The Mind-Blowing Life Inside The World's Busiest Airport

2564 is coming up on right 2564 Atlant 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 do I taking anything you can eat drink or serve the webw out of the bags I'm looking for anything that can make to make an exposed material the airport handles 2 million passengers a week this is the final boarding call 126 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 US citizen in a matter of seconds that makes this extraordinary Place work once's the 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 Del the flight 353 service 2 Liberia Costa Rica Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta handles more flights than heat thr and Gatwick airports combined good afternoon ladies and gentlemen your aircraft has just arriv here at G a28 around 261 million people 80% of the US population live within 2 hours flight of here boight 2179 at Pensacola and it's the home base for Delta Airlines one of the biggest carriers in the world hello connection information is here on the overhead monitor that's why 104 million passengers pass through the airport every year relying on the 2,700 flights that arrive or depart every day so it's 104 affirmative and make a left turn on tax wi over to ensure everything runs on time hundreds of aircraft must be emptied prep repaired 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 American 1309 uh coming on your left side to your gate Tango 10 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 has to have catering has to be clean 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 4484 your push approved tail South currently there's two and Q ramp controllers manage the flow of aircraft enabling Pilots to find the right gate and head for the right Runway he 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 brael 31 he just pushed off the gate he was on time and I got Bravo 33 we have the jetway off and it looks like he's going to be early it's the gate controller's job to liaz with the ground crew to ensure baggage tugs arrive for the luggage and catering trucks arrive with newly loaded Galley CS 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 M long which feed fuel to every single gate at the airport and the system pumps 11 million L 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 inh handheld Electronics which is how they know that this flight has a problem we out 41 bag Hey listen you guys got any bag I got um 2330 Tampa Alpha 7 we're missing about 40 bags okay 23:30 and uh we got uh 15 minutes on the clock 5 or 10 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 great 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 up 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 WS 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 2 hours for their next flight so what we do is the aircraft that just broke has a 2-hour ready time we'll take that ship that's sitting here waiting for 2 hours and we'll put the passengers on them and then by the time that happens this one should be repaired he'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 I mean it came in early you see the Standard Time right there is 11:50 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 a beehive everybody I mean it's just activity if you were to take the lid off you're just going to hear you know buzzing going the tower is also in communication with the gate agents they must deal with the single most timec consuming turnaround job of all us the passengers we should begin boarding at 35 minutes prior to departure so we are getting ready to begin boarding but the boarding process has been delayed hi are you good thank you no problem cute glass thank you whether the captain and first officer here or not the all flight attendant have to be here before we can Bor so right now we just have one we're still holding on three more maintain control of your bags at all times we're all familiar with seating areas where we can wait for our flight but what about the Air Cruise hidden out of the way underneath the terminals are two other lounges one for cabin crew the other for pilot 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 busily 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 uh kick back put our feet up and 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 upto-date weather forecasts but as they head for their gate it turns out that one of the most critical things the pilot of a 75 million plane relies on is an oldfashioned printout this is the Pilot's predeparture paperwork it basically lets them know which Runway they need to take what elevation it has all of it 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 very much we are the able to accommodate any additional passengers for this fight has Che completely full there are still 5 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 2 on there so everything was closed up at D3 uh ready for on time departure um he's on the headset right now just waiting for the captain to call him once the captain get his clearance out and be ready to go we're ready to take the can off the aircraft and get the plane back when an on time [Music] departure the ramp controller leazes with air traffic control Roger before giving the pilots clearance to move right now we got this aircraft that's pushing back we're giving them instructions of how to to go so they can get oriented to the right Runway so they can take off flight dl2330 heads off to Tamper bang on schedule but keeping atlan 2,700 flights a day on time isn't just down to the ramp Towers what the GU this is a final boarding call for Delta flight 1286 all confirmed in ticket at passengers must be on board at this time at gate T6 they've almost finished boarding a flight to New York hey how are you today 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% 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 pass 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 Heath row combined a 3M Loop of track runs along the spine of the airport connecting Terminals and Gates the next up is for a Gates a as an alpha 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 up is for Bates B has Bravo but what and who keeps it running you get you the head out to F2 got doors fell in the lock F2 we have to ensure that there's no glitches no Hang-Ups we want 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 4 car 47 doors fell the closeth and as soon as there's an issue Rod alerts his roving team of Engineers to fix it all right no problem they are part of a secret army of people who keep the airports functioning you have three guys spread out across the entire system and they all have a certain area to cover if a issue happens we can tell them where the train is um car 34 what the problem is the pressure on Rod is is immense a plane train breakdown is the nightmare scenario without that one minute train now the crowd starting to pile up and pile up and pile up those stations would be crowded in just 5 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 rooted 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 be open while Rod's team attend to every technical fault some problems are beyond their control number one would would probably be passenger interference that means people jamming door [Music] doors 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 US Air Traffic to a complete halt these trains will not move without the doors being closed that's why it's so crucial it's so important careful doors are closing 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 Dan's costumes or something important like I always get scared that they're going to lose my bags this is actually only my second time on a playing so the first time my uh bagage got lost worldwide around 20 million bags are lost or damaged each year costing the industry £1.8 billion Atlanta uses the latest in technology to minimize the chance of your bags missing your [Music] flight welcome to Atlanta's Hightech baggage Highway first stop on the line the Transportation Security administration's screening fa 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 £61,000 to hunt for explosives or other bandn 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 on straight onto the planate 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 inspect can zero in on the suspicious part of the bag any bag that has a laptop in it is going to pretty much come down and be alarmed and checked on the floor CU that's easily something that you can hide or conceal uh an explosive device or makeup of exposive device in I'm checking for any type of explosive or Trace material that it might be on the item itself analyzing a swab from the laptop is the shest way to check if it's okay or not okay 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 is locked if a bag's locked and George doesn't have a master key he must adopt a more direct [Music] approach explosives thankfully are incredibly rare but George does get a surprise now and again one time we even see like some some dead rats uh mice and it was just a whole bunch of them in little Ziplock 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 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 um 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 uh 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 uh 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 MB 143 a baggage system technician is dispatched to sort out the problem our goal is to clear them within a minute and a half this little competition between the day shift and the PM shift on how quickly they can clear a 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 most we've handled in any particular day was 108,000 that's pretty mindboggling uh how many bags were able to move through here in a day uh keep them sorted out keep them uh 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 airbridge are doing are you Mr sender I am yes 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 Street waiting for 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 [Music] flight I was really sweating it you know I was a little concerned about weather and everything else it's a big day um actually asking U my girlfriend to to be my wife I'm flying home to Milwaukee and immediately as I see her I'm going to 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 mph to tole 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 as we head up perfect great thank you one passenger 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 traffic Bri right 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 maloth task the 326 tax VI the pink three hold short Runway ner right Runway ner right VI p 3 2326 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 start and end your flight AS seamless as possible 254 is coming up on right it's a nonstop Carousel of planes in and out South 105 at Romeo 3 cross Runway ner right turn left on taxiway November every airport is different 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 con to 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 an hour so how do you manage the flow of aircraft when there is a takeoff or Landing happening every 15 seconds Atlanta Airport Port is divided in [Music] two each side serving one half of us airspace on each side one Runway is dedicated to takeoffs the others to Landings and each Runway has a designated controller to 1471 you can make the left turn at Lima one you'll follow an EMB approaching from your left 1471 monitor Tower 12385 breaking the system down like this makes the process of air traffic control much more manageable for that's good thank you Del 2326 I'll pass this information thank you 1564 turn on November and hold SI the airport's taxiways operate as enormous oneway 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 uh main objective is to taxi the aircraft both arriving and departures um to get them to their Runway there shut 6116 you'll be next for departure monitor Tower 12385 aircraft need a minimum separation between takeoffs but smaller gaps are permitted if their Roots diverge as soon as they're Airborne when they tax out for departure you could get a North departure and you can get followed by another North departure and what the ground controller would do is he would park that second North departure and wait for a West departure to come out 3 Atlanta Tower right number two by all 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 amer8 cross left join M 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 [Music] 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 radar 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 um and it's a memory aid for us so we use those uh 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 traveler knows that means clearing security having people go through security is probably the biggest thing you know with 911 and everything after that you know going 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 your attention please airport security alert please maintain control of your at all times they were formed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack and Christy Newton Terry was one of their first employees the training was very fast I had my interview um my test everything all in the same day within a 3 we span it was like this and I had a job that has lasted me this long it was amazing to me you know uh what it is that we do you know basically saving the public every day move your jacket sir you can step around I have an open station in the front we have a motel not on our watch basically it means never again do we want 911 to happen everything that's in your pocket put it in here very first station the main weapon in tsa's Armory is the xray 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 it's 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 webw out of the bags last year screening at Atlanta revealed 245 handguns carried in people's luggage of which 222 were loaded we find that gun almost every day some of them forget they're in their bag some of them think that 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 sh the web with go ahead and take it out of the bag the meticulous process of security can cause long cues 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 explosiv SN for dogs he's not going to bother he just going to smell you well the technology is very good um but the dog's Keen sense of smell is much better than the machinery and it's a lot quicker so we can screen passengers much faster we used to screen cargo and they would call us cuz 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 he not going to bother you he just going to 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 screening XO check 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 near normal everyday Birds we experience them here out on 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 Wild Life 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 pyate Technics Steven uses a range of pyate technices to flush out different [Applause] birds but not everything in his kit is about scaring Wildlife gloves uh along with alcohol wipes these are used when Steven collects this the remains of a bird strike blood feathers uh Dy tissue we call that snarge in the industry snarge the snarge will be collected and bagged up for DNA analysis at a laboratory ID and to species helps us determine what's bringing that Wildlife to our airport and what we need to uh 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 uh 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 C I 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 fast despite all these efforts birds still will 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 when 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 solid that goes through an engine typically does significant damage the worst damage seen was a bird strike which caused um 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 eating and we actually refer to it as being corn CED and all the blades break off and it is a mess Blain's team don't just deal with repairs this is where the majority of the 1700 engines that power Delta's Fleet get serviced we overhaul engines for Delta so we've got uh about eight different engine lines and we can bring the engines in disassemble them to the peace part level and reassemble the engine and then get it ready for test an individual engine can cost as much as6 million 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 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 a Ron 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 Chang and brakes the fluids we'll be doing uh engine work where we're changing the 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 uh we try our best to get it fixed and um be able to turn the aircraft Delta serviced 21 different kinds of aircraft in this hanger 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 KnockOn effects can quickly Skyrocket into the [Music] Millions 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 uh 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 planes cycling and we've got to get those parts to them so sometimes it is a a challenge to keep [Music] up maintenance is so important to Delta's operation that the team here retrieve and send out a staggering 46,6 182 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 part so sometimes Airlines work together and they share parts or borrow parts 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 x Runway 7 Runway it's 11:00 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 unit 5 Unit 10 all concern beis 26 right is closed each Runway is closed once a week for the airide operations team to conduct inspections and running [Music] repairs so right now I'm beginning the uh nightly Airfield inspection we're going to start with airfill lighting Runway lighting ensures Pilots can clearly see the runway whatever the weather and nighttime 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 uh lights that are overly bright uh lights that are very dim anything that could be detrimental to the operation of the Airfield we cannot have more than two consecutive out and we cannot have more than 10% of the entire lighting system out of service it's a big job 18,295 lights are needed to illuminate the Airfield field properly 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 air Strip This is a 9,000 ft Runway so you want the first 3,000 ft 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 50 ft apart from each other what we call Runway touchdown Zone LS 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 3,000 ft remaining to the end of the runway and at this point your Runway Center Line lights will change from white in color to alternating red and white in color November four roll to the end please November is unavailable 52 and the runway snowline lights will change as we approach up here the 1T 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 heading 2 clear for takeoff Runway 26 left Southwest Matt's lighting check isn't the only work being carried out at [Music] night 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 6: a.m. [Music] special machines are deployed to dust every nook and cranny wash the 1,378 public [Music] toilets and clean 3 and a half miles of moving walkways and escalators nothing escapes the attention of these Nighthawks check the GSU and it's cable also the cphase cable and aase cable that's good even the points on the plane train track get a clean 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 into that 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 so here they are ever wondered what the mysterious anteni 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 1/5 side is 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° 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 CH tune in this Channel and one tune in to the other channel and I put them on different sides of the runway and I tell the p 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 [Music] significance here we have five parallel runways and sometimes we have triple Landings and they're always locked on to those ilss 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 we have an on time scheduled 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 day daily lives it would be easy to take these complex places for granted there shut 6116 you'll be next for departure monitor Tower 12385 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 uh typical night for me starts at 10:30 p.m. and 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 were with all manner of Machinery I enjoyed being able to take an engine completely apart and then later seeing it on Wing fly in 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: Naked Science

Views: 617,204

Keywords: doc, documentary film, documentaries, HD documentary, education, construction, architecture, engineering, building, aeroplane, plane, planes, airport, Atlanta, Atlanta Airport, Pilot, aerospace, aviation, aviation engineering, aircraft, aircraft engineering, boeing, boeing 747, international travel, travel, flying, flight, world's biggest, world's best, world's busiest, review, design, innovation, plane documentary, airport documentary, heathrow, airline, aerospace engineers, JFK, busiest airport

Id: hQAY0E8H0tA

Length: 50min 57sec (3057 seconds)

Published: Sat May 04 2024