Deep Dive Into London Heathrow Airport | 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 heathrow's success depends on getting planes into the air on time it's saturday afternoon the peak time for departures and outside terminal 3 ground staff are under pressure to keep everything running to schedule are you departing crew or arrival [Music] dispatcher james is responsible for getting the pakistan air flight to lahore away at exactly 15 55. a flight came in late um 10 past we came here the fuelers here which is good can take it out sometimes the fuel um cater as the cleaner to here if james misses this departure slot the airline could be heavily penalized flight's not ready on time yeah it's going to cost money or you're going to cost the airline money so they're yeah we can't afford to wait for anything they can get very busy once the passengers start coming they'll open the gate in about five minutes and then it all seems to happen at once you just blow the car before the storm really you know for pakistan air it's the busiest flight of the week at the gate the check-in team has just 30 minutes to get all 350 people on board do you have 19 kilos here yeah oh there's two more see that's my mom's bag i'm curious where is your mom she doesn't check-in agent maria is on the lookout for passengers attempting to slip on extra hand luggage it's way clean the sizes of the bag somebody explains 15 20 kilos and gets healthy safety gets a bit forced in your head you can knock someone out kill someone we've got a very busy flight the overhead cabin cannot take the excess weight okay what's the situation here you have to pay because you have an extra bag okay have you not dumped a bag you want to dump it's fine has it been over there okay there dump that bag time is running out and there are still 250 bags to check your scale piece no not even not yourself you don't have to weigh yourself i'm the guy in the community darling your bag all right love enjoy your flight she's only about 70 kilos over i will give you a discount yeah yeah i'll give you the discount pay for three kilos 30 pounds all right 20 bucks huh 20 pounds okay just keep that you're welcome if it's like too much money they want to bring it down to a sport that they're going to pay do you do that are you up for negotiation i negotiate it depends on my mood really what sort of you in today how many happy mood today it's not just that the gates where heavy bags can cause delays business careful you're gonna get crew bags uh in terminal three's baggage depot andy is racing to fill 12 containers he's got off his bathroom in this one why is it hard work there's a bag every day in the other flights ridiculously everywhere with a luggage allowance of 50 kilograms per passenger pakistan airs bags are among the heaviest in heathrow you don't think when you're carrying your bag along you don't think how heavy it's going to be for someone that's just thrown 300 bags in all different bins despite the weight of the bags andy's got to keep up the pace the ground crew are waiting to load the plane jesus i'm knackered now let's see this is why i wear shorts i'm boiling now obvious t-shirt everything coming off in a minute inspection as leaving the lounge and again before boarding the aircraft once again we are for pakistan impression airline we'd like to wish you very pleasant flight thank you what are the passengers now we're missing three yeah which ones we're missing please a final count reveals three checked-in passengers have still not turned up at the gate i was just missing passengers now i'm still loading the aircraft there's no problem we'll be down about five or ten minutes but we'll just try to get everybody here really three passengers missing three passengers the whole team is dispatched to scour the departure lounge for them [Music] how long ago did i come through quite a while ago so there should be somewhere in the departure lounges i check where the uh the seating area and then i go back to junior three again p.i.a yeah straight down please gate 27 we're about to close thank you thank you i don't know you're late madam here here here this way this way this way watch it watch it with the flight now 10 minutes late and one passenger still missing the airline must make a decision i really don't know where to look now do you need more time how long do you need already about 300 passengers on board so we don't want to wait we have lots of pressure at the end from heathrow from our in the management from head office and we have to send the flight the order to leave without the passenger has been given but the flights can't depart with their luggage on board we've gone past schedule now so this is costing the end you know it's the delay in the flight now so yeah time with the essence really yeah 43 41 right 43 right yeah any passage fails to show to flight bags have to come off the aircraft and yeah it's just basically getting them off get the bags off and close look like james's team must search through 12 full containers and with every minute that passes finds a mounting last year missing passengers cost airlines 3.5 million pounds in late fees 2-0 please 2-0 we're still looking for bags even let's close the door so in case he turns up we're not can't accept any more yeah finally the bag is found and the flight can go half an hour late all right that is gone yes sir what time the flight is five o'clock isn't it this flight was 3 55 sir not 5 o'clock says 14 55 you should go for boarding which is like nearly two hours ago sir and we've been looking for you everywhere where are you there he's looking further are you looking sitting somewhere yeah sitting and looking for the nobody announcement is there as a nothing is so old 200 nearly 300 passenger made it on time so i'm sorry but anyway because of you the flight gone like more than half an hour late it's gone just because of you sir now we lost about three thousand nearly three four thousand pounds um because of the delay so you caused uh that is gone already yes sir like let's say yeah we got your bags up so you have to go and change your ticket and everything they will tell you how much it's gonna cost you or whatever yeah okay bye-bye see you later all right james alright guys thank you there's no rest for the pakistan air team in 60 minutes time the next flight is due to depart every 45 seconds a plane lands or departs from heathrow and the air traffic controllers are responsible for every single one it's been on this year in november it looks quite busy out there right now up to 15 minutes i beat a three one sierra whiskey monitor the tower 118 decimal five every day they must precisely coordinate more than 1 400 plane movements in a busy hour we can depart one aircraft every minute we call it a wheels up departure which basically means you've got one on the runway which is departing the moment the nose wheel is off the ground for that aircraft will create the one behind for takeoff straight away using only two runways i don't think there's anywhere else that pushes as much traffic as we do gavin is starting his shift over the next eight hours he'll depart over 400 planes yeah okay perfect thank you sometimes you know i might look there's a little train set for me so when i was a kid you know i used to have my train set and i'd be sort of moving my trains about and you go there you'll go in there you'll grow and that's exactly what i'm doing up here you know you could have seven eight nine ten different things going on a multi-task believe it or not men can multitask the air traffic controller selection process is one of the toughest job interviews in the world less than one percent of applicants pass it suits some people it doesn't suit others an oxford graduate might not be suited to air traffic control but myself coming out of school with five gcses air france 863 whiskey good afternoon pushing starts approved because we're working 98 capacity we've got very little give very very little give so yeah we only need to have you know a small little problem a heathrow with a knock-on effect not just through heathrow but throughout europe could be massive and even throughout the rest of the world with no room for delays heathrow employs 350 engineers round the clock to fix any faults immediately oh my god yesterday was so misery it's a good hour it's thursday morning and in terminal two engineers jack and andy have received a priority call from security i think it's like it's either like 18 or 16 before the belt on the fast track lane has broken and the queue is at a standstill let's have a look we just got to turn it off completely we want to get this done as soon as possible because depending on how busy it is you know the queue can go from like tens to like hundreds in like you know like minutes [Music] in heathrow anything that slows people down could mean missed flights from the angle there aren't it yeah this is pissed isn't it yeah and uh yeah it's the roller rollers the lane has been shut for 10 minutes and the backlog of passengers is intensifying don't do this to me come on i'll lift it up pull get all that crap out from underneath in between the roller and that there yeah that's it yeah that's it running yeah yeah they're fine all right good now that the belt is moving again the cause of the hold up becomes clear what did you find in there that right there yeah there you go that was the bit what was released as we lifted it up it's dust it's got a bit of hair in it that's going to keep it on there not all heroes wear capes heathrow is one of britain's busiest borders to police it the airport retains a force of 400 officers what was the time of arrest please it's 11 43 on the offense tempted gbh section 18. what is it another gbh yeah seriously two hours into their shift pc's claire and steve have received an alert that a suspected violent criminal is flying out of the airport we're going to speak to a male that's on on a flight this morning that's been circulated on pnc for a serious assault okay so we need to go and have a word with him um identify see if he's the same person you say have a word with him you mean nikki and if he is the same person that's wanted then he'll be arrested they're getting to the gate early to be in position when their target arrives hello gents can i ask you if someone has checked in please oh yeah by the way okay what time does check-in close 11 22 11 20. when he does check in he presents himself here you need to tell us please because um he won't he will not be flying well he's not got long to check in then he's got 20 minutes if they fail to arrest the man before his flight departs he could be gone for good if he does know that we're looking for him he might see us and decide he doesn't want to get this flight after all and turn around and go the other way which makes our life a little bit harder because then we have to look through the airport for him i'm just going to find out if chicken's closed sorry it's checking clothes still open what time how long it's close it's closed oh sorry sir can i just ask you what your name is please have you got a passport there are you from the states no australia australia i'm not very good with accents it's all right we're just looking for someone and he does look a little bit like you but he's not you that's fine awesome with the gate closing and no sign of the suspect claire and steve are forced to abandon the search maybe it's just had a bit of a cold feet or something damn it one of them days [Music] back in the terminals the challenge of keeping heathrow safe never stops come forward please ladies the airport security officers search over 200 000 to carry on bags a day oh my gosh look at that ah you can't take down the aeroplane no no can't take no gun that's yours you can you'll never know what you're going to get until you start a bag set some of the things will shock you and amaze you one of the stranger items i've seen was a hollowed-out ostrich egg i've had a wizards wand uh we see a lot of adult type items which is not a not a problem but sometimes they leave the liquids in the bags with them there was that time when i was searching someone they had what looked like two plastic vials as i had a closer examination there were spiders inside two piles what looked like what were tarantulas it's the freakiest thing i've ever seen in terminal four former mobile phone salesman shaheed is dealing with the afternoon surge of departing passengers come over here sir sorry is there anything sharp inside the bag nothing no there's nothing like that no okay one moment so leave everything in there i'm just gonna check it okay a carpenter yeah a carpenter so that's why i say go to tools oh no no you see all these tools you should be in your big bag okay um oh my god no no no no no in the hand luggage you can't take this one oh my god okay look at this cordless battery you can't take this one okay you sure younger yeah it's all gonna go yeah the tools will be going in the bin but it appears the passenger has other more serious concerns if he doesn't leave he would be forced to leave he's received a deportation order from the uk border agency he'd been here illegally for ten years uh for ten years we've been illegally working as a carpenter builder and recently he'd fallen off the roof where he was working broke his leg and at the hospital that's when they saw that he was actually a legal immigrant he just needs to go to the um immigration and get his passport okay can we help me with that oh put that back put it back just now people come here on the pretense that oh yeah let's go to england we'll find we'll find work here you know we'll make so much money but i think when you're here it's another harsh reality when you're finding somewhere to live and you're here illegally and you're trying to pay your bills but you know i do feel sorry for him and you know wishing the best nearly thirty thousand people will leave from terminal three departures today but a handful won't make it further than the gate cleaning is coming off so we're just in time heathrow police officers claire and steve are on the lookout for a new target a passenger who has missed his court date all right so this time we've got a 23 year old male 1 who didn't turn up to court when he had his drink drive hearing so now we wait for him like we did before he's been up and taking it as they stake out the departure gate steve notices someone unexpected from earlier which one hold this a familiar face among the hundreds of other passengers hello mate you got your passport please yes cheers thanks very much the suspect who had eluded them earlier in the day you're wanted for serious assault mate seriously yeah mate you're under arrest okay you do not have to say anything but it may harm your defense you do not mention something you later rely on anything you do say will be given in evidence where you going for how come over here with me a minute pick your bag up give him your boarding cards mate i know this is very unfortunate [Music] he pleased with that spot he's with it but i hadn't spotted him and only got on that flight i would have been annoyed yeah the other suspect was also arrested he was later charged and found guilty of drink driving offences i see you back at the nick steve's prisoner was released without charge [Music] it's the start of the october half term holidays one of the busiest periods in heathrow's year [Music] good you need a hand um is it one of you this week a new manager is taking charge of terminals two and three 22 year old callum thank you very much i'll let them know i joined the team three weeks ago i've just been through some training then i did a shift last week and today is my second day and it's it's busy very busy he will be assisted by demi a veteran of the terminal with 20 years of experience there's only one person in our team that's got a nickname callum [Music] harry potter i can see it i can see it i think it's more to do with the magic that i work on a daily basis as opposed to my appearance so callum like all terminal managers will be assessed on how well he can keep the airport running smoothly whatever is thrown at him now dozens of flights have been cancelled today as thick fog hits heathrow airport 50 flights were cancelled yesterday and heathrow airport has been tweeting saying we are continuing to experience reduced operations which is expected to last into tomorrow [Music] during one of the busiest weeks of the year heavy fog is descended on heathrow [Music] 50 planes were delayed this morning pushing the already packed afternoon schedule to breaking point there are no seats if you have not yet been rebooked onto a flight to dublin tomorrow you will not get out from here basically the queue of about 150 passengers they're not going to get on a flight tonight and more than likely not going to get on a flight tomorrow the situation is so bad that callum must continually update heathrow's most senior managers we've had an air lingus flight just cancelled it's full and so they're being landed now and sent to check in to be re-rebooked and the china flight i believe the inbound flight was diverted to brussels so the passengers are all their side we're just trying to find out whether that's going to go tonight or not heavy fog has a knock-on effect on every area of heathrow's operation we only need to be in fog for maybe an hour hour and a half and that's already had a massive effect massive impact we can't see anything at the window so we need to give more space in so instead of three miles for example between two aircraft we need to give six miles then delays start creeping up on outbound aircraft and that's where the airlines have to start cancelling flights because it's just not possible for us to be able to get those aircraft away by 4 pm slow-moving queues of grounded passengers are filling terminal 2 tempers are fraying we have been standing here for hours like they treat dogs better than they've treated us when everything works it works okay when anything broke down everything broke down also she said to me is it that bad i said we'll look around the corner and you'll see so she needs to i hope she doesn't think 100. all they've got here is 100. do you mind just having a weather seeing what our plans are so i need to go through it with so many frustrated passengers copenhagen are you looking for sir callum is relying on demi's experience and charm to manage the crowds but even demi is struggling to maintain order in the terminal i'm sorry that's not fair we're also waiting very long here what was happened this guy here right to the front right comes from the other queue on our desk sorry gents but you know these people have been waiting before you yeah you need to be at the back of this line guys we were just queuing here for the last hour yeah right okay no that's something you need to take up with your old sir sorry he just skipped the queue and went straight to there and i mean that's not okay because we want to have service too one person kicks off then you have to do something about it and people are frustrated enough as it is for someone then to take their cue space i think yeah it does get challenging but i'll do exactly the same i think it's the beast within us [Music] while callum's team tried to keep the peace in the terminal outside on the airfield the airside safety team is on heightened alert we have to make sure that from air traffic control perspective everything on the ground we can do as much as we can to keep it to keep it smooth running and anything that is causing a problem we can get out there and try and try and resolve it as quickly as possible with visibility falling to below 50 meters chris has been dispatched to patrol the north runway phoenix ground are you prepared marshall please push down four one more four one for a marshal roger the fog is making even basic maneuvers like parking at the stand impossible for pilots uh yeah he's probably about 10 meters from the stock bar the stand entry guidance system which is the box there it's basically just a just a guidance system for the aircraft and it will give you directions on his comments it will tell it to turn left onto stand it will tell it to come forward if it needs to move left if it needs to move right so due to the fog it doesn't quite recognize the aircraft so anytime that fails we then take control of the aircraft and master it ourselves with the fog playing havoc with technology it's down to chris and the team to manually park every plane but this takes time everything now has just been pushed back so everything will be going at ever slightly a bit later and obviously a busy airport like heathrow where every second counts it has it has massive knock-on effects [Music] have just canceled the passengers are coming back here time to join the party mate it's 9 30 p.m and in less than two hours heathrow's runways will close all remaining passengers will be stranded for the night airlines are no longer providing hotel rooms for delayed passengers and late cameras are having to fend for themselves 339 for information the flight has been postponed so tomorrow it's leaving at 9 30. the prior news is we don't have any rooms to give you a lot of hotel rooms are full i would say about 140 150 yeah but nobody seems to be leaving they're all just kind of asking asking questions but it's going to probably get quite heated here because he's kind of getting a bit surrounded if you can find yourselves a run please find yourselves a room and then try and claim your expenses but if passengers don't organize their own lodging callum faces the prospect of hundreds of people sleeping rough in terminal 2. roll mats here so yeah we have got them so there's 14 pieces roll mats this time of night you're quite vulnerable when you've got public transport stopping in the area hotel buses stopping in the area hotels all sold out that's when you kind of left with no choice but to give people blankets and a map we have free internet downstairs go on there heathrow hotels write down as many numbers as you can and then start ringing around with 60 minutes to go before closure demi steps up his efforts to get every passenger into accommodation for the night there you go tomorrow morning nine o'clock i have a flight here to toronto yeah okay okay so what have they told you what you got to do now i don't like to go to the hotel you don't want to go no no i am alone i am afraid i can't stay here no problem why don't you go to a hotel yeah i know why i am afraid you want us at the airport are you sure you don't want i don't know do you want to tell you where to go come to show you okay come with me i would be more afraid to hear the airport on my own do you know what do you know what people will do to get a hotel room now right so there's your hotel there yeah leonardo hotel h4 yeah okay we'll see you tomorrow okay okay take care you can't have that if that was my mum i wouldn't want to sleep at the airport so i'd appreciate someone taking her down and she probably appreciates now when she gets in bed i think i'm lovely because she could be up here no i'll get a hotel and come back have a thanks sleep much as a difficult day draws to a close callum demi and the team have managed to persuade most passengers to sleep in hotels so we've still got passengers in the idl but other than that we're all good stuff good stuff all right so we're looking good now so the terminal is ready for the morning as well so we're all right i think we're in a good place copy thank you mate this is the first time in this role that i've i've handled any kind of weather disruption so but i think it's gone very well out on the perimeter road heathrow's animal reception center or ark processes thousands of creatures arriving from around the world it's really fun from cats and dogs should we go see your owner come on to lizards frogs fish and turtles staff are tasked with keeping diseases like rabies at bay [Music] animal health officer vicky is responsible for checking in today's new arrivals each pet must comply with strict regulations let me move this out the way hello max and molly are from kenya it is quite a a considerable journey for for these guys a bit of a change in weather as well the dog's owner hella is relocating back to the uk to live closer to our mom i have a new job and i have a new house and i've got to start all over again so um i will feel more at home if i have my my pets with me max turning inside this way i'm really excited to see my dogs don't send it to me and i was a bit worried about them so i just feel guilty because you know i was worrying about the flight last night yeah they're my babies yeah picking up molly and max yeah yeah um there's just a slight problem with the paperwork if i just take a c it's a bit of a discrepancy with the vaccinations so we just need to get confirmation um that what they were given was a rabies vaccine because this is their entry document unless vicky gets the correct form certifying the dogs are rabies free they'll face a lengthy quarantine 3-2 so i'll just give this number a call and i'll let you know what they say okay okay two two dogs no no cat we need the we need the rabies vaccine information you want me to ring you back so frustrating i mean what did they turn around so they could've been quarantined six months i think i will probably freak out for most passengers air travel in the 21st century is not a luxurious experience any laptops ipads take about these or liquids and toiletries but in some discreet corners of the airport an exclusive set of travellers are preparing to travel in style hello how are you sir hi james from virginia welcome back thank you more people fly out of heath row sitting in first class seats than any other airport in the world so how many boxes of champagne oh yeah 20. well we haven't checked we haven't counted 20. it's 10 a.m and premium lounge manager neelam is overseeing today's delivery of champagne even at this time in the morning champagne is still very popular we can go through between six to eight bottles of champagne first thing in the morning because they've paid so much money their holiday starts as soon as they arrive at the airport i mean that's how i feel when i travel i'm in holiday mode so i don't think about the time you know i want to have a glass of champagne with my breakfast and enjoy it's impossible to go economy i mean my accountants always have a go at me about it but so look i'd spend 250 000 probably with first class returns to dubai costing 14 times the price of economy tickets neelam can't afford for anything to be out of place i think we just need to tell the chefs that the sausages need to be cooked a little bit more they're a bit pale and that sometimes put passengers off they're too pale i expect the standards to be 100 i'm terrible when i go out i expect the highest level of service complain about anything the lounge spends lavishly to win the loyalty of premium passengers 350 000 pounds a year on champagne and 20 000 pounds on flowers look in here these are really beautiful so we're gonna put these in how much are they per stem well you'd pay up to between fifteen and twenty pound per stem for these i think that one's got more of those twigs in this one that one has more of the twigs and than this one the afternoon rush is starting but not everyone's making it further than reception hello hi thank you so much oh my lovely mr nishan yes i do apologize you're a silver member only gold here in this lounge sorry my lovely i do apologize have a lovely day thank you [Music] we get that all the time we get quite a lot of abuse if we say no are you a gold or platinum member no so this launch is for business and first class gold and platinum members they protest and sit in front of the lounge and won't go if you have access to the british elvis slash people work very hard for their money and they want the best and if they think spending a certain amount of money to travel in first class is what they want to do then why shouldn't they we'd all want to travel like this of course but we can't one mile away from the luxury of terminal 3 ly heathrow's 22 cargo warehouses morning grumpy cargo handler mick the hat has 30 tons of freight to back up ready for the afternoon's flight to chicago i've been doing it since i was 17. worked that out [Music] i started here when i was 17 i'm now 64. four large crates of salmon are packed and ready to go 50 000 tons are shipped every year making it heathrow's biggest export by far what kind of things uh have you shipped here all sorts vegetables flowers bodies body parts loads of wood anything it goes through that door i'll tell you i'm surprised what goes through here if you come yesterday you'd have seen the rabbits today one item requires mix extra special attention right where's the sandwich palette the car's here trying to get it down on the bay tree now we're going to move off the door three come on this way oh here we go [Music] i ain't seen one of them for a long time [Music] the rare 1938 british racing car was bought last week at auction for half a million pounds by an anonymous american buyer we know there's any fuel in it [Music] is it okay it's a nice car i'd like to own it there's a few bubbles do you know who's buying it someone with lots of money a millionaire out there this is good to go we're gonna send it away then yep would you want to go with the spring cargo is big business for airlines damaged freight and a damaged reputation could be costly right now we're gonna have to strap it down wheel by wheel to the pallet it's safe to go out onto the aircraft fortunately today they've got an expert handler on the case just secured it a little bit better we'll do the same with the back this is one of the busiest sheds on the airport we're always cramming freight in and cramming freight out but that's what it's all about getting it on the plane don't go on the plane you don't get paid when i pull back in the animal reception center hella has been waiting for an hour to find out if her dogs will be released or sent to quarantine [Music] finally the vet in kenya sends over more paperwork everything matches up good news [Music] it means home time huh [Music] have a safe journey [Music] now i feel like i've got my family back and i can kind of get on with getting into my life here in england [Music] next time an aircraft gets the world's most expensive nose job oh it's like my ass when i wasn't at six weeks old checking staff faced their toughest test of the year if one of us falls it causes chaos for everyone here and an inaugural flight struggles to get off the ground the response team's gone to the wrong aircraft [Music] you

Channel: Spark

Views: 4,418,594

Rating: 4.8097572 out of 5

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

Id: CptO-YZHFig

Length: 45min 10sec (2710 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 30 2018