When things run smoothly, my job is one of the easiest in the world and it's great to be able to almost sit back and enjoy the ride, and be thankful for having such a cool job. You'll see me buzzing around the ramp with a spring in my step. You could set the whole day to a piece of rock music producing a cool video like Kent Wein did last year on his Paris trip. More commonly though, things goes wrong one after the other and you're left with a giant jig saw puzzle with pieces that are refusing to fit together and you have to work around them. Yesterday, was one of these days.
STD -50. I arrive at the aircraft 10 minutes later than I like, as my previous flight was running late. As I race up the steps to the front of the cabin, I'm greeted by a puddle of water covering the floor in the forward galley. Either someone has spilled an awful lot of tea or something's leaking. Questioning the crew, I find it's the latter, the forward lavatory. I hear your screams of eughhhh and disgust, and echo them as I'm already standing in the said puddle of leakage in my recently polished shoes. Apparently engineering had been working through the night to fix it, and had it under control. But when the crew turned up they found it leaking again and covering the galley floor.
STD-40 The engineer returns to work on the toilet, and eventually manages to cut off the supply to the lavatory, to stop it leaking. Excellent, I hope it holds out but meanwhile there's still several millimetres of water covering the floor. The purser will not allow passengers to board through it, for one it looks unprofessional and smells, they'll tramp it into the carpet down the aisle, and they might even slip on it. I've already called the cleaners to get them to come up and mop it up but as of yet none have turned up.
STD -25 The fueller still hasn't arrived. Now I'm getting worried, they are usually some of the most reliable services and turn up well in advance but this morning they're adding to my stress. I call them again requesting them to come and pump 13,000kg of their finest Jet A1 into the thirsty tanks. If they're not here soon, it will delay the aircraft. I'm not sure of the exact flow rates, I'm sure it depends on which truck they're using but as a rough guide I think it's around 800kg per minute.
The cleaner arrives at the aircraft to get rid of the toilet water, but there's been a breakdown in communication somewhere between my phone call and them being told to come here. They turn up, without mop only to have to disappear again to find a mop. Now would be a good time to take up smoking to de-stress, but not on the ramp!
STD -20 Time is running out. If boarding doesn't start soon the flight is going to be late. I talk with the pursuer and we come to a compromise to start boarding via the rear only. Not ideal, and with it comes more problems in worrying about the aircraft tipping. I check with the captain if she's happy for it to happen, if I filter the passengers in the forward rows on first. She agrees, on that condition.
Q me, standing on the ramp trying to explain to passengers that those sitting in the forward rows should proceed on board via the rear steps and the rest should wait a few minutes. In the corner of my eye I spot a fuel bowser pull up under the opposite wing, one less thing to worry about. The cleaner arrives back and begins mopping up the water. Not a moment too soon, it's cleared and the crew allow boarding via the front steps.
STD - 4 The last of the passengers ascend the steps. I signal to the rampers to close up the holds and take away the back steps. The fueller is just finishing and I see the hose disconnect. I follow the last passenger up the steps into the cabin and inform the purser all are on board. In the flight deck the engineer is still in discussion with the captain, and the fueller enters to exchange the paperwork. 5 men in an A320 flight deck is a tight squeeze and resembles some scenes from the movie Airplane!
A few minutes later I'm on the headset and about to push back. I overhear the crew exchanging comments about the strange smell in the cockpit, caused by the disinfectant contained in the toilet water. The brakes are released, the wheels start to roll and the off-blocks time is noted as on time, only just.
Looking back through the post, it's hard to convey the stress I was having at the time. Driving for an on time departure is paramount every turnaround, after safety of course. I'm the one tasked with making the decisions to achieve the on time departure, and if it doesn't happen, I have to be able to say what the problem was and why it couldn't be worked around. We take pride in being able to make things work even in the most difficult situations, but it's not always possible. Some days it can be a fun challenge, others it appears more like an insurmountable one and everything starts to wrong, you just have to go with the flow and manage it as best you can.
6 comments:
As passenger my opinion is: "Every problem fixed in time for departure is no problem foe me", so it is good work by the dispatcher. When I look at all the logistics going on at an airport it is with admiration and respect.
Stumbled across your blog and it describes very well the world of dispatch. How long have you been doing it as I was fortunate to do it for a while as well!
Thanks for the comments guys.
It's nice to know our work is appreciated by the passengers, even though not explicitly thought. We're just one of the last links in the giant chain leading to a departure, early, on-time or late.
George,
Nice to see another tormented soul :) Drop me a mail (link is in my profile, just click Dispatcher) if you fancy a chat, be good to talk. So far the only other dispatchers I know are those I work with and a few others round my airport. Hard to find anyone else, any websearches always lead to the other form of dispatch.
Today I was listening in to Amsterdam ATC and United 909 (departed from the gate early) found about a technical problem on the runway and had to taxi back for repairs. (**it happens) Finally they took off two hours late.
What does such a return mean for your work as a dispatcher?
MathFox,
It'll depend on what the problem is and how the airline decides to deal with it.If the passengers are remaining on the aircraft, it's much easier for us to deal with, as the crew can look after the pax rather than our staff.
The main problem will usually be staffing levels. If it's a busy day, I'll usually be required at another aicraft as will the ramp guys. But generally, since it's a technical problem it'll be up to the engineers to fix it and sort it out, where as all we have to do is replace the steps/airbridge and chocks, and await for it to be fixed. Hopefully a fuel top-up isn't required.
I've had an incident in the past where the aircraft was on a remote stand and the passengers boarding the buses at the gate to make their way across, but a technical fault was found with the aircraft. A decision was made quickly by the airline's ops to switch aicraft to a sister ship, and we managed to keep the passengers on the buses for a few extra mins while the crew prepared the 2nd aircraft, the change unbeknown to most passengers.
I guess that the passengers were kept in the plane; the airctaft was directed to a remote stand (and Schiphol does a security check at the gate for non-Schengen flights, add people and time for the additional US airliner quiz...)
I was bussed to the wrong plane once, but they found out before the passengers were off the bus.
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