess it's stuck if a plane doesn't push back on time it can result in extra costs to an airline but for co-captain mark wordsworth the consequences of a late departure mean more than money we want this to go on time there's a lot of attention on this particular flight kuala lumpur is expecting us to come in on time as well so that's got to look good and of course a lot of pastors are actually booked to go on inaugural flights in ba they spend a lot of money with us so we've got to make it worthwhile the response team's gone to the wrong aircraft [Music] with the mechanics attending the wrong plane another refueller is sent out to lend a hand let's hope this person can resolve our issues try to leave it for a while yes well i think he's just trying to offer some assistance but any ideas will be much appreciated at the moment from the way if you're a fan which they want i'm asking you i don't know i don't know no they just sent me to help you but i the mechanics still haven't turned up and the departure time has arrived i can't even remember the last time something like this happened for every minute a plane is late it can cost an airline hundreds of pounds sadly the 033 is still delayed due to this issue with the uh refuelling vehicle another 15 minutes i think it's going to take at least how unfortunate really when something like this happens because apart from the financial consequences the ongoing effects on passengers our customers they're going to be delayed it's never right 13 minutes after the scheduled departure time the refuellers finally get the truck started there you go these things happen all right thank you right our problems are resolved on the 033 on stand five one eight if you put it ready to go in now that'll be great everything's sorted flight critical appearance and now we're gonna push a little bit disappointed that we were able to go a bit sooner and we still haven't gone have we just as the plane is set to go anastasia and her team hit another problem we're having problems with the tractor now this is embarrassing um when he's lifting up the aircraft it's not locking out the tractor is unable to lift the airplane in the way that it should be able to so she's just trying to work out what might be the issue but second issue on one departure it's more than we would hope for we might have to call another um yeah wow [Music] overcome we're on our way 24 minutes after the dreamliner was meant to leave it's finally on its way thoroughly i am i am [Music] [Applause] [Music] people in our role we have a passion it's our job to get our departures away on time that's what the customer is looking for that's one of the most important things to him so we go out of our way to enable that to happen i've done that where everyone's done that collectively as a team unfortunately breakdowns as we saw delayed us so uh yeah just move on to the next one if the next one will be good i'm sure [Music] next time storm imogen causes havoc at heathrow is around there please sir we have no control over what the weather is temperatures plunge on the airfield cold of the yard busy we are non-stop one to the other and one of the airport's newest staff members gets his hands dirty oh treasure i didn't think i had much of a weak stomach [Music] you

Channel: Spark

Views: 1,619,474

Rating: 4.8480458 out of 5

Keywords: Spark, spark channel, spark documentary, full documentary, Britain's busiest airport, Heathrow documentary, airport, a day in the life, pilot documentary, managing an airport, how to airports run, biggest airport in Europe, busy airport, engineering, engineering documentary, how to run an airport, day in the life of a pilot, airhostess, airport manager, plane commands, airport commands, science, science documentary, airport schedule, airport police

Id: Rlgmn5sFsrs

Length: 45min 53sec (2753 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 07 2018