Behind The Scenes Of The World's Busiest Airport [4K] | Secret Life of Airports | Spark

hartsfield jackson atlanta international airport is the busiest airport in the world five runways handle up to 250 flights an hour security staff check 95 000 bags every day if you are taking anything you can eat drink or surf the webway out of the bags i'm looking for anything that can connect to making exposed material the airport handles two million passengers a week and it employs 63 000 staff the pilot doesn't get this he can't go anywhere so how does this enormous airport work the volume here at atlanta is always the difficult part exclusive access takes us behind the scenes it's kind of like the underground disney exploring the airport's hidden secrets some people don't even know that i exist to discover the amazing team on call 24 7. what i love most about this is being the good guy and incredible technology you process a u.s citizen in a matter of seconds that makes this extraordinary place work let's captain get his clearance out we're ready for on-time departure this is the secret life of the world's busiest airport final call to liberia costa rica hartsfield jackson atlanta handles more flights than heathrow and gatwick airports combined good afternoon ladies and gentlemen your aircraft has just arrived here at 828. around 261 million people 80 percent of the u.s population live within two hours flight of here and it's the home base for delta airlines one of the biggest carriers in the world well connections information is here on the overhead monitor that's why 104 million passengers pass through the airport every year [Music] relying on the 2700 flights that arrive or depart every day so it's 105 affirmative and make a left turn on tax window to ensure everything runs on time hundreds of aircraft must be emptied prepared and reloaded at one of the airport's 192 gates under such pressure every breakdown every weather delay every security alert has the potential to bring the operation to a grinding halt so how do you manage the job of getting all those aircraft in and out throughout the day this is where it all starts delta airlines ramp tower one of three across the airport and america 1309 uh coming on your left side to your gate tango tent from here the staff control all the operations required to turn an aircraft around across 60 gates simultaneously each flight has certain things that have to happen it has to be fueled it has to have catering has to be cleaned so we're coordinating all those different inspections and activities that go into it every flight we're ground control so we bring the planes in and we push the planes out repeat and go repeat and go roger united 44 84 you push approved tails south currently there's 2 and q ramp controllers manage the flow of aircraft enabling pilots to find the right gate and head for the right runway here i got a bravo 29 it's a ship number 950 gate controllers oversee the turnaround itself managing up to eight gates simultaneously constantly troubleshooting problems my gate bravo 31 he just pushed off the gate he was on time and i got bravo 33 we have the jet way off and it looks like he's going to be early it's the gate controller's job to liaise with the ground crew to ensure baggage tugs arrive for the luggage and catering trucks arrive with newly loaded galley carts but one vehicle you won't see out here is a fuel tanker so how do these planes get refueled running underground is a hidden network of pipes 23 miles long which feed fuel to every single gate at the airport and the system pumps 11 million liters of aviation fuel every day sky west 109 north cargo dixie 35. the ramp tower has information on every aspect of an aircraft's operation from how much fuel it needs to how many bags should be on board this information is fed to the ground crew using the latest in handheld electronics which is how they know that this flight has a problem are out 41 bags hey listen you guys got in the bag i got um 23 30 tampa alpha seven we're missing about 40 bags okay it's 23 30 and uh we got uh 15 minutes on the clock five or ten minutes and the issue should be resolved all right 38.5 hey stand by one second bob san francisco bravo 22. it's the job of the ramp tower staff to deal with any issue and minimize the risk of delay planes will come in and something goes wrong with it it'll break needs tire changing you know doors won't open delays affect us greatly because we're such a tight operation there's one problem the ramp tower dreads above anything else worst nightmare bad weather you know here in the south we have thunderstorms that just pop up out of nowhere when it starts raining we start slowing the flow of traffic coming in here at that point we're taking major delays the ramp tower staff constantly juggle resources to keep delays to a minimum 4803 was the fuel on board can you tell me what maintenance is actually working on they can track every single inbound outbound and grounded aircraft coming through atlanta in the next day and if a problem calls for a replacement plane they know exactly where to find one sometimes these aircraft come in and they might be sitting on the ground for two hours for their next flight so what we do is the aircraft that just broke has a two-hour ready time we'll take that ship that's sitting here waiting for two hours and we'll put the passengers on them and then by the time that happens this one should be repaired and we'll be able to make up we're moving things around we're trying to utilize all our resources that we have to get them up i mean it came in early you see the standard time right there is 50 or whatever but it came in 11 34. it's a constant battle against time technology and the elements and it never stops up here we're kind of like a beehive they're everybody i mean there's just activity if you were to take the lid off you're just gonna hear you know buzzing going on the tower is also in communication with the gate agents they must deal with the single most time-consuming turnaround job of all us the passengers we should begin boarding at 35 minutes prior to the departure so we are getting ready to begin board but the boarding process has been delayed hi are you good no problem cute black thank you whether the captain and first officer are here or not the all flight attendants have to be here before we can board so right now we just have one we're still holding on three more we're all familiar with seating areas where we can wait for our flight but what about the air crews hidden out of the way underneath the terminals are two other lounges [Music] one for cabin crew [Music] the other for pilots you have a typical passenger that goes from the west coast to the east coast on any given day they will tell you they're worn out and that's just from riding in the airplane well we're busy working and flying these airplanes and we need downtime too so if we're able to go into a lounge at our base we have enough time we'll go in there sit relax for a little while and kick back put our feet up and out of the public view because no one in the airport wants to see their pilot sleeping that is not a good look as atlanta is the main hub for craig's airline he spends a lot of time down here there's a blue chair over there in front of the television that i am particularly fond of reclines almost completely flat i've spent many hours in it from their lounge pilots can get their schedule for the day and up-to-date weather forecasts [Music] but as they head for their gate it turns out that one of the most critical things the pilot of a 75 million pound plane relies on is an old-fashioned printout this is the pilot's pre-departure paperwork that basically lets them know which runway they need to take what elevation it has all of how much fuel they need all the little details who his crew is everything so this is vital to the operation the pilot doesn't get this he can't go anywhere here you go gentlemen outstanding thank you we aren't able to accommodate any additional passengers for this flight that has generally before there are still five minutes to go when the aircraft door is closed even though work can still be going on on the tarmac uh the clock is showing uh d minus two on there so everything was closed up at d3 uh we're ready for on-time departure um he's on the headset right now just waiting for the captain to call him let's captain get his clearance out and be ready to go we're ready to take the canopy off the aircraft and get the plane back for an all-time [Music] departure the ramp controller liaises with air traffic control before giving the pilots clearance to move right now we got this aircraft that's pushing back we're giving them instructions on how to go so they can get oriented to the right runway so they can take off flight dl 2330 heads off to tampa bang on schedule but keeping atlanta's 2700 flights a day on time isn't just down to the ramp towers hidden out of sight is a vast subterranean network moving passengers and baggage from one part of this enormous airport to another 35 miles of conveyor system mostly hidden under the building so it's kind of like the underground disney runway hartsfield jackson atlanta has been the world's busiest airport for the last two decades and last year it handled a staggering 104 million passengers managing that number of people requires two massive terminals and seven concourses spread across the two mile long axis of the airport [Music] at gate t6 they've almost finished boarding a flight to new york but some passengers are missing we're missing still about eight passengers on board most of these passengers are coming from a connecting flight atlanta is a massive hub with flights coming in from all over the world as well as across the usa over 60 percent of passengers are changing from one flight to another and with gates as much as a mile and a half apart getting them from one aircraft to another is a huge issue so how do you get passengers to their flight on time the solution lies underground a subterranean automated railway which handles more passengers a day than all the terminals at heathrow combined a three-mile loop of track runs along the spine of the airport connecting terminals and gates the next stop is for a-gates at peak times the trains run a minute apart allowing the plane train to shuttle 250 000 passengers staff and crew from terminal to terminal every day it's the busiest automated airport railway in the world the next stop b but what and who keeps it running [Music] get you to head out to f2 got doors fell in the lock f2 we have to ensure that there's no glitches no hang ups we're able to keep it moving smooth it's all about getting people safely from entering the airport to their destinations from the control room rod can monitor the performance of every train in the system any problem like faulty doors overloaded trains or power failures will raise an alarm train four car 47 doors fell in the close and as soon as there's an issue rod alerts his roving team of engineers to fix it all right they are part of a secret army of people who keep the airport functioning you have three guys spread out across the entire system and they all have a certain area to cover if an issue happens you can tell them where the train is car 34 what the problem is the pressure on rod is immense a plane train breakdown is the nightmare scenario [Music] without that one minute train now the crowd's starting to pile up and pile up and pile up those stations would be crowded in just five minutes it affects everything now the planes can't depart because they don't have the passengers i mean it's a ripple effect with 2 700 flights routed via atlanta each day the ripples spread far and wide it wouldn't affect just atlanta we're talking the whole southeast eastern seaboard i mean it is not a good thing not a good thing at all careful doors are closing and will not reopen while rod's team attend to every technical fault some problems are beyond their control number one would probably be passenger interference that means people jamming doors [Music] the automated system requires the doors to close properly before a train can move off if the doors are jammed open or damaged it brings the plane train and possibly a significant slice of u.s air traffic to a complete halt [Music] these trains will not move without the doors being closed that's why it's so crucial it's so important but passengers aren't just worried about catching their flights i don't feel too comfortable checking in luggage like especially if i'm traveling with dance costumes or something important like i always get scared that they're gonna lose my bags this is actually only my second time on a plane so the first time my baggage got lost worldwide around 20 million bags are lost or damaged each year costing the industry 1.8 billion pounds [Music] atlanta uses the latest in technology to minimize the chance of your bags missing your flight welcome to atlanta's high tech baggage highway first stop on the line the transportation security administration's screening facility tsa as they're known scans every single check-in bag before it goes anywhere which adds up to 14.9 million bags a year at peak times tsa will run 42 x-ray machines each costing 261 000 pounds to hunt for explosives or other banned items if we deem that it might be suspicious we end up sending it to one line and if the machine says we're okay with this bag it'll actually send it to another line straight out to the plate most bags pass through without any problem but a significant number are sent down the suspicious bag slipway to tsa's baggage inspection room for stage two this is my bag right now using the x-ray from the scanner inspectors can zero in on the suspicious part of the bag any bag that has a laptop in it is gonna pretty much come down and be alarmed and checked on the floor because that's easily something that you can hide or conceal uh an explosive device or makeup of disposable viking i'm checking for any type of explosive or trace material that might be on the item itself analyzing a swab from the laptop is the surest way to check if it's okay or not any bag containing tools electronics or liquid containers must pass george's inspection before it can go on its way oh now so with this bag here it's locked if a bag's locked and george doesn't have a master key he must adopt a more direct approach explosives thankfully are incredibly rare but george does get a surprise now and again one time we even seen like some some dead rats uh mice and it was just a whole bunch of them in little ziploc bags one time we even seen a complete car the hood just bits and pieces of headlights just in different bags it was literally like a whole car confirmed as safe bags move to stage three where the adventure really begins [Music] 35 miles of conveyor system mostly hidden under the building so it's kind of like the underground disney where you really don't know all the different things that are happening it's a mechanized wonderland with 500 junctions and it's here that the tag on your bag really earns its stripes at atlanta they're special because they contain a microchip or rfid we have optical readers around the system that that periodically check the location of the bag as well as rfid readers the rfid allows bags to be identified even if the barcode gets obscured this ensures that every bag gets rooted to the right destination and the microchip offers an extra little peace of mind so it allows us a lot better information we're now able to relay that information to our passengers they can use an app to see the location of their bag at any time whether it's on board whether it's sitting at the claim unit for them andy and his team constantly monitor the system there are different color codes that come up depending on the activity of the system green is good green is always good purple indicates there's a little bit of a problem and bags are starting to back up and then if there ends up being a jam it indicates a jam and yellow unfortunately andy and his colleagues see yellow over 60 times a day we have a jam at mb 143 and be 143 a baggage system technician is dispatched to sort out the problem our goal is to clear them within a minute and a half there's a little competition between the day shift and the pm shift on how quickly they can clear jam most jams are like this one four bags have ended up wedged together blocking the conveyor it's simple enough to clear and andy's computer screens are green for go again the biggest cause of lost bags is when luggage is in transit to a connecting flight at atlanta they have an ingenious solution to deal with bags which have a long layover bags like this one are sent to a facility called cold storage it's tracked by the system so it knows its exact location so if this particular bag which is going to sacramento uh is needed for a flight that going out then uh the bag will purge out go to its own time pier and then any other bags that were not needed at that particular time by the system will come back and be sorted back into a time lane the final stop on the system is one of several unloading stations on any given day you can lift a couple of hundred to several hundred bags just like the passengers bags have departure boards and the baggage handlers make sure each bag catches its flight this screen right here lets us know what flights are going out on this pier and then we set these parts up for each destination now jacksonville is due out at 12 18. we like to haul the first part out 40 minutes prior to departure then if any other jacksonville bags fall we'd like to have those to the gate within 25 minutes the most we've handled in any particular day was 108 000 that's pretty mind-boggling how many bags we're able to move through here in a day keep them sorted out keep them get them to the correct flights the airport systems do a remarkable job of getting passengers and luggage to their onward flight but what do you do if you've got a tight connection and even the plane train isn't going to be fast enough ever wondered what those people with name boards on the air bridge are doing hi are you mr sender i am yeah how are you good morning sir delta passenger steven stender has less than 30 minutes to make his connection well i've got a nice treat waiting for you downstairs if you follow me having alerted the airline to his problem they've stepped in to help this is their porsche transfer service reserved for vips paying clients and people who really can't afford to miss their onward flight i was really sweating it you know i was a little concerned about weather and everything else it's a big day i'm actually asking uh my girlfriend to to be my wife i'm flying home to milwaukee and immediately as i see her i'm gonna ask her to marry me and we are then celebrating we're off to hawaii it might seem a bit absurd using a sports car capable of 160 miles an hour to tootle across the tarmac at a modest 30 but with an automated massage included it's been chosen for comfort rather than speed we could just take a little tour around the airport for an hour i could get used to this and again just uh just watch your step mr sanders we head up perfect great thank you [Music] one passenger's journey that could have gone south is now heading north on time to milwaukee [Music] there's only one thing more important to the airport than getting people away on time and that's ensuring their safety with terrorism an ever-present threat how does the world's busiest airport keep us safe never again do we want 9 11 to happen right in the left turn across the world there are estimated to be as many as 16 000 planes in the air at any one time controlling each and every flight is a mammoth task the point three twenty six texts would be the pink three hole short runway nine direction [Music] at the world's busiest airport air traffic control is one of the most challenging jobs we are servicing 150 domestic destinations 70 international destinations and 50 countries and so our job is to make that portion where you starting and your flight as seamless as possible is coming up on burning right it's a non-stop carousel of planes in and out south is 105 at romeo 3 cross runway niner right turn left on taxiway november every airport is different but here in atlanta you have to have that energy to keep going and and keep moving forward when you are getting behind because you can get behind real fast here paul and his colleagues handle five parallel runways in constant use and 2 700 flights a day we can handle anywhere between 130 arrivals an hour and 120 departures an hour so roughly over 250 operations now so how do you manage the flow of aircraft when there is a takeoff or landing happening every 15 seconds atlanta airport is divided in two [Music] each side serving one half of u.s airspace on each side one runway is dedicated to takeoffs the others to landings and each runway has a designated controller go to 1471 you can make the left turn at least one you'll follow an embraer approaching from your left 1471 monitor tower 123.85 breaking the system down like this makes the process of air traffic control much more manageable for you that's good thank you doug 2326 i'll pass this information on thank you turn left on november the airport's taxiways operate as enormous one-way streets channeling aircraft to and from their gates and this allows air traffic control to maximize throughput when things get busy the ground controller's main objective is to taxi the aircraft both arriving and departures to get them to their runway shuttle 6116 you'll be next for departure monitor tower 123.85 aircraft need a minimum separation between takeoffs [Music] but smaller gaps are permitted if their routes diverge as soon as they're airborne when they taxi out for departure you could get a north departure and you can get followed by another north departure and what the ground controllers would do is he would park that second north departure and wait for a west departure to come out the 314 atlanta tower and on the right went through five to the land by alternating aircraft so that one with a flight path going left is followed by one with a flight path going right you can speed up the rate at which they depart that's fine for getting aircraft out but how do you get inbound aircraft to the gates without crossing busy runways atlanta's built a way to keep the taxing traffic flowing call taxiway victor it's effectively a bypass diverting taxiing aircraft round one end of the runway but the crucial factor is it sits in a man-made dip this means the taxiing aircraft is below the level of the runway so it won't interfere with aircraft taking off it uh actually reduces our runway crossings by about 600 crossings a day and it also allows the aircraft to keep moving which means they don't have to idle down and power back up so they use a lot less fuel in air traffic it's always good to keep an aircraft moving a moving aircraft is a happy aircraft as we say so even if you're taxiing longer and you're not stopping i think the passengers enjoy that because at no point do you stop taxiway victor's been so successful a similar system is planned for the opposite side of the airport the principle of simplification even applies to the technology the air traffic controllers use for all the radar and computers they have the most essential tool for managing individual aircraft is this a plastic strip those plastic strips um those are the flight plans and basically they have the aircraft call sign on there they have the destination the altitude they have a transponder code on there in which that code is linked up to that particular aircraft so that we can or identify them and follow them throughout the airspace there's times where you could have 50 of those strips and that's a way for us to keep them organized and it's a memory aid for us so we use those all the time passing the strip from one controller to the next keeps responsibilities clear and the traffic flowing airports rely on keeping the passengers moving as much as the planes and as any regular traveller knows that means clearing security [Music] having people go through security is probably the biggest thing you know with 911 and everything after that you know go through security that can be rough for some people sometimes standing in line is kind of like long and annoying but like it's definitely necessary you want to make sure you're safe when you're traveling the transportation security administration or tsa are responsible for all us airport security [Music] they were formed in the wake of the 9 11 terrorist attack and christie newton terry was one of their first employees the training was very fast i had my interview my tests everything all in the same day within a three week span it was like this and i had a job that has lasted me this long it was amazing to me you know what it is that we do you know basically saving the public every day yeah move your jacket so you can step around i have an open station in the front we have a model not on our watch basically it means never again do we want 9 11 to happen everything that's in your pocket put it in here very first station the main weapon in tsa's armory is the x-ray scanner but if it can see inside our luggage why do we have to take anything out anything that we have you take out of the bag is basically for the x-ray operator so that they can see clearer through the item to make sure nothing prohibited is inside laptops and other metal items can block the x-ray machine's penetrating eye which is why passengers have to remove them from their bags they can hide prohibited items from detection remember guys we are taking anything you can eat drink or surf the web we're out of the bags last year screening at atlanta revealed 245 handguns carried in people's luggage of which 222 were loaded we find their gun almost every day some of them forget they're in their bag some of them think that it they can bring them because they have a carry concealed license and they think that they can still bring it through remember guys anything you can eat drink the weather go ahead and take it out of the bag the meticulous process of security can cause long queues but atlanta does have one tool up its sleeve more efficient than metal detectors and body scanners it can keep cues to a minimum say hello to flint one of 17 specially trained explosive sniffer dogs he's not gonna bother he's just gonna smell you well the technology is very good but the dog's keen sense of smell is much better than the machinery and it's a lot quicker so we can spring passengers much faster we used to screen cargo and they would call us because if they had 20 pallets to screen the dog could do it in 10 minutes where it would probably take them two hours by eliminating the possibility of passengers carrying explosives before they even reach the x-ray machines the remaining security checks can be simplified you're not gonna buy the it's gonna smell you they don't take their shoes off they don't have to take their liquids out it's just much more efficient and a faster way for them to pass through the secondary part of the screen security is one of the most important aspects of airport life and it can affect its operation in some very unexpected ways [Music] take food for instance with 275 000 people passing through every day restaurants are a vital part of the airport we'll get a bite to eat before we get on the airplane just because of the fact you never know what they're going to serve you you know if you're waking up early to go to an airport you're all stressed you don't have time to eat so getting there and having a place to eat is always nice jekyll island seafood is one of the 114 food outlets dotted throughout the airport most of the seafood the shrimp and fried fish and crawfish and calamari most of that stuff's 10 minutes tops but chicken takes a little longer to cook so we're looking at about 15 minutes definitely no longer than a 20 minute ticket time whether you're turning out grilled atlantic salmon or just a burger the question is the same how do you get all the ingredients and staff to cook them into the airport without the headache of passing through security the answer is you can't security is non-negotiable all the food is subject to being inspected and checked um before it makes its way into the airport so it's a very demanding precise logistically a complicated process that we have to go through in order to make all of this work i have a chicken caesar and a kids chicken tenders on the way the biggest obstacle that i tackle here with my staff is getting everyone here on time everyone has to go through security every day all of your belongings so the staff have to make sure that they're prepared at least an hour an hour and a half to just walk in the doors to be here at work getting people and produce to the restaurant is only part of the challenge if all sharp objects are confiscated by security how do chefs prepare the food all of the knives have to be tethered or attached to a string or they have to be locked away in the state we have to keep a record of it daily for the morning as well as the pm that we're checking to make sure that all pointy sharp objects including knives and scissors they're accounted for twice a day although no airport can guarantee to eliminate every single risk to our safety air travel remains the safest mode of transport on the planet [Music] there are however some threats you can't control like bird strikes so how does atlanta keep wildlife at bay leave the area it's unsafe this is not for you as any regular traveler knows mother nature can have a dramatic effect on air travel storms snow and lightning can all cause airport delays [Music] but the natural world's interventions aren't just limited to the elements wildlife also poses a significant risk we see the most activity on the south complex canada geese kill deer morning doves european starlings all kinds of different black birds your normal everyday birds we experience them here out on the airfield jet engines are designed to suck in air not birds and the results of a bird strike can be catastrophic 2009 you may have heard of the aircraft that took off from jfk ingested canada geese into both engines lost thrust and essentially became a glider he was able to land on the hudson river so 155 people evacuated safely from that aircraft it was a miracle atlanta has a special team dedicated to minimizing the risk birds pose to aircraft the problem is airfields are surprisingly attractive to wildlife they don't have much disturbance from human beings outside of the aircraft so once they condition to the aircraft noise it's really a nice place to be if you're wildlife steven's job is to make sure they don't stay this is what we call our wildlife kit it's in every one of the operations vehicles starter pistol it has all the pyrotechnics steven uses a range of pyrotechnics to flush out different birds but not everything in his kit is about scaring wildlife gloves along with alcohol wipes these are used when stephen collects this the remains of a bird strike blood feathers uh dry tissue we call that snarge in the industry the snarge will be collected and bagged up for dna analysis at a laboratory id into species helps us determine what's bringing that wildlife to our airport and what we need to mitigate on an airfield that covers nearly 5 000 acres getting rid of troublesome wildlife requires more than just a suitcase of equipment this is one of our wildlife deterrent units um it consists of a propane cannon and then also a bioacoustic generator so this is a sound system that's playing multiple different species distress cards to say leave the area it's unsafe this is not for you so please remove yourself from the environment go ahead and activate the cannon after he passes despite all these efforts birds still take up residence at the airfield right now in july we're seeing our peak bird strike numbers and that can range from one a day to one every other day but in taking into account uh how many movements we have here at the busiest airport it's not bad we don't have a wildlife problem necessarily we have a aircraft problem catastrophic bird strikes are incredibly rare but what happens when a plane is damaged this building over a mile long houses delta airlines technical operations department or tech hops for short if a plane arrives at atlanta after a damaging bird strike this is where it ends up anything that's solid that goes through an engine uh typically does significant damage the worst damage that i've seen was a bird strike which caused all the blades in the hpc to disintegrate and so the hpc that we see behind us here has nice uniform blades and the worst one kind of resembled a corn cob you know after the corn had been eaten and we actually refer to it as being corn cobbed and all the blades break off and it is a mess blaine's team don't just deal with repairs this is where the majority of the 1700 engines that power delta's fleet gets serviced we overhaul engines for delta so we've got about eight different engine lines and we can bring the engines in disassemble them to the piece part level and reassemble the engine and then get it ready for test these engines are incredible pieces of engineering the temperatures and pressures that they work at are are extreme and they often stay on wing for thousands and thousands of hours and thousands and thousands of cycles an individual engine can cost as much as six million pounds brand new servicing them requires an extraordinary range of techniques and materials which is why a complete overhaul can cost as much as 2.3 million pounds aircraft like engines will run for years and years with a regular service so specialist teams work every night to get planes back in action in the morning this plane tonight we have iran it's a remain overnight visit where we do standard routine maintenance on them on this one tonight our main focus is on the vertical stabilizer most of the other checks we have on it are like service and tires changing brakes the fluids we'll be doing uh engine work where we're changing igniter plugs we have a really good crew and we work through the issues we figure out what the problem is and what it's going to take to fix it and we try our best to get it fixed and be able to turn the aircraft have you already got it opened up yet as the lead technician it's donna's responsibility to oversee every aspect of the service and to make sure the aircraft is ready before the dawn deadline i just love working with the uh all the hydraulic portions of the aircraft and i want to be in there turning the wrenches delta service 21 different kinds of aircraft in this hangar each comprised of millions of parts if just one of these spare parts is out of stock and a plane can't fly the cost of the delay and the knock-on effects can quickly skyrocket into the millions [Music] to keep their fleet in the air delta have built one of the world's biggest spare parts stores it's beyond me how many parts would actually be on here there's 2.4 million different part types but actual parts probably trillions who knows finding parts in such an enormous store is so complicated the entire system has to be run by state-of-the-art computers when the mechanic orders apart it goes through the system so it actually cues up everything for us the system will determine what parts and what priority they need to be picked in it brings it to us once we confirm that order it sends it back and then the retriever will bring another part sometimes it's a struggle to keep up with the orders especially in the summertime that's our peak season the mechanics are busy keeping the plane cycling and we've got to get those parts to them so sometimes it is a challenge to keep up maintenance is so important to delta's operation that the team here retrieve and send out a staggering 46 682 parts and components every day and the need to keep aircraft in operation can have unexpected consequences in the normally cutthroat business of us airlines unfortunately every once in a while we will find ourselves out of stock on a park so sometimes airlines work together and they share parts or borrow apart from each other or buy parts from each other it's very very very rare that we ground a plane meticulous maintenance is what makes global air travel possible but how do you maintain the airport and its systems when they're in constant use every day [Music] welcome to the secret nighttime army responsible for keeping the world's busiest airport up to scratch it's one of the most crucial system that is on any airport it's 11 p.m and passenger flights have all but ceased the cargo terminal will run throughout the night but activity at the passenger gates has come to a halt now another secret army of people leaps into action these precious few hours when passenger flights are suspended are the only time most airports can carry out essential maintenance and with five runways 192 gates and over 5 000 acres to look after that means a lot of work 20 oscar 20 tango 34 crew unifies unit 10 is all concerned vfi's roommate 26 right is closed each runway is closed once a week for the airside operations team to conduct inspections and running repairs [Music] so right now i'm beginning the nightly airfield inspection we're going to start with air fill lighting runway lighting ensures pilots can clearly see the runway whatever the weather and night time is the only time these legally required checks can be made we're looking for lights that are out of service lights that are angled the wrong way lights that are overly bright lights that are very dim anything that could be detrimental to the operation of the ears we cannot have more than two consecutive out and we cannot have more than 10 percent of the entire lighting system out of service it's a big job 18 295 lights are needed to illuminate the airfield properly [Music] the lights aren't just there to indicate runways and taxiways special patterns and colors help tell a pilot exactly where they are on the airstrip this is a 9 000 foot runway so you want the first 3 000 feet for a the touchdown of an aircraft what we're seeing on the left and right sides of the center line and they are three lights spaced 150 feet apart from each other what we call runway touchdown zone lights south 1470 right turn at the end and then there aren't just patterns at the start of the runway other lights tell you when you're close to its end from this point we have three thousand feet remaining to the end of the runway and at this point your runway centerline lights will change from white in color to alternating red and white in color november 4 roll to the end please november 2 is unavailable and the runway snorland lights will change as we approach up here the 1000 foot remaining mark from alternating red and white to solid red the lighting code isn't limited to the runways green lights indicate the center of taxiways blue the edges and flashing yellow means you're about to cross an active runway [Music] matt's lighting check isn't the only work being carried out at night [Music] this is the only time they get to mow the majority of the airfield [Music] managing grass height is crucial keeping it too short leaves easy feeding grounds for birds too long attracts small mammals and then birds of prey letting the grass grow to an average height of 15 centimeters is ideal for minimizing wildlife inside the airport's buildings an army of engineers technicians and cleaners has descended to ensure the buildings are returned to full working order before the first flights depart at 6am [Music] machines are deployed to dust every nook and cranny wash the 1378 public toilets [Music] and clean three and a half miles of moving walkways and escalators nothing escapes the attention of these nighthawks check the g-shoe and it's cable also this c-phase cable and the a-phase cable that's good even the points on the plane train track get a clean [Music] night time is also the only opportunity for any airport to do construction work airports are all expanding right now as aircraft keep changing they're going to have to expand the gates to get the bigger aircraft in or they're going to want to have more aircraft in so they're going to add more bridges they're going to add more hold rooms there'll be construction constantly it'll constantly change it's 4 30 a.m passengers will be arriving to check in for the first flights of the day but there's still one routine check that needs to be carried out all right so now we're heading into the runway safety area which is giving us an alert so we know we're getting the area which we're not allowed to be in unless we have authorization which we do because we have a runway closure technicians from the federal aviation administration are here to test one of the airport's most vital pieces of equipment ever wondered what the mysterious antennae at the end of the runway are for this is part of the instrument landing system or ils for short the airport simply can't operate without it we only have uh two clearances one on this side and one on the 150 side it's one of the most crucial system that is on any airport because they are used to ensure that in the worst weather condition possible an aircraft can land at an airport safely without seeing the runway so i'll read and you write 13 degree point 299 in the 90. got it with a ground check what we basically do is check the integrity of the signal that's radiating out to align the aircraft on center line in principle the ils sends out two signals for approaching aircraft to lock onto one tells the pilot when they're lined up with the center of the runway the other when they are descending at the correct angle to land and in an age of computers and digital technology this system is remarkably old school it relies on radio waves it's very simple in the concept if i had two radio stations one tuned into this channel and one tune into the other channel and i put them on different sides of the runway and i tell the pilot i want you to find a spot where you can't hear either channel when is that when you're dead center so if you start to hear this fm versus that fm you're not in the center find the center making sure the system is working is critical at any airport but at atlanta it has added significance [Music] here we have five parallel runways and sometimes we have triple landings and they're always locked onto those ilses because there's so many planes coming in at the same time they want to stay on that runway center with all the checks complete the world's busiest airport is fully open for business again early morning is one of the peak times for international arrivals so how do customs and border protection turn the airport into a frontier on a good day we'll find hidden compartment our biggest thing here is marijuana but we'll sometimes find cocaine or heroin [Music] long easy six belts bravo [Music] around 20 000 people arrive at the world's busiest airport from overseas every day they fly in from europe africa asia and latin america and every one of them needs to pass through customs before they can enter the usa but what the thousands of people queuing to pass through immigration don't realize is that the work of the customs officers has already begun guys just keep on walking for me please keep on coming officers from customs and border protection will sweep an international arrival as soon as the passengers have disembarked they're looking for any kind of contraband we're looking for items or compartments where they may have head stuff that they're bringing back into the united states including narcotics we use our dog as another tool and we still like to go double check everything by hand there are too many international arrivals to check every one so flights are picked at random we just like to hit different flights all time to keep everybody on their toes in mind their p's and q's the sweep is thorough inside and out right here i'm looking at the inside of one of the cargo holes on this aircraft you don't just have passengers involved in the drug trade you also have people that work for the airlines and people have access to aircraft that are involved in hiding in hidden compartments at times that the general public doesn't even think about or doesn't even see inevitably most of the things the officers discover have been forgotten rather than hidden most days we find things that people leave over just like the toothbrush right here we find tablets and cell phones but on a good day we'll find hidden compartment filled with different drugs our biggest thing here is marijuana but we'll sometimes find cocaine or heroin this plane is clear but across the u.s customs and border protection officers find over two and a half tons of narcotics every day the staff in the immigration hall process the passengers as fast as possible long queues here can have a major impact on the rest of the airport hey guys good morning all right you have your passports thank you their aim is to confirm the identity of every traveler but how do they deal with the 20 000 international passengers that arrive every day so what is the purpose of your trip atlanta has installed the latest in biometric recognition systems automated booths check paperwork unique facial features and fingerprints it allows the passenger to present themselves to a kiosk uh swipe in their documentation answer all the customs questions with the uh new technology that is um being tested here in atlanta now facial recognition you could process a u.s citizen in a matter of seconds [Music] and the screening process doesn't stop in immigration while passengers wait for their luggage another cbp officer is on patrol a four-legged one broken dog hold on unlike other dogs at the airport murray's not looking for explosives or drugs his target might seem mundane but it's potentially just as dangerous oh murray what do we have here he looks for like plants vegetables meats and other prohibited items passengers often bring food in as an innocent treat for relatives or a sentimental taste of home oh who has a good dog look at that ham and every bag that murray and his colleagues sniff out must be examined by cbp's agricultural department inspectors so i see our canine has hit on you [Music] oh okay the fresh leaves that you have that you're carrying these are prohibited items so unfortunately all your fresh fruits and vegetables will not be permitted to the us today but why is something you can buy in any supermarket such an issue letting a non-native item into the country could have catastrophic consequences any foreign pest or disease that could come into the u.s can cause billions of dollars to our economy as far as the agricultural side it's not just the odd bit of fruit and veg that gets confiscated a typical morning's hall would put a top chef's kitchen to shame we have some fresh okra we have eggplants avocado we also have some bananas and then of course we have a big beautiful bag of some dried meat with some items like these cherimoya or custard apples the pests are visible to the naked eye pests for an example that we find on the cherimoya are going to be typically your mealybugs which is that white dot even spices conceal potential biohazards inside of the cumin there is a federal noxious weed that is found once we go through the process of sifting it first eye contact here are two and so therefore unground cumin cannot come in for that reason so what happens to this culinary contraband the only way to dispose of it safely is by feeding it into a blender then incinerating the pulp over the course of my career i must have ground thousands upon thousands of pounds of food [Music] in 2016 detector dogs like murray quarantined 1.7 million items intercepting more than 60 000 harmful pests no mean achievement good boy given all of these dogs have either been rescued or donated to cbp murray is a rescue when they found him he was badly abused if you look at him half of his ear is cut off i don't know if somebody tried to cut his ear or from a dog fight we don't know because he was in really bad shape he was really skinny he was scared of people that a boy that's a good dog [Music] we have an on-time schedule departure this afternoon of 4 48 with an arrival into detroit of 6 39 p.m local time as airports become increasingly familiar in our daily lives it would be easy to take these complex places for granted shuttle 6116 you'll be next for departure monitor tower 123.85 yet behind the scenes is a secret army of people dedicated to ensuring our flights arrive and leave on time my job's invisible to the public that some people don't even know that i exist and i don't mind that i get enough credit and satisfaction out of knowing that i'm making this place safer for the traveling public get a lot of people that come in and say thank you for what you do i know you have a difficult job and we appreciate it and we in turn appreciate those people that say that they operate around the clock a typical night for me starts at 10 30 p.m it ends about 7 30 a.m this industry it's a 24 7 365 industry and the midnight shift is a necessary part of that and they work with all manner of machinery i enjoyed being able to take an engine completely apart and then later seeing it on wing flying safely to make our journeys run as safely and as seamlessly as possible they are living the secret life of the world's busiest airport

Channel: Spark

Views: 777,793

Keywords: Spark, Science, Technology, Engineering, airport, Heathrow, Heathrow spark, spark Heathrow, Heathrow: Britain's busiest airport, Heathrow airport, Heathrow airport documentary, spark Heathrow: Britain's busiest airport, Heathrow series, passenger arrest, airport police, Britain's busiest airport, spark science, spark channel, London Heathrow, Heathrow documentary, air traffic control, how airports work, airport documentary, atlanta airport documentary, atlanta airport spotting

Id: lCgFXE17U3U

Length: 66min 53sec (4013 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 01 2021