British Airways is one of the UK's most visible brands it sells Britishness as a mark of quality some passengers are happy to part with small fortunes to fly in its first class a one-way fare is just over $10,000 but in the last decade the business has faced financial crisis today more people fly easyJet's than ba we all fly to the same destinations so what can we do to stand out as the airline reaches a turning point our cameras have been allowed unique access to its inner world from the top-level decisions we're not as big in China as we should be so getting this right is very important to the daily challenges of its global operation actually sir it's not all right because the flights closed for check-in we've been following some of the airline's 40,000 staff you know what the pressure is on as they work to meet exacting standards motus wanted in this episode we'll reveal how it manages the challenges of operating out of the world's most congested Airport all the delays cost the company money trains a new generation of pilots to follow the last hurdle would be a nightmare in every sort of career over and tries to stay afloat in a competitive market beneficial if you can ride a knock every now and again five five two loans back on stand offload a passenger who's having a panic attack panic attack panic attack there are an awful lot of things within aviation that can influence and the vast majority of them are not necessarily controlled by us today something special is happening a crane Bank the Airlines flight training center for the first time in over a decade the company's training new cadet pilots the first since 9/11 when the airline industry went into decline 50 30 20 [ __ ] their 18-month course costs each cadet 84,000 pounds most pay for it with a loan guaranteed by the airline failure would be expensive how'd it get yeah well it was really really good fun pretty much what I expected a lot of work and very intensive but really good fun the urge to fly is so strong some recruits have moved into an airport hotel for the final weeks of training they call it the bug I was 27 before I before I flew in a light aircraft controlling it myself and as soon as I left the ground it just I knew that I had to learn to fly it's so incredibly addictive 30 year-old Joel Garabedian has gambled a lot on becoming a be a pilot now I had a job which I enjoyed had a house a car you know I my life was complete but the lure of flying was just incredibly strong 24 year old Andy McClellan's father was a pilot for Andy flying is all about taking control as soon as we put those receivers forward and you feel the power come from the engine you get a certain amount of excitement and then you take off and it's you and it's freedom because essentially what people say on the ground and what you do you're you're in charge of your own destiny this is just all I've ever wanted to do to fall at the last hurdle would be a nightmare and it would be sort of career over and I'd have to reevaluate and think of different career paths that I'd have to go down I'm kind of financially all in on the scheme but from an emotional point of view I've then I've invested the last two years of my life in the scheme I've been away from my wife and my friends and obviously it would be it will be beyond disappointing to sort of have to have to give up on that dream there were four and a half thousand applicants for the first intake of new pilots only 89 got through in these critical last few weeks the cadets need to show they've got what it takes to fly passenger planes what are you expecting a lot of work a lot of work yeah I like it kind of work is it footwork knowledge accommodation really big like knowledge and also other things that we haven't really done before because of course we've been flying with nobody in the back and no others and we've got passengers and all the problems that deals it so though yeah problems that are laughing on any given day a hundred and ten thousand passengers travel with BA the company's hub is at Heathrow the busiest international airport in the world here 84 airlines compete fiercely for passengers and space getting people onto the airlines 800 daily flights and sending them off on time is an operation of great complexity a workforce of 40,000 pull together around-the-clock battling against what Evers thrown up morning I did it's gonna get busy calm before the so yeah it's gonna give you me rugby player Kevin McKenzie is one of the airline's operations control managers it's a feat it's a feeling I've always had running onto a rugby pitch you get that little knot in the bottom of your stomach you not never quite know what to expect for the next 12 hours he's the man in charge morning on Kevin's part of a team of 90 responsible for all ba planes around the world morning guys we're here for dealing with the unplanned that's effectively normal business for us more responsibilities to oversee the whole of the network globally and to maintain the operational plan as published so when external factors influence that plan the teams in here work to recover that and get the operation back on track that's going to that's going to infuriate me from this control room all parts of the airline's Network attract oh that's probably not a bad thing I was just singing anushka Warwick is a turn round manager it's her job to keep flights running to time any delay can have a knock-on effect for the rest of the day's schedule there we go we are going to stand five four three two meet the two one six arrival which has been declared a medical emergency which means that a passenger on board is feeling unwell can I just confirm it's the passenger in five alpha bang to the header the day before you flew and now I'm not feeling well it's alright paramedics up there care bombs control our devs at the start of every shift Kevin has a conference call with all the airlines operational departments anybody else on the call please it's a chance to flag up any potential disruption okay the medic is Orien me ah there we go warning on me excuse me just gonna stay out the way at the moment because there's a lot of paramedics in there but they're going to be taking the gentleman out and onto the high lift it's got everything [ __ ] shoes and right that's it you're done ops update overnight please okay morning Kate Morial the 206 this morning arrived early he declared a medical emergency on arrival and obviously that's being dealt by Heathrow and the medical teams okay thank you very much take that morning Clive aircraft and boys and risks for the day please Lima Lima line is trying to repair so it's going to hang in a Smalling one of the variables kevin has to contend with is the constant servicing of the fleet which takes aircraft out of operation the more grounded planes there are the harder his day will be frankly security malee in the Maldives there's protests possible there so there's a crew advisory in place for crews to avoid demonstrations where possible political unrest can strand crews and their planes and real partners Brazilians have deployed a thousand troops around about half our kilometer away from the crew hotel so the crews we moved the way to Copacabana beach for the time being it's a tough job some Philippines talent passenger group showing any issues please 46-thousand departing today for out the tally not a busy fire destroying people's very busy entry it's the school holidays passenger numbers are up and so is the pressure okay so what impact if we don't get those if we don't get cover on those two areas what's going to be the impact please it was normally around the last time series where they struggle when we start continues long-haul drives beginning will share load okay good thank you very much not good but you know we're me right we've got quite a few storms around at the moment we've got some hurricane Raymond which is currently to the west of Acapulco it's a strongest gusts will be tomorrow around about midday 130 not Kevin must keep track of whatever the weather throws at him so his schedule doesn't get blown off course finally a couple of volcanoes we're watching we're looking at one on the Kamchatka Peninsula danger is if there's a significant eruption there it pushes that match down into North America thank you all very much of a good day chef anything changes Cheers we start the day with spare resources in all areas so we start with spare aircraft we start with spare flying cabin crew back gives us us the flexibility we need to tweak the program as and when we need in the daily rush to win customers the airline has a lot staked on its service and it's particularly British style Miami lovely come over and we'll get you all checked in okay ex Harrods manager David page has spent 18 years honing his check-in manner today is the start of the half term all the flights are very busy and so it's gonna be very interesting about 45,000 passengers travelling through it's going to be quite a lot of pressure today I would say so we're you traveling to Madrid what time 910 air five one two okay actually sir it's not all right because the flights closed for checking so they're not gonna be able to check you in now I can't check you in for this one because it closed a while ago now some people get very very upset and they're very stressed and they're going away on business they might be going to a funeral or might be going to a friend's wedding and of course you know timing is the element right we need to be very very quick okay chaps you're gonna drop your bags up quickly and you need to go straight through to the gate so just follow me with the bag and we'll send them down so bit tight I'm gonna have to run state stating the queue there's a possibility they could have missed their flight that was that risk got in the right place at the right time to recover that if you've got any baby milk it's in it's in the bottles already made up or is it powdered right okay that's absolutely fine if it wasn't they might ask you just to taste it hello okay you want to just come over would you like kids there's always the famous line I couldn't eat a whole one isn't there oh I do like children yeah of course everybody does plus you're gonna stretch out have a little sleep so you're sat there before yeah I kidding say goodbye to Milan will get you through yeah during the holidays the airline looks after thousands of children traveling on their own they're known as sky fliers hey guy already okay when we get through you can wipe your mommy yeah well we go through have a good flight channel Chanel Chanel you like Chanel yeah expensive for an extra charge trained chaperones Nona's aunties and uncles will escort children to the plane to meet the cabin crew only if someone like me will meet you in these ookay all right listen Ms whatever you like the airline becomes a sort of boarding school in the sky five year old Sienna is one of the airline's youngest solo fliers she lives in France with her mum and travels on her own between London and Paris once a month today see you know we're not that nice you know you know how are you today how are you you're good let me see your nail varnish oh that's nice mommy's already happy it's enough okay see the test Carolyn can you take you and I'm gonna come with you as well sweetheart okay thank you oh you have to say bye here Ciena you're this fine sweetheart they'll treat you like a special little princess on board yeah okay how long is she going for she lives that Oh it's always so hard but I'm she'll be fine she'll be fine she does love it let's not service and they do show you them like a little princess she'll be fine here we go hopefully it won't be too long now you'll be back with mummy and she can have all the presents that you have for her pick up in single dad for for a week um which is you know lots of matching clothes with dresses and lots of pink and stuffing I'm going to the pub to be fair I think I deserve a pint services like sky fliers a part of an attempt to differentiate themselves from no-frills carriers like Ryanair and easyJet who dispensed with such extras focused on cheap ticket prices and soared ahead in overall passenger numbers Nathan were you traveling to were you traveling to to Russia where's your bag is your suitcase you're just checking in this guy just put a note you're bringing the buggy with you to the gate are you getting well-trained British Railways one time we're completely lost my bag and after six month I received a refund part partial refund so we try not to check out ready [ __ ] four floors below is the airport's baggage system komm today it was chaos here when the terminal opened in 2008 thousands of bags were separated from their owners the day was branded a national embarrassment today far fewer passengers leave without their luggage with eleven miles of conveyor belts terminal fives baggage system is one of the largest in the world we got 421 bags estimated I'm hoping we don't have a cruise they don't normally take one bag with them as obviously they have their gowns and their suits for the captain's table dinner November's come out again everyone dreads League loss not everyone really knows what happened in that night everyone dreads legals just a heavier bag she's heavier than 32 usually get someone to come and help me lift it 20-year old baggage apprentice Niall berry is one of 225 handlers on shift today rusty money game is cuz everyone calls me now so rusty nail that's a lose it everyone's got nicknames they always say you know you and you made it in ba because you've got a nickname look at these two look old budget in scarper 18 years of work these two golf lover Greg Breslin is one of over 50 crew leaders each crew is responsible for loading up to five flights a shift never sits like 9/11 the base gets cream or they have higher security levels now go downstairs where they'll get x-ray and then they'll go up into the just the conveyors that switch it around above already as a ring I get to our four belts they'll go down the grip ones system is pretty much all automated now so there's not a lot of human contact with the base everything so much more secure these days it let's go mr. Sweeney once you're off to stem five four four you don't want any problems you want everything to go sweetly but mr. Sweeney's a bit of a Joe enough so we're missing a few people so one of the people is having their bag searched and security of identified something in the bag that they want to just check out I have to go really sorry well something with this one at the door apparently there's a firearm inside this bag so the police are gonna come to make sure it's it's legal to be transported all firearms have to go for additional security and you have to have special licenses and they're just so obviously that's with traveling with this passenger and it'll just the police to come and it will come down I'll just stick it in the bin right at the end so we got 15 minutes so in theory I'm supposed to wrap up in five the passengers have to be traced so they can open the case in the presence of a police officer okay what was the passengers name again sorry 37 Juliet I'll just open Julie so what's the problem this farmer so what are you gonna do I open the bag now never call Jack huh that's right yeah what is it we see inside it the suspected firearm is just part of a child's Halloween costume yeah fantastic that's great Jared stay with the gun the fancy dress accessory has held the flight up for a quarter of an hour finally the toy gun is back in the suitcase you can't you can't take a chance on things like that safety is our prime thing that's my role here is to make sure that that aircraft is safe and secure above anything else our customers believe that our professional standards will deliver them to their destination in comfort and safety seventeen months into their training these cadet pilots are being reminded of the stakes maybe you have just been downright lucky but maybe one day when you least expect it your luck will run out most people believe the unthinkable will never happen to them if we are to avoid tragically striking us again you have to go looking for trouble it's normal for us to be introduced to things like air disasters because it's good to put it into perspective I think the danger is people get complacent about flying because you see so many aircraft taking off every day you see so many people going on holiday and for people it's become almost a normal way of life and you forget that if you have these tiny slip-ups that these major disasters can occur in 2008 both engines on flight ba 38 from Beijing stopped because of a fuel problem on its approach to Heathrow the lives of 152 passengers and crew were in the hands of its pilot he got the plane down just inside the airport's perimeter without a single fatality an extraordinary display of skill most pilots will never experience such major engine problems at least not for real today we doing fatties so any failures have to take off and other emergencies so basically learning how to fly it with only one engine rusta set each cadet pilot has to deal with engine problems in a simulator before they'll be allowed to fly passengers for real in June also tipline being told engine one on fire it's actually a trigger for going through our drills engine once fire boys here rather than being took nervous scared about it it just hits you and you go like right I need to do this this this this and then we will all be safe snatched a bit too fast and rotation rate so it picked up and then I released it too quickly to drop quite a lot I do not always good that you witness that a British Airways we train our tests engine failure flying every six months and that ensures that the guys have got top class skills and that they're able to competently and confidently handle an engine failure okay so just let me know when you settle down on the flight down to a minimum okay I think already excellent you got control I control a common occurrence doctor and this is the reason that we have to Train it so often is because it requires precise handling but it doesn't happen very often in events around you're out that you're after that the only way that we can keep the skills up is by training in the city there every six months don't sink don't sink 15 years I've flown up not I don't you fail you touch wood and do you want one yeah do you want continue engine fire rotate as a Samwise lovely brother control so put up geared out okay that's great with a rudder control absolutely macula one way since life every simulator session is four grueling hours cadets have 12 of these in total we didn't quite get everything we want to get down but I'm sure we can pick up in the next couple of details when you come out you are absolutely exhausted and it's really really tiring your mind itself just feel really tired on the amount of new information and the amount of practice and concentration that you've had to put in on this four-hour session approaches see how a different type if Andy passes and makes it to his first flight his starting salary will be just over thirty thousand pounds in time that could rise to over a hundred thousand baggage is good money but the pilots is good money yeah so that's about it but no pilots you get pilots that calm down me they stay alone they talk to everyone now I wouldn't say they're poor Schmo you get good and bad in everyone there's probably baggage ambulance you think oh my god it did I mean people would probably think baggage handlers are all common pilot you will see that there probably is a few Force Ones then I just think to know what when you fight when you've worked as hard as they have and here and and and and you've got that much responsibility on a flight you can be who you wanna be competition for lucrative long-haul passengers is fierce so the airline has to use every possible advantage to encourage people to fly with them instead of rival carriers one such advantage is the ability to coordinate connecting flights in and out of its hub at Heathrow effectively for operational decisions we are still using the fico web flying passengers in from around Europe and feeding them onto long-haul departures and transferring into Continental arrivals out onto it's shorter European flights only 143 today there are 49 passengers inbound off the oh nine eight are you able please to have a look to see wearing a system they are with a third of all its passengers making these transfers it desperately needs the connections to work get it wrong and long-haul passengers could be tempted to fly with other airlines through different countries it's another challenge for Kevin by my calculations they've got below minimum connection job at the gate Tony friend is boarding some of the late passengers she's hoping all will make it thank you very much and enjoy your trip thank you for choosing for chiles 12 to come are we going to get them odds at let's just put last call out okay yes you just enter that well whenever mousse ready but you always get a few passengers who held up with security or their connecting to this flight and they've got caught up burned connections I've flights come in late from another terminal so can happens hello how are you and if you just go round sir that's good with just 12 minutes till pushback tony is on the hunt for four missing passengers are you going to Miami no okay thank you goodness the nightmare of all nightmares is if we start getting red bags which is when a passenger place it just doesn't turn up for its flight and it happens a lot you've got a red bag happy days your loads of repose we've got loads of my bags poor red bags I think it is red for danger it doesn't mean it is great now the bags are off the passengers won't be flying or all I know is I'll take the base off I don't do with passengers thankfully that's the dispatcher is called y-factor it's hard enough as it is let alone dealing with passengers all our passengers are absolutely wonderful and nobody misses a flight intentionally and we so certainly don't want them to miss you've got to get them on their way are you going to Miami back I'm very fast I'm really sorry I'm really really sorry that you yeah I'm so sorry especially thank you anyway the four missing passengers have arrived but their flight has left la pérouse and otro well intuit razón no hemos a neo contra tiempos yoga no Darren Gabby ami siempre homo para para para detent o paisa Andre gricean nunca dijo el avión primer a Canopus por que salir a tardigrade apostle ah Segura que no no no de - una miletti Tomoko paragrah como se pasar por Canaan Anya Aaron priori dad we had 300 odd people on that flight and you how long do you hold it waiting for people when you don't know how far or how long they're gonna be they might be shopping it could be anywhere hello it's Elly you know we've got an 15-minute delay it's a shame that all the delays cost the company money so we have to be as quick as we can to get the aircraft flying and delay of just 15 minutes can knock on through the schedule and cost tens of thousands of pounds you've got four seats for you okay we're going today yes you're going to tell mama listen they can't both can i huh gotta lie down ah don't stall seat belt mr. Sweeney are you way back it's the longest Miamian issue than it back in the terminal David is on the lookout for people to help unfortunately enough to be one of the few staff that's got three golden tickets which is what gold card holders give to us when you've achieved really high standards of service so you okay you're checked in gold cards are held by the airline's most frequent fliers only they have the special privilege of awarding staff a golden ticket so we can get you in checked in where you traveling to come on it's a choke dress so these are your three baggage receipt I keep those nice to say and would you happen to have my frequent flyer number in there I'll just check for you but there is a lounge on that time period over itby yes thank you a Golden Tickets is the Airlines equivalent to a gold star on a school report there was too little old lady sounds like the clichéd isn't it a little old lady going to see her daughter somewhere in Europe I can't remember now and she was very upset she'd recently lost her husband I took his rooster lounge sat in there with her other cup of tea for about an hour calmed it down went back and collected her to take her to her gate a couple of hours later and again it was a gold card holder sitting in the lounge that would recognized that and came and said I want you to have this you've looked after the old lady and well done I'm always on the prowl but it's not about that it's just feel with a nation you know when they give them to you makes you proud that you know you've done a good job and it's not about getting the next golden ticket it's just about being consistent across the board looking after the passengers okay sure do put that on there and that very heavy back I feel water service isn't it right okay if they were giving out night hoods customer service I'd like to think I was at the front of the queue for that yeah I put those away safe cause you're not gonna need those two you go the gate any take care thank you bye-bye mr. Bush b-y-u somebody special yeah I don't know probably if they could clone me and have a thousand of me they'd be very very happy but I don't know I saw something within me that I've gone after delivering what they want David may meet and greet passengers but someone else has to pick up after them the airlines unseen workforce of contract cleaners a known as aircraft groomers mr. Williams will try over there and this note right yeah Flynn thank you today's lead aircraft groomer is christina mate' a romanian handball player and trained accountant she's in charge of a team of 11 who have a target of just 75 minutes to clean this aircraft coming from India is very very therapies taking more than one hour and a half because all over it's a messy food on the floor on the valley everywhere miss coming from America tour guide we can finish it on in 1 hour and 20 minutes some people be shocked at some of the states the aircraft arrived in certain things with a cannot mention we actually find actually one aircraft I was called out by my crew because it was actually I'm going to say it pieces actually in the club seat on the floor and the area had just been taped off so I actually came cleared it up every time you look at it former restaurant owner Paul Boswell has come on board to check the standard of cleaning he oversees the cleaning of up to 95 long-haul flights each day is that we've been reported we tell Christina broken LJ the value of people I think once they get on board maybe they're in that holiday most on peep and it's like okay I can do what I want I'm relaxing but really you know they throw food on the floor drinks the spill taking their ownership at all but at the end of day that's our job we clear it up I'm Jin go to first class cuz obviously prime press and juicers where to stop they're all crime but because they pay that extra bit as well that's the tip top yes miraculous wonder then one of my specialities I'm afraid people say my house it's like a show house even though it's old you're done Marilyn a blanket and the olives come with the plane cleaned time for last-minute cabin checks sometime you could get a window blind stuck and when you try and free it it breaks so we have to replace it engineer Sajid hussein is looking for any obvious defects sometimes I call its are not flashing they are blocked up so we make sure that they work okay swear like a nose buddy to the last minute problems caused by the strange things found in aircraft toilets make their way back to the control room for lead engineer Steve Duffy to deal with well we've got in the order of between 2100 and 2200 toilets across all our aircraft and on an average day we will have between four and ten unserviceable across all of those aircraft in most cases that we have toilet problems there's actually something in the toilet that shouldn't be on the toilet whether it be a towel a book gucci wallet is the funniest thing I've seen down there it all adds to the overflow of problems kevin has to face on a daily basis beneficial if you can write rot right a knock every now and again there will be days when you will feel that there's an awful lot being thrown at you as there are an awful lot of things within aviation that can influence and the vast majority of them are not necessarily controlled by us so there is a front is going to come through tomorrow that's going to probably drop a load of weather on us rain and stuff like that as well as passengers the airline flies hundreds of thousands of tons of cargo every year most is carried in the bellies of its passenger flights the rest in dedicated freight planes scheduling them falls to kevin's team today they've been asked to fit in a special flight welcome everybody and thank you very very much our colleagues from Oxfam the Save the Children for coming to the meeting it's incredibly challenging getting stuff to where it needs to be it sure you can you know as well as we do and you know this is really vital to get the stuff right so certainly thank you from Hamas the operations team are meeting with charities Oxfam and Save the Children to discuss a problem 7,000 miles away this is just the beginning of a relief operation that has no clear end in sight jean-yves Ivan Arvin BBC News in Philippines the airline has already chartered four planes to the relief operation in the Philippines they're providing this one for free but there's a problem the company wants to fly the cargo to Manila but Oxfam and Save the Children want to fly it to Cebu 500 miles closer to the heart of the disaster um the problem we have with CB which is the airport itself we can we can get down at the airport we can land on the runway we can taxi the latest estimates we'll be waiting for around 15 hours to have cargo offloaded and that's showing that we really would struggle with the nearest airport at Cebu is overwhelmed in the wake of the storm the operations team are concerned the aircraft may get stuck there difficulty will be the cargo if it goes to Manila may end up having arrived in the Philippines but then it may end up being stuck and while the good to me will flow quicker and Manila to actually physically get them to the end beneficiaries I think we're gonna be you know we're in a lot better position a stronger position if it does go to Cebu in a nutshell it's about the provision of water provision of Sanitation i toilets communications equipment oh and also we're providing what are called pee poo bags which is pretty much what it sounds like it's a bag that you pee and poo into except that it has a chemical in it which will very quickly turn it into utilizable compost I would say we had we had reserved it's another challenge for operations so we leave it an open time for 1500 and then if not we have a plan B by the nature of the events which which we are trying to support they are often two parts of the world that we don't necessarily routinely fly so some of our our our flight planning teams will have to work exceptionally hard to find routes that we can fly safely into these areas and get these guys to to where they need to go but also back again with a little disruption to the remaining schedule as possible Oxfam will take any help whichever Airport is agreed the type of plays which bas provided for us the cost per hour of an asset like that is extremely high so I can see 15 hours for a plane to be sitting there doing nothing for a professional mover of Freight like British Airways this well it's a nightmare for them we're not compelled or to support these organizations it's simply in route we choose to do because we see the benefit that we can bring the facilities and resources and the people that we have the work for ba that can help and support often situations that the organizations can't after almost two years Andy and Joel have finished their course and passed today they'll get their wings Abby this to me it's almost two years to get to this point and obviously it's just the sort of the end of the beginning really there we go how's that it is one of the proudest and happiest days of my life it's almost a badge of honor to show you what we've come through and to show that we are a proficient be a pilot Andy and Joel are now first officers today they'll both fly Airbus a320s for the first time with up to 162 passengers on board it's the day before Christmas today but I mean it's the anticipation is much greater than any experience than any Christmas I've ever ever had before to be honest observe our fool eyelids uniform on first officer which means I get two stripes on my sleeve at begin today's it's just a uniform and you know I'm incredibly proud to wear it butter it's just a normal person underneath things it makes no difference to who I actually a.m. before flying they'll both be thoroughly briefed on the route by two senior pilots okay thanks so a feeling good nervous yeah does it good okay what I propose to do is perhaps get you to be handling sector on the Aleutian sector outs Geneva strongly supports if I lose myself Mesa what's that sound like a plan that's not great excellent okay terrific yes I like that yes butter places it is a good word it's a kind of a nice kind of nervousness and I think it's more not knowing exactly how it'll be than being nervous I can't do the job if she steals I mean pretty much slightly simulator yeah there's a bit more time to Gratiano before going on outside yeah yeah better many more your first customers are about to get on the airplane yeah that's like talking pass by exciting is that that's all about how to get your seat in the right place here we're going to find the departure sword you like to oh really and these fully-qualified in aircraft so he'll be doing the takeoff and landing today I won't mention it to the customers that simply because Andy is fully qualified to be flying this airplane but just in case is anybody nervous around you probably wouldn't want to say that it's their very first day flying with asses on board okay all right yep it's not great great so general B we're gonna start to get quite busy now so saying thank you very much and believe it hello a plea assisted here on the flight deck today by first officer Joel Garabedian we'll do our best to get you all underway to Geneva just as swiftly and of course as safely as possible thank you this is your first officer Andrew the clown speaking it's quick update from the flight deck it is May of datas we've started our initial descent down to 31,000 feet the minute we're just crossing over the Alps this should be some good views I both the left and the right hand side with Monte Bianco or what block is currently sitting out to our left I hope you enjoy your flight and we'll speak to you again once you get on the ground in Pisa thanks Raph while Andy and Joel got away on time back in operations and other flights not so lucky so I give the 5/5 to Rome's back on stand offload a passenger who having a panic attack panic attack panic attack okay good thank you very much it's not abnormal it does happen quite often it'll happen because passengers when they actually gets the reality of sat at the end of the runway and the engines start powering up and you know they think they're going to be okay but they then realize they won't about me she's been sitting in the terminal for about five hours and then once you got on board she had a panic attack and had to go back on to stand that's fine we don't ever want to take a passenger who doesn't want to go but knock on the fact that is if they have bags in the hole due to security we won't be able to fly with those banks in the hold so that the banks will have to be offloaded and that person would have to be returned to the airport the team will have to meet that passenger and take them back so we can shake the pan a little bit and cause a degree of work for the ground staff or the station it's 1:00 a.m. at Stansted Airport where the airlines biggest cargo plane is landing yes is it is coming in the company's decided to risk sending their donated flight directly to Cebu they're keen it doesn't go unnoticed maryberry the airlines charities officer is here to oversee its departure look like I'm very excited actually been sort of worried that we weren't going to get it into Cebu it's really good to know that they're getting as close to the disaster region as we can make it really she's fantastic like a spaceship the airlines sending their cargo expert Steve rook to make sure the aircraft is turned around as quickly as possible as the aid gathers momentum there's a lot of Freight cargo going into Cebu so it has been quite congested I'll be there on the ground hopefully to get this aircraft serviced as quickly as possible so we can return to its normal schedule together approach and explaining to people were exactly what is required mainly sanitary equipment toilets latrines and such like there's also been a very kind donation by the Queen of Spain of many medical supplies the queen has requested a photograph of her shipments being loaded on the aircraft what's your photography like poor that's why I've got a professional doing it for me and I believe the Queen also wants a photograph of the offload in Cebu so special moment isn't it really a lot of hard work that sort of gone into pulling all this together and then this is for the city coming together it's just really fantastic what we're sending out the basics of life not to have them must be I truly believe this makes a difference and really really do 120 tonnes of emergency aid is on its way to the Philippines 12 hours after the plane lands there it's scheduled to be back in the system on a commercial cargo flight from Hong Kong I'm very fortunate that I live in a comfortable environment we only need to look at the news that the around the world there are people are far worse off the person is the thing that I can come into work and do something there will help those people to make their situation better that's very important very fulfilling after a quick turnaround in Geneva Joel has flown the return leg of his maiden voyage and is about to land back at Heathrow I was amazing yes that was that was happy sorry yeah it was lovely actually when a little bit of hi to again but it recovered nicely so very happy thank you quite an intense experience so recalling the whole thing is a probably going to be quite difficult but er I think I remembered of the feelings rather than the actual experiences so like a wedding day exactly yeah thank you thank you like Andy is also landing at the end of his first flight he's flown both legs of the trip to Pisa I think I still need to finish my landing technique hopefully I can get them a bit smoother who finally does feel real it's nice it sort of being control of a big aircraft it does sort of empower you as such it is it's a really nice feeling Joel and Andy are the first cadet pilots trained by the airline to land at Heathrow for over a decade it's hard to express actually how tiring it is doing doing what he's doing today coming in here for for his first date commercially there's an awful lot going on he's learning at a great rate actually which is Richard the ape of the game after buying this sector an hour off to jump on a different aircraft to fly off to Pisa for the night air tube sorry Helsinki Brian and he is now part of ba beyond some getting caught on okay listen one of 40,000 employees in a very British airline until you move around the airliner and meet the various different people you don't necessarily comprehend how much it takes everyone to deliver their little bit to make the whole picture work people do feel like they belong to be out and they are part of it and as why people will stay and stay working for their Oh
