Behind The Scenes Of Britain's Busiest Airport | Britain's Busiest Airport | Spark

[Music] not being too sweet for company Airbus 319 to go behind you then push backs up who face the South London Heathrow Europe's biggest and busiest airport transporting more than 73 million passengers every year does your posture be as fine honey passengers this is so big this is still complex it got week on steroids with the flights taking off or landing every 45 seconds Heathrow is operating at full capacity and there's no room for error you know if he throws sneezes the rest of Europe and the world catches a cold we could have blown something is that you're saying even the smallest problem can cause chaos no one five and nine one nine eleven cancel nothing is landing nothing's taken off and cost the billion pound business of fortune in fines and lost revenue responsibility is huge can get extremely stressful this series goes behind the scenes this is the bit now on sales to follow the hidden army of staff working against the clock to get thousands of planes away on time it does give you a rush just watch these tile guys the size of a small city Heathrow has its own police force students from the movies paramedics and religious leaders from the cleaners and baggage handlers [Music] to the air traffic controllers and CEO it's effective everyone has a vital role to play in keeping Britain's most famous airfields flying it's in the hands of God Heathrow is a business built on getting planes in the air on column and late afternoon is the busiest period for departures face down across the airport travelers are arriving at a rate of more than one a second every second on the air india desk passengers for today's Delhi flight are checking in thick and fast you need to say something else don't go with more delays you'll be charged we've got 300 passengers on board with 600 bags from check-in to getting them on the aircraft it is a huge job Claire is the Duty controller for the Delhi flight we check the passports we check the visas we check the bags in issue the mo boarding pass with our seat number and the way they go through security and then they make their way to the gate an hour before the flight is due to leave check-in closes and Claire leads her team to the gate she now has just 60 minutes to get all of her passengers onto the plane [Music] it's a full fighting economy and businesses 19 hospital Claire keeps a close tally of boarding passengers but with just 20 minutes to go until the scheduled departure Claire's count is short it's always a problem when you have missing passenger because you worked such a tight deadline today flight causes a lot of problems passengers will have seen this their connections and the airline is liable for fine delays are expensive yes [Music] with time running out Claire sends her team to scour the terminal for the missing passengers yeah if you go we've got the radio okay ten economy and business missing about 11 so we're just gonna go around see is what limited to send them straight to the gate so we could get it going on time so searching monastery searching we call it three purse but it's the staff that come from check-in and they just go around the terminal airside finding our passengers looking for anywhere we do have the earring their tags that we have we give to passengers that check-in so hopefully we'll try spot those we go to the bus stop he would have us drink before the professor play any passengers for India nothing just for the area flight any passengers the final call for India because at 10:00 tonight we're normally a lot more on board by this time so I'm be concerned about the time [Music] we're missing so many and you do get a little bit concerned in India man the flight is closing so please can you run over there normally in the duty-free especially around the alcohol section of Delhi flights they like that whistle section ruler I'm super freak playing the dead India's huh [Music] ladies closing Romeo 1 or 1 1 2 there is another buggy coming down to the gate the last passenger arrives with seconds to spare sweepers from gate sweepers we are complete with economy class thank you very much it may have taken a sweep of the terminal but Claire's flight finally leaves on time to get planes away on schedule each in the Heathrow machine must run smoothly security is a potential bottleneck in the system more than a hundred thousand people and their bags must be scrutinized every day in terminal 4 security officers are dealing with this afternoon's surge of departing passengers even you take out these people are all sorts of things in their bags and they shouldn't have a ion's ironing boards that kind of stuff not things you would never you never never could use on a plane so yeah strange things change things Sunday was the youngest ever recruit to Heathrow security team that was about 17 when I started here this was my first job and has been my old job to be honest you guys have any liquids any drinks and he creates pollen you meet bleep me show me please Oh milk no it's not gonna be allowed it's the liquid over 100 mils yeah check it in or throw away so that gentleman whom you had milk in his bag pretty much the whole bag was just full of milk so when it's like that it's best option is to give a passenger the chance to go back outside nobody know anybody there drinks can't the milk anymore either his young girl came through issues about which was about 12 years old she came through the machine she's sitting off someone was gonna give her a pack down and she was had her hands in her pocket and she wouldn't ate them out and one of the ladies actually she's really good with young kids so she went down and she said what's the matter you scared what you got in your pockets she was like nothing I've got nothing and this lady I don't know how she knew but she had a pet hamster and she took me out and his hamster came out and they were like oh my god what happened and the issues just on she was getting holiday she didn't leave the pair an interview test I'll be one minute okay anyone seems to think they're being picked on that's always the first question you get why me oh I've never had this before or I didn't have this yesterday why the first three can't do without they've been blocking and here it is doctor why what did or why what you have in the bag here some batteries batteries AA battery for PC [Music] why to stop this one what do you require is a Sunni why's the battery I'm lucky the time but if it was in a hurry what we do I move my planer this is something we do after every bag to check for traces of explosive this one is all fine and as costs if you come as a tourist everything here to spend half an hour to stop it next time you don't come here you go through UK and you go in the tablet yeah so you lose business this time I said no I don't know an hour myself you don't do that when you're working on the numbers that we work on you're gonna get a few people I say oh I feel like you're picking on me we don't really see them as any different you just carry out the same sort of thing all the time not all passengers at Heathrow are leaving through a choice every year nearly 600 wanted people are extradited from Britain through Heathrow this job falls to the airport's dedicated units of 400 police offices jumping up on servers this prisoner is being sent to the u.s. to face trial for breach of an export license so he is on the bat it's okay you'll be fine you better sit down so we're gonna be doing quite quickly we need to get into the aircraft okay your flight time is being changed right at the last minute this gentleman was transported from prison yesterday afternoon to see for police station he remained in our custody overnight we are now escorting him down to the aircraft on occasions it can be a special plane but the vast majority of the time it will be only in ordinary passenger aircraft Britain has extradition treaties with over 100 countries around the world any one of which can request a wanted person is returned morning hi an officer from the specialist extradition team arrived to assist with boarding but the prisoner seems more concerned about the cold that is imminent extradition Oh [Music] the prisoner has to be led past the Bermuda centers waiting for their flight at the plane door the suspect is formally handed over to US agents who have flown in to take him back to the States [Music] they tend to sit at a discreet part of the aircraft where it won't be and won't be completely obvious some passengers may say he was placed in handcuffs as he boarded the aircraft so I said our passengers are walking past and me see the handcuffs but it does happen on a regular basis it's early morning at Heathrow and the first of the day's luggage is being checked in Chris is in charge of the entire baggage system which delivers 40 million bags onto planes every year this is the heart of it all this is what makes it all work out the front is the pretty bit and out here is where the factory is and the guys are doing the graft but this is the bit no one sees passengers think they put their bag through a check-in it goes through a little black turn and there's a bloke just waiting the other side it's a little bit more complex than that obviously it was that simple but then I might not have a job I started out pushing trolleys back in 1976 my mother worked in the staff canteen in the old control tower which is now gone my dad was a porter my brother was a security guard and my mother-in-law sister and or brother-in-law three nephews and my wife work here it actually met her in terminal 1 2 3 shot dead just chained you know smooth flight 30 miles of baggage conveyors and three miles of tunnels crisscross Heathrow ferrying bags to the aircraft basically this is where your bags are come in through that black curtain and that's the last thing the passenger sees and then from then on in the baggage factory onwards you got miles and miles of conveyors the system is set out to move bags fast from front of house the back of elves is approximately anything from six to eight minutes as the bags traverse the enormous network the barcodes on the luggage tags are scanned so the system knows where each case is and which belts it should be sent down [Music] when it's ready to be tipped down I showed the sorter allocation computer will tell that trade to tick and the bag will tip down to a guy waiting to pick the bag up alex is the guy at the bottom of the chute a newbie as they would say so yeah but I mean it's alright it's actually quite a lot of fun to be honest working with the airplanes it's not like your normal jobs you know I mean right now I'm actually filling up a flight let's head into the buyer for Emirates each bag is scanned again so the team knows which package bid it goes into yeah the Middle Eastern trouble is they tend to have one quite big suitcases become quite a view if you were to go out to list a virgin you'll find that you'll find that a lot of the bags are a lot more smaller than let's say on Emirates this is a good bag and a bad bag yeah anything that's got down on it as a bad boat anything that's heavy is a bad bag I don't think the passengers actually are a welder of the work that we do down here I mean I'm pretty sure if they did they might take a bit more consideration in packing some of their bags Derrick has worked on the belt for seven years yeah I don't need a lot when I go it'd be interesting tonight what some people do packing their suitcases sometimes Oh I mean if beggars belief just the wave of them sometimes and you think well that can't be Underpants can it once the baggage bins are full they're driven out to the plane and handed over to the ramp team to load these are the company's the kind of things used to drive when you you know used to want to try when you were little you know one of them now I get to joy from when I'm in that dole my own little my own little vehicle of course the most important thing in success or avoid the aeroplanes at all costs you can't go across by the plane sir Steve and his team are always working against the clock [Music] there we get 75 minutes to load the aircraft from start to finish it's highly pressurized it's challenging so it's all about the timing everything needs to go smoothly and it's not just passengers bags on the flight there's also 35 tons of commercial freight I don't know what's in there let's try them ever look could be in there be any waiting oh Jesus African big cats cheaters on the Emirates seven of them they went out to do boy some rich Arab Prince all them Steve has to make sure that everything is loaded in exactly the right position to nose in to nose out and a pair of just given that the loading driver instructions how to load the baggage bins as you can see on the beam they have like a nose so we say nose in nose out and then we use pair so nose in nose out is a pair it's how we do it [Music] you know the plate incorrectly they know about it when it's in the sky and they definitely know about it when it's at the averin but but the consequence is a you know to potentially bring the aircraft down of 16 years ago I came to London Heathrow Airport and learn the trade within six months to a year like while I was doing I've been a loading supervisor team leader for 15 years I send everyone on holiday white people happy too noisy [Music] back inside the airport the departure halls are filling with the day's passengers saying their farewells [Music] it's not just a great big building with people in there it's got all kinds of people with all kinds of emotions and that's what really makes makes this place unique service team leader Cola has just started his shift in terminal 4 departures this is where you've got people coming to say bye-bye to their loved ones you do say people happy some people crying it's kind of nice sometimes I tend to wave along with him because I kind of like that part you know where they wave it just I just wave along as well how long are the game you're going away for okay which is a monster all kinds of emotions you can you cannot know it won't believe you know he's brilliant oh it's brilliant Cola as to deal with anything that could disrupt the terminals operations and the airport's Control Center has just spotted something amiss such a fall we have a report of an unattended bag the location is a terminal full repack area on the departures level yeah what do you require across the airport we get quite a lot of unattended bags I'll say around 20 to 30 probably per day I've seen the items just going towards it now thank you very much an unattended bag has the potential to close an entire terminal causing severe delays basically what what goes to your mind is you know is it safe back to to touch once the necessary security checks have been undertaken Cola is able to open the back the line you get to pick up what's actually safer what's not is that then you develop that insect over the time it's all just clothes shoes babies nappies as well this is quite nice you got a camera here you got money here pictures so you know they are cut up bass guitar bass guitar 3 can you do my favourite piece can you poor call out for someone for me name is Pamela I have to spell that for you it's a echo Romeo echo memory Pamela memories please return to security Lane 5 hearing the announcement the bags relieved owner comes to collective hi what's your name yes yes you don't need to panic ma'am have you lost something I found your bag we've got your back ok no problem at all I'll be right back then we're gonna get back [Applause] no not at all man you're walking yes I am yes god bless you enjoy your fun okay all right [Music] and that's why I like to do to try and help people just to make sure everyone has a really good seamless journey across the airport and as it's all about [Music] not all the people that work at Heathrow have the airport's permission to be there Angelina Brad Cameron Diaz Taylor Swift it's a good buzz kate is a paparazzi photographer well just use for this job is just a shortened flash which is a short lens you can get pretty close at the airport all charged up ready to go she works for an agency that sells her photos worldwide lots of time I don't even know where they go so I just get my sales report at the end of the month ago today she's hoping to get a shot of singer Jessie J huge huge huge huge in America so it's definitely worth waiting around for but paparazzi photography is banned at Heathrow if Kate is spotted she'll be ejected from the airport I'm just looking on Twitter to see if there's any pictures of when she left the airport LA let's just see - send me anything that you know confirmed so that she's actually on her way two hours after her flight was doing Jessie J still hasn't appeared but this may not be a wasted trip for Kate [Music] model Heidi clambers just flown in with her boyfriend everybody wants to get the best shot so you've just got to literally dive in that there's no special treatment at all when it is a scrum it's it's carnage so I'll just send the pictures to the office and that's it in there wonderful sales team will sell the pictures this is why when you're at he throws you know different celebrities will come through you don't even know that they're on the plane so you've always got to keep your eyes open when you're here just goes to show thank you she's hiding [Music] [Applause] it's lunchtime in Heathrow's departure hall today it's the venue for an unusual proposition for a passenger flying out to the states he's proposing she's flying out to see friends get married so she wants to be engaged before that she told me one time so this is kind of last moment surprised it's been hot surprise yeah so we'll see how it goes I have no idea hopefully well as y'all bought a champagne come on the flights I should sort of coping with the fries in the shop a crowd builds as the suitor waits for his unwitting target [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] exceeded them by a long way I mean I had Inklings I suppose but this is definitely a surprise [Music] elsewhere in departures paparazzi photographer Kate has had another tip-off yeah yeah yeah just a normal place yeah I was double checking you know I'm like okay she's been told by her agency that Kylie Minogue is about to fly out of he throw love shooting her she ends up in fashion magazines she's always smiling she's always happy to see you be shooting and I for five years I love the buzz of getting that shot of a celebrity waiting no just an alleyway yeah okay thank you you see it's 11:00 you just want them to yourself yes obviously you get paid a lot more money if it's exclusive but if somebody else sees it at the same times I guess I'm [Music] look at the camera for one sweet Kylie thank you very much thank you for the flight it's all over in 1020 seconds but I love the gentleman lovely just what they wants it job done Kylie is just one of 37 million people who'll fly out of he throw this year this huge passenger flow puts unrelenting pressure on the airport security team a step forward I'm Esther to be shot most people are happy to be searched they kind of recognize the environment they and I see it as a normal day-to-day thing it's kind of odd when someone throws out there - oh I don't you touch me or why are you touching me that kind of makes a bit more difficult for me no one escapes careful scrutiny [Music] thank you he says why you got three cents on whether you call the oh you're very cold yet an unusually dressed passenger arouses Sundeep suspicions you're gonna have to go for search in private you're still three of us ooh you look too many clothes on we're gonna have to give you a quick check okay come this way more intimate searches are conducted in a private side room okay so just take two of your shirts off please do take them off please with so many layers of clothing it's impossible for Sunday to determine what is sitting off the metal detector so you know take this stuff off as waka paama shirt rubbish shirt it's us three there a jacket yeah just taking off one two three four layers of clothing at the moment and you know it is too cold for this gentleman anything else underneath it all done Sandeep is eventually able to determine that it's nothing more sinister than buttons setting off the detector that's all fine thank you very much thank you very much okay so he said he had so many layers on because it's really cold in Britain but there's also the fact that is an excess baggage charge for overweight I am so probably had a lot of clothes in his bag didn't one pay the baggage and decide to put them all on basically [Laughter] over the headquarters of Heathrow's police force another prisoner is awaiting extradition Michael is being said to the Czech Republic to face charges of fraud and theft I'm here over six years now I could hear my partner my son was so working all the time repairing TVs radios CDs and while living in Manchester Michael heard that the police were looking for him so handed himself in this is a chat that's wanted in the Czech Republic for a fraud offense I think it is voluntarily so this one's slightly different that's why he's not in the back of the police found in the cage you know doesn't his hanging over him forever satisfies what I said himself ten years ago Michael used fake documents to hire a car then sold it [Music] you check police no I'm in the red grid and then I'm find out I need to be deported through the Czech Republic he's just getting checked in onto the flight just like any any normal passenger would do so it check his baggage in and then we'll go through and you'll walk through like any normal passenger you'll just have the police officer either side of them do you think you guys in prison I'm not sure this moment really but I don't know what's happened you know when I come home when I'm going was happening I'm not sure really so I lost didn't know my family I saw my brother although Michael handed himself it willingly he's still accompanied by to check offices for the return flight [Music] captain want to have a quick brief interest to find out exactly who he was taking on board it was quite happy and the guys found that over to check officers strands to the aircraft and we've come away so nice and easy 1,400 flights take off from Heathrow every day each in a tight departure slot the responsibility for making sure a plane hits hid scheduled departure falls to one person the dispatcher 26 year old Kelly has to get this afternoon's flight to North Carolina away on time she's responsible for the loading of the freight passengers baggage and fuelling of the plane her first job is to get all the crew checked in warning captain are you I'm I'm still waiting for your flight plan so once I've got it I'll bring it straight out the aircraft we should be about 10 minutes I normally now give him his flight plan and all his documents that he needs from the flight I haven't actually received it just as year I've explained to him that I haven't got it and they'll take it directly out to the aircraft so he's happy with that he's really nice Kalle started the job when she was only 23 the responsibilities really is huge can get extremely stressful trying to make sure that the flights gonna go on time that you've done everything that you need to do I started working here on check-in five years ago and I was there for two and a half years and then I moved to this patch so I've been here for two and a half years now I think it's quite an achievement to be in sort of this job role quite young age it's quite a lot of responsibility next Kelly has to make sure the right amount of aviation fuel all 65 thousand litres of it is being loaded the lights up here he does a countdown for the time for when the captain's got left until he needs to go so there's quite a good one to walk past and quickly look to see how long I got left back in the office the captain has documentation has finally arrived this is the captain's flight plan and all his weather information everything that he basically needs they've got dispatchers out in America who put the flight plan together it then goes into the system and we have to print it and give it to him when he arrives [Music] before the plane leaves on its 4,000 mile trip the captain must sign off kelly's flight plan I'll leave it with you and I will come back in a little while for it thank you can we close the front definitely ramp manager Steve is leading the team working to load Kelly's flight on schedule [Music] or how many ancient your goal you use the ironing bowl use the einem Callie and Steve work for Donata one of nine competing Radley agents that look after plates at heathrow their company could be fight and ultimately lose their contract if they delayed a flight half an hour before scheduled departure this plane is fully loaded but when Callie checks in with the airline in the gate her schedule is suddenly under threat [Music] which means offloading about for me for security reasons planes can't fly with a bags of missing passengers so this late traveler is a big problem for Callie and Steve okay I'll open the holes up bring the information down for me yeah I'll give you a shout if we get the passenger okay copy that when you do get busy flight and you need to take off sort of five baggage bins it's not so good with 500 bags to search through Steve's team face a race against the clock to get the plane away on time [Music] there are just fifteen minutes before this afternoon's flight to North Carolina is due to leave Callie the flight dispatcher has a serious problem a checked in passenger has failed to arrive at the departure gate Steve and it's ramp team have to locate the missing passengers bags because the guys are basically loaded what they've needed to so they've closed the whole doors that's all the equipment is pulled away from the aircraft now that we've got an offload then he's get the equipment back onto the aircraft and then reopen the doors so it takes a little while to even get the aircraft back open again there's loads of different reasons people get lost I don't know where they're going they could be anywhere in the airport some people go shopping some people don't come out of the bar there's lots of different reasons to get a bag off is not work it's not it's not straightforward it doesn't take five minutes it's quite a long-winded process whoever finds it gets to sleep with me tomorrow Callie now has just minutes to find the passenger or offload the bag otherwise she'll lose her take off slaughter this could delay the flights and result in a heavy financial penalty Tai means a massive massive part of dispatch and making sure that the flight goes out you know the captain's relying on us to make sure that we have his aircraft doors closed because he wants to go on time with ten minutes to go Callie can't afford to wait any longer a missing passenger with the back offloaded Steve's team have to work fast to get the hold closed and they're loading gear clear so that the plane can get away on time we're just moments despair a tug is called to push the plane from the stand to the runway these things are very powerful and very talking they're not very fast they'd probably do 25 miles an hour tops but the power they have to push a 600 ton aircraft with its engines going you nice ain't pretty PAP on pretty heavy despite the tugs huge size it has to be maneuvered with millimeter precision [Music] [Music] hello it's Callie hello we're good today okay lovely ohms coming down there's now only two minutes for Kali to make her final checks and get the air bridge clear so doors will close capsules ready to go and now the jet bridge to come off and he can go very nice a bit all over the place [Music] nothing this is the part where the nerves start to creep in you know you're gonna push this you're just waiting for that right we're ready to go and actually get the job done he's flashing up now so that means he'll be ready to go once the engineer says we're ready to go then the planes under my control the pilot has no more control it's down to me and my wing guys they'll tell me if there's a problem it does give you a rush well she goes despite all the problems Callie and Steve managed to get their flight to push back on time now it's down to Andy to get it to the taxiway and it is quite nerve-racking it's all that pressure the plane needs to get out no matter what the weather is you try your best to get runway two-seven left behind British Airways to the seven will be lining up and waiting on the threshold hold an alpha 3 cap - 7 4 3 3 now he's got his engine starting to fire up then yellow line out there he's just a guideline the center of the taxiway you don't want to go too far over the line because then your wingtips are going on to alpha taxiway and it could be aircraft coming down I've got my foot all the way down it's just about pushing it that's it lovely with the plane in position and the hands control over to the pilot who now needs air traffic control to guide him safely into the air to get this plane airborne on time from the world's busiest departure runway the controllers have to perform an incredible juggling act you pick three behind of the parking American air wave color day three right now there are 20 planes waiting to take off everybody voted type at the right the flight to Charlotte's finally departs on schedule but with only 90 seconds until the next one takes off there's a busy day ahead for the army of workers a Britain's busiest airport [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Spark

Views: 2,164,638

Rating: 4.8388329 out of 5

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

Id: jYHHOIw2Wiw

Length: 46min 32sec (2792 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 16 2018