Improving Ground Safety, while Cutting Costs: Practical Innovations for Airports and FBOs

An airport’s airside, where multi-million dollar aircraft park, is an unpredictable and potentially hazardous workspace for employees with a variety of jobs, regardless of the weather conditions.  Approximately 27,000 ramp accidents occur each year, resulting in 243,000 injuries a cost of at least $10 billion according to the Flight Safety Foundation and the International Air Transport Association.

Implementing practical safety solutions, combined with a bit of Ground Service Equipment innovation, has the potential to improve any company’s safety statistics significantly. For instance, the addition of technological advances such as safe docking and linear force monitoring systems can dramatically reduce ramp accidents. Upgrades like transitioning to electric GSE help cut costs and decrease several other significant airside risks, including chemical spills, fire, and noise pollution.

Focus on the Fundamentals

The best safety initiatives are built on a foundation of fundamentals that include a commitment to training, an emphasis on situational awareness, eliminating distractions, and familiarity with emergency procedures.

That also means everyone must remain compliant with current safety regs while GSE/vehicle operators stay up to date on licensing and certification requirements.

Other essential safety priorities include:

• Clearly visible signage and markings on ramps, aprons, taxiways, and hardstands.
• Adding necessary lights for night operations. Requiring hi-visibility vests for all airside personnel.
• Adding reflective tape and flashing lights to all GSE and vehicles.
• Cover low-visibility areas with thermal or infrared imaging.
• Implement strict gate access control procedures such as badges with photos, coded locks, and biometric ID systems for sensitive or restricted areas.
• Provide airside personnel easy access to necessary personal protective equipment (PPE).
• Ensure the availability of weather-appropriate ramp accommodations, such as plentiful water and cool shelter during hot weather, and heated shelter during cold weather.
• Actively support a culture of open communication and safe, anonymous reporting that rewards proactive safety suggestions.

GSE and Technological Innovation

Electric GSE

Reduced emissions and a decreased risk of fuel spills and fires are obvious advantages of adding an all-electric GSE fleet.

Electric GSE vehicles and ground power units are also quieter than gas-powered alternatives. The resultant boost in situational awareness and being better able to hear an alarm, radio, or shouted warning can be enough to prevent a dangerous and costly accident.

Aircraft Safe Docking (ASD)

There are few tasks trickier than docking with an aircraft for operators of baggage trucks, belt loaders, or stair trucks. TLD’s Aircraft Safe Docking (ASD) system incorporates a simple push-button system employing fail-safe infrared 2D/3D cameras to optimize a vehicle’s trajectory for first-try docking with either open or closed aircraft doors. It also incorporates wheel angle sensors, a sensitive bumper, and speed-limiting to avoid collisions.

SiPsHitch™

Regional airports and FBOs often rely on one vehicle for all aircraft no matter their size. Modern tow tugs and pushback tractors are extremely powerful. Unfortunately, a bit too much force applied to the nose gear or tailwheel can cause thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of dollars in damage and delays. Worse still is the prospect of invisible damage compromising an aircraft’s safe operation. And a snapped shear pin isn’t a guarantee that no damage was done.

Enter the SiPsHitch™ linear force monitoring system from AERO Specialties that records the force being applied by tow tugs and pushback tractors and alerts the operator before overstress becomes an issue.

In addition to protecting against catastrophic failures, a record of the exact stresses applied to an aircraft protects both vehicle operators and pilots by eliminating uncertainty about whether damage occurred during a tow. This safeguards GSE operators from unwarranted blame for damage discovered later.

Safety’s Additional Benefits

A safer airport or FBO space costs less to insure and tends to get noticed by customers and potential customers.

Any set of changes that makes life easier for airside personnel, saves money while helping attract and retain customers, and makes people safer is worth exploring.

About the Author

Frank McGovern is lucky enough to live in beautiful Boise, Idaho where he works as a Web Product/Content Manager for internationally renowned GSE manufacturer and distributor, AERO Specialties. When not reading, writing, and seeking adventure with his fiancée and their blended dog family, he enjoys the world-class outdoor opportunities Idaho has to offer.