Ultimate Airport Dubai (2013) s01e01 Episode Script

1
NARRATOR: Dubai International Airport,
one of the fastest-growing airports on the
planet and aiming to be number one.
Cleared for takeoff.
NARRATOR: But perfection is never easy.
MAN: Final call, Emirates to Sydney.
Gatwick, Amsterdam.
NARRATOR: More planes
- The flight has departed.
- (crying)
NARRATOR: more passengers
Absolutely ridiculous.
I need extra manpower here
at transfer desk.
NARRATOR: and massive construction
just to keep up.
So much scaffolding everywhere,
nothing is finished.
NARRATOR: It's nonstop.
(whistles)
If you don't love it,
it's just gonna kill you.
NARRATOR: 24/7.
I think it's stuck.
One, two, three, push!
NARRATOR: It's the job of 60,000 staff
from all over the world
It's either you can deliver
or you're out of the building.
NARRATOR: to make this
the ultimate airport.
As one of the world's
fastest-growing airports,
any delays to Dubai International's
tight schedules
and short turnaround times on the ground
could have an immediate impact
on passengers and planes.
Arrow 6-5-2, Mike 1-3,
Alpha, line up and wait, runway 3-0 right.
(radio chatter)
NARRATOR: Every 92 seconds a flight lands
or takes off on the airport's two runways.
(radio chatter)
NARRATOR: Night is one of the busiest
times, with 52 aircraft movements
and 7,000 passengers
passing through each hour.
(radio chatter)
NARRATOR: Air traffic control
is the airport's nerve center.
Here, a team of 11 controllers
at any given moment
are responsible for keeping around 900
flights a day safe and on schedule.
Cleared to land, runway 3-0 right.
NARRATOR: But their job
gets busier by the day.
Passenger capacity is set
to soar from 60 million a year
to 75 million over the next 12 months.
And that's just scheduled flights.
Nobody can predict emergencies.
MAN: Contact ground 18-decimal-35.
NARRATOR: It's just after 8:00 p.m.,
and supervisor Steven Toohey
receives bad news.
I've got details of a medical emergency
that's coming inbound for us.
He's diverting in. He was going to Kuwait,
he's going to land at Dubai now.
They've hit some turbulence.
They've got nine injuries on board.
We've got one woman, a 23-year-old female,
and she's unconscious.
(indistinct conversation)
It will be Fox 11.
They're going to land in about one hour.
Can you organize the ambulance for me?
Okay, I'll keep you up to date when
they're about half an hour away.
Okay, thanks a lot. Bye-bye.
So we've had,
uh, details from our radar controllers.
We've had an aircraft hit some turbulence
out, uh, over through Muscat.
So they're gonna divert into Dubai.
We don't know the extent
of injury as of yet.
We also have one crewmember who's injured,
and there's one passenger
reported unconscious.
NARRATOR: Salil Colge is leading the team
handling the emergency on the ground.
I've spoken to the ambulance services.
Uh, I've spoken to the police.
Uh, I've got four ambulances
on the way now to the aircraft.
If you're on board that aircraft,
it would be very scary.
The pilots wouldn't see it coming at all.
They'd have no warning.
What probably happened here
is clear air turbulence.
It's not uncommon that the aircraft can
maybe drop 100 or 200 feet.
That's why they always
ask to put your seatbelt on.
- That's right.
- That's one of the reasons.
From an air traffic controller's
perspective, we'll give him priority.
He'll have a high-speed approach.
He'll be number one to land,
no one will delay him.
As soon as he lands
he'll go straight to a gate.
NARRATOR: This emergency landing
means the team have to deal
with an extra unplanned flight
on top of their existing workload.
They have just minutes
to decide how to reschedule
the other flights that are
due to land right now.
(radio chatter)
We've had to put a couple
of aircraft in a hold.
I'm just having a look at the radar now.
We've got seven or eight aircraft that
have been delayed in their landing.
NARRATOR: For an airport this busy,
even a short delay could have
a huge knock-on effect.
He's our next aircraft to land now.
He's three miles from touchdown,
with the runway clear.
We've stopped anybody crossing,
we're not going to depart anybody.
It's quite common to have a medical
emergency for one person,
a heart attack, a pregnancy, one injury.
Ten people's a lot.
So the aircraft's just touched down now.
It's a safe landing.
He'll roll to the end
of the runway to vacate.
We're prepared for the, um, for the worst.
We have confidence that the teams are
prepared to meet this, uh, emergency.
NARRATOR: A total of 12 passengers
need to be examined,
with three passengers and one crewmember
taken to the airport's
medical center for further treatment.
MAN: Under your tongue.
NARRATOR: It's not just holdups in the sky
that can wreck
the airport's tight schedule.
Holdups on the ground are just as bad
and can cost airlines big bucks.
It's 12:40 a.m.
In Terminal 3, Ajoy Datta
and Augustus Fernandes, nicknamed Oggy,
are the passenger operations team facing
one of the airport's biggest challenges
MAN: Okay. Thank you.
getting Emirates EK414
away to Sydney on time.
With 57 million passengers a year,
Dubai is becoming the world's crossroads,
and many of those passengers
make their connections here.
But some of the airport's
connections are extremely tight.
One of the tightest is EK414,
the nightly flight to Sydney, Australia.
A strict nighttime curfew
in Sydney means the flight won't take off
if it isn't going to
make it there in time.
So we need to get this gate closed
minus 15 minutes to departure.
NARRATOR: The headache for the team
is that many of the passengers are rush
connections coming in on other flights.
And with under an hour
until the gate closes,
there's already a problem.
At the moment, we're missing
approximately 2-0-7, 207 passengers.
That's a very high figure. (indistinct)
Fifty minutes and 200 passengers.
Most of them are
rush connection passengers.
NARRATOR: Eighteen of those
rush passengers have just landed.
But the plane is on a remote stand,
out on the airport apron,
so they'll have to transfer
to the terminal by bus,
adding precious minutes.
I already spoke to the shuttle team.
They have the coaches ready,
passengers are still
disembarking from there.
(indistinct conversation)
But only thing is, uh,
we need to get them as soon as possible.
Ma'am, please proceed, so that you can
finish the passport checks.
When it gets a bit hectic,
that's the most challenging part
of your job role.
So it reflects on you at the end of this,
that you are taking some initiative
in getting this flight out on time.
NARRATOR: With 20 minutes
until the gate closes,
over 100 passengers are still missing.
(indistinct conversation)
Dubai Airport is the home for Emirates,
one of the fastest-growing
airlines in the world.
It takes a crack team in the massive
hangars on the other side of the airport
to keep their
multibillion-dollar fleet airborne.
MAN: Flying is not for me.
I'm a maintenance man,
so I maintain the airplane.
I never wanted to be a pilot.
NARRATOR: Engineer Mian Talat Abbas
has been fixing big jets for 30 years.
In airplane maintenance
there is no margin of error.
It has to be perfect every time.
NARRATOR: One of the airline's $208
million A330s has come in for a C-check,
a major overhaul due every two years.
This airplane is grounded
for a major check.
So from nose to tail,
from one wing tip to another wing tip,
we're going to strip it down,
inspect each bit and piece, inch by inch.
Basically, it's a process of renewal.
The airplane will be renewed.
So we've got a stressed airplane,
and we'll send out a happy airplane.
NARRATOR: The team
have to complete the C-check on schedule
to get this A330 back in service.
Any extra day it's on the ground,
it's hemorrhaging money.
Today, Mian Talat
faces an extra challenge,
removing the massive 1.2-ton tail fin
for a design upgrade.
There is a modification on it.
Where this, the fin attaches,
it will be reinforced.
NARRATOR: Six metal pins
attach the tail fin to the fuselage.
The fin is around eight meters tall.
Right now, 1.2 tons
is pressing down on these pins.
To ease them out, they must
take the pressure off by hoisting the fin.
We have four slings on this fin,
and we just need to support it
a little bit to take out the main pins.
I think this is good enough.
The slings are loaded.
NARRATOR: The fin isn't made
of aluminum alloy like the fuselage.
It's carbon fiber.
Although it can take immense loads,
it's extremely light and can be
easily damaged when taken apart.
They must remove the fin in exactly the
right way to avoid expensive mistakes.
We don't do anything from our memory.
It has to be exactly
according to the procedure.
NARRATOR: The pins, or bolts,
need to be removed with a specialist tool,
a hydraulic pump.
The bolts should come off
at a certain pressure,
and we go on for all the bolts,
three each side.
We make sure nothing goes wrong.
Even slight damage could cost millions.
A slight mistake,
a slight misunderstanding
can mess everything up.
Just load it a little bit.
(chattering)
NARRATOR: The team of engineers
begin pressurizing the pump.
Too much pressure
could snap the attachment
and damage the fin.
Patience, patience, my friend. Wait.
It's almost
three tons of pressure on the pin.
Just guys, be careful.
Maybe it will sound, "boom."
NARRATOR: Mian Talat
expects the pin to pop.
But it doesn't.
He checks whether the fin
is still pressing down on the pins.
Farvash
- What is the load?
- 300.
- It's good enough, no?
- No, 300 is nothing.
NARRATOR: Mian Talat realizes
the hoist isn't taking enough
of the tail fin's weight.
It's still pressing down on the pins,
and they can't move.
One wrong move here
could mean catastrophe.
(whistling)
- What is pressure?
- Five.
Make it seven.
NARRATOR: The pressure
on the pin is stepped up.
(clicking)
Mmm.
I hear a nice comforting sound.
I think it has moved.
NARRATOR: But the pin isn't budging.
Go a bit more. Make it 15.
Just hold it there on 15.
Sometimes they do tend to get stuck
because of corrosion, fatigue,
aging, so many factors
NARRATOR: They've now been working for
around two hours on just one pin.
There are six in total
and only six hours left for the job.
If the team don't succeed,
even one day's unscheduled overrun
could have an immediate impact
on Emirates' operations worldwide.
C-Check finishes late
means the airplane will miss its slot.
This airplane, suppose,
is going on 20th of next month.
On the same day, another airplane
is scheduled to be grounded.
So it is not just one airplane.
If we are delayed, it's a problem.
NARRATOR: Over in Terminal 3,
Ajoy and Oggy are waiting
for missing passengers
for the time-critical Sydney flight.
I'll give you a count.
NARRATOR: In 15 minutes,
they must close the gate at departures
so EK414 can get to Sydney
before its 11:00 p.m. curfew.
More than 70 passengers are still missing,
on delayed Emirates flights from the UK.
Delayed passengers are the responsibility
of the inbound carrier,
so the airline could be stung
for hotels and new flights
for connecting EK414 passengers
who don't get to the gate in time.
With so many passengers missing,
Emirates Network Control
authorize a 10-minute extension.
A lifesaver, as more passengers arrive.
When we talk about a delay authorized,
a ten minute delay authorized,
that would be past departure time.
So, if we are supposed to depart at 1:50,
we have a 10 minute grace given to us.
Emirates to Sydney.
Final call, Emirates to Sydney.
NARRATOR: But even
with a 10 minute extension,
that only gives them 35 minutes
until the plane must leave at 2:00 a.m.
And 49 passengers
from three connecting
British flights are still missing.
From Birmingham, can somebody update me
regarding the 18 passengers?
Please, ma'am.
MAN ON RADIO: From Birmingham,
another two is escorted, so 16.
AJOY: Shaila, Shaila,
I have total of 18 passengers.
(radio chatter)
Copy, that's Manchester.
Fifteen passengers on the way.
That's great, thank you.
We have a total of 49.
We have passengers from Glasgow,
from Manchester, from Birmingham,
which are now being, uh, intercepted
and they are being escorted.
The distances are quite a lot.
NARRATOR: Dubai's Terminal 3 is the
largest building on Earth by floor space,
at 1.5 million square meters.
As Ajoy desperately rings his colleagues
to track down the missing passengers,
the 10 extra minutes are ticking by.
POC Chrisline.
Transfer desk Kilo, Glasgow.
Eighteen passengers, not a single
passenger boarded till now, guys.
WOMAN ON RADIO: There were
nine passengers escorted inbound Glasgow.
Are you expecting any more
coaches to come there?
WOMAN ON RADIO: No
Nobody at the gate.
As of now, nobody at the gate.
Manchester, Glasgow, and Birmingham.
These are the only ones which are missing.
OGGY:
Forty-three is a big number for us.
Waiting for 43 passengers.
But let's hope they come through.
NARRATOR: With eight minutes
until gate closure,
more of the missing passengers
start arriving.
- Incoming, Manchester.
- Okay.
OGGY: Waiting for Birmingham.
- How many?
- Fifteen.
God bless you.
I want to kiss you. Bye-bye.
Thanks a lot, man.
Please come, please come in front.
NARRATOR: Six minutes
until the gate closes,
but 11 Glasgow passengers
are still missing.
If they don't show up
in the next few minutes,
the Sydney airport curfew means the flight
will be forced to leave without them
or be canceled.
At the Emirates engineering hangar,
the pressure is ratcheting up
as engineer Mian Talat and his team
battle to remove
the stubborn A330 tail fin.
(indistinct)
NARRATOR: Despite 15 tons
of hydraulic pressure,
they can't even budge
the first of the six pins.
They have to remove the tail fin today,
or this major overhaul
could fall behind schedule.
That's bad news for the airline,
who lose money every extra day
a plane is on the ground.
If the plane is not in the air,
it's not making money.
It's supposed to transport passengers,
and that's what pays for this, everything.
NARRATOR: Too much pressure on the pins
could fire them out explosively
and damage the fin.
MAN: Slow, slow. Go gradually.
MIAN TALAT: Any movement on the pin?
NARRATOR:
Mian Talat decides he has no choice
but to push the pressure even higher.
Make it 20.
Go gradually, go slowly.
Go, go, go.
NARRATOR: It's as high as he dare go.
(banging)
- That's the one.
- That's a good one.
One pin down, five more to go.
This pin surely looks bad
because it has started losing its coating.
So there will be a new pin for sure.
NARRATOR: Around seven hours
after Mian Talat started his challenge,
he's managed to remove five tail fin pins.
Just one more remains.
MAN: Go to 30. Go to 30.
(chattering)
(banging)
- (cheering)
- Last pin is coming off.
NARRATOR: Finally, success.
Now they can get going.
The last pin is out,
so we are in business again.
NARRATOR: Now his final task,
lift the tail fin
onto a cradle on the ground.
Because of its size, the carbon fiber fin
has to be maneuvered delicately
to avoid damage.
MIAN TALAT: Okay, going up!
- Give me clearance.
- We are clear.
- Aijaz?
- Yeah, clear.
Going up!
Hey. You be careful.
Don't get carried away.
MIAN TALAT: Okay, going up.
(indistinct conversation)
- MAN 1: Yeah, I will take it down.
- Hold.
MIAN TALAT: Okay, put the sling,
put the straps.
Stop! I will come down.
- Push, push. Yeah, push, push.
- Up, up. Up, up, up.
One, two, three, go.
- It's not safe.
- Cool, cool. Cool, cool, cool.
NARRATOR: Eight and a half hours
since they started,
the team finally lower
the troublesome tail fin onto the cradle.
They can now inspect it for fatigue
and begin the reinforcement.
If we manage to send out
a good airplane every time,
that excites me, you know?
That is the whole idea,
so if you manage to do that,
I feel happy about that.
(radio chatter)
NARRATOR: Dubai International's
24/7 operation
means its three massive terminals
are at full stretch,
handling 344,000 flights a year.
These multimillion-dollar aircraft need to
be parked tidily at the right stand.
There's an automatic
laser guidance system, but if this fails,
airside operations controllers
have to marshal huge aircraft
safely in tight spaces.
One new A380 costs $389 million,
so it's not a job for the fainthearted.
With any marshaling job, there's a number
of things that could go wrong.
You have a multimillion-dollar aircraft.
They're obviously quite fragile, so if you
hit that aircraft into something else,
there's a very big monetary cost,
there's a reputation cost as well.
NARRATOR: With the airport's
rapid expansion needed
to provide space
for millions of new passengers
and the world's largest fleet of A380s,
the pressure is on to train up more staff.
John Taylor is running a training session
for eight new
airside operations controllers.
Tonight, John begins
their practical exercises.
Over the next few days,
they'll each face their biggest test,
marshaling a live plane.
JOHN: Okay, ready?
NARRATOR: But John wants to start small,
to evaluate their practical skills.
Practicing for now with a car, the rookies
must direct and stop it precisely.
We want to make sure they're
confident with their signals
and they're also
doing the correct signals.
To the untrained eye, obviously, it does
look like we're just waving our hands,
uh, in a funny manner.
Every small movement directs the captain,
so every time we speed up with the wand,
we're actually speeding the aircraft up.
When we're slowing it down,
we're slowing the aircraft down.
NARRATOR: All of the trainees
worked at Dubai Airports
before going for desirable jobs
as airside operations controllers.
Siva Sankaran was recruited
from the engineering department.
It is a big responsibility
because, you know,
the aircraft needs to be parked
in the correct manner.
JOHN: Okay, Mr. Siva,
show us your stuff. Good lad.
Siva, he's at the right confidence level
that we want him to be at.
He's got a good commanding grip of the
signals, which is what we need to see
before we will put him
anywhere near a live aircraft.
Okay, what we wanna make sure, though,
is that people aren't too confident.
The danger of someone being too cocky
is that they won't think fully
through the process.
Uh, so, for example,
if they think, "Oh, it's okay,
there's enough room for me
to bring the aircraft in,"
without physically going to check it,
then what you could have is a collision
with an aircraft or a vehicle.
Hello?
Fifteen miles, 332 Charlie 24.
Okay, thanks.
We're gonna go and do a live one,
but, uh, we're gonna have to do it pretty
fast, 'cause he's only 15 miles out.
Ali!
- Yes, sir.
- Get the bats.
NARRATOR: It's time for John
to put the first of his eight trainees
to the ultimate test.
We've got an aircraft at 15 miles.
Um, looking and doing
a quick assessment of the guys
over the last few hours, we're actually
gonna give Ali his first aircraft.
The choice with Ali was,
uh, I think pretty simple.
He exudes confidence.
Uh, he picks things up very, very quickly,
uh, and he basically
shows that he knows it.
What we got to do with Ali
is just calm him down a tiny, tiny bit.
NARRATOR: Giving Ali
a $208 million A330 to park
is the only way John can tell if this very
confident rookie can cut it as a marshal.
This is my first time
I'll be doing a live aircraft,
so I'm a bit happy and confident about it.
So let's see how I'm gonna park
the aircraft.
NARRATOR: Over at Gate B23,
the Sydney flight departs in 20 minutes,
but Ajoy and Oggy are still waiting
for missing passengers.
They can't risk leaving too late.
The plane must arrive before Sydney's
strict 11:00 p.m. airport curfew.
As of now we're missing
a total of 11 passengers.
So we have basically five minutes more to
get these passengers through.
Sydney? Come please, madam.
NARRATOR: Four minutes before the gate
closes, passengers start arriving.
It's nice. When we have
passengers coming through, it's so nice.
NARRATOR: But seven are still missing.
And there's another problem for Oggy.
Some of those passengers can't move fast.
We have passengers who board on,
uh, with the assistance of a wheelchair.
I'll call, uh, Special Handling,
and I'll check with them.
We're missing around, uh,
five wheelchairs, actually.
Have they cleared security
or are they still clearing security?
NARRATOR: 1:43 a.m.
The gate closes in two minutes
for the last flight to Sydney today.
Special Handling all have six passengers.
All are in contact.
NARRATOR: Ajoy now faces
a nightmare decision.
He's got seven passengers missing,
four in wheelchairs.
But if he waits much longer,
the flight could be canceled
and 418 passengers offloaded.
The airline might have to put
them into hotels overnight
and try and get them
on flights the next day.
Six are in contact.
What about 21 Charlie,
can you confirm 21 Charlie?
(indistinct conversation)
No, my dear, I need
to know exactly where they are now.
NARRATOR: It's decision time.
Okay, Oggy, offload. Offload, Oggy.
NARRATOR: Ajoy and Oggy have no
choice but to close the flight,
or the plane could arrive
after Sydney Airport has shut.
AJOY: Listen, listen, listen, please.
I called to just inform you,
do not bring them to the gate.
Put them on 412 in the morning.
I'm offloading seven passengers.
I'm releasing the flight.
Thank you very much for the rest
of the day. Thank you, bye-bye.
We have now offloaded
a group of seven passengers.
Out of that,
four passengers are wheelchair.
Unfortunately we can't hold this flight
because of the curfew situation.
NARRATOR: 1:45 a.m.
Flight closed.
200 of the 207 connecting passengers
have made it in time.
But seven haven't.
Four of them in wheelchairs.
(phone ringing)
NARRATOR: But then
a last-minute reprieve.
Mr. Sami, they just now authorized
to accept all the passengers.
They're on the way. Yeah?
He's authorized another delay
of five minutes.
He said accept all the passengers.
- (indistinct conversation)
- Yeah? Thank you.
Oggy, just call them,
call the Special Handling.
NARRATOR: Emirates Network Control,
realizing the sensitivity of the
situation, give Ajoy an extra five minutes
to find and board
the four wheelchair passengers.
Uh, we got authority to accept the
passengers. Please rush them.
NARRATOR: But they're cutting it fine.
Any more than five minutes,
and it could be too late
for the plane to make it to Sydney Airport
before the 11:00 p.m. curfew.
We need to cut off at some point.
Otherwise we would end up
grounding this aircraft.
Don't say trying to send me,
sweetheart, I took the delay.
Now, send them, please. Urgent.
NARRATOR: Special Handling hurry
the passengers in wheelchairs
through the terminal.
But one elderly female passenger
is still missing.
Now the decision has already been made,
so there is no two ways about it,
they will not revert it back.
We will wait for the passengers.
They are already on the way,
because we have already opened the holds
and re-accepted their bags.
NARRATOR: They've now committed
to boarding everyone.
But if there's further delays,
the flight could be canceled.
Negative.
Nobody knows. Right now,
continuously I am calling Fasila.
She's saying on the way, on the way.
My attendants are running.
NARRATOR: 2:05, 15 minutes
after the official departure time.
Just check,
is that the passenger for Sydney?
MAN: Sydney?
Okay, in contact, they're coming.
NARRATOR: 2:07 a.m.
Finally, the last passengers are in sight.
And Oggy has found the missing lady.
MAN: Just take her.
OGGY: Come, ma'am. Come through.
NARRATOR: All 207 rush connection
passengers have made it onto the flight.
Okay, last three passengers are here.
Boarding is over.
Done. Thanks. Last one, last one.
I found her, I brought her.
Thank you for your help, man.
NARRATOR: EK414 leaves 27 minutes after
its scheduled departure time of 1:50 a.m.,
but will land
just before curfew in Sydney.
Over at the airport's remote stands,
one of John Taylor's trainees is about to
marshal his first-ever passenger aircraft.
It's the ultimate test for the trainees,
and they must pass.
Until they do, they can't start their new
jobs as airside operations controllers.
I'm sure I'm not too cocky,
but I'm a good listener.
(radio chatter)
NARRATOR: John wants Ali
to marshal an A330.
If at any point I'm not happy,
or the pilot's not doing
exactly what he's saying,
and it's going to put anything at risk,
okay, I'll either tell you to stop him,
or I'll stand in front of you
and take the bats off you, okay?
ALI: Okay, sir.
This means a lot for me to succeed,
because I want to show
my officer and everything
that I'm really confident
and I can perform well.
Okay, so here he comes.
Right, can you see him?
ALI: Yes.
NARRATOR:
Ali must accurately signal the pilot
to bring this A330 along the correct
marking and to a stop by its stand.
Okay, let him come past the front of the
bus. Give him a signal, okay?
Enjoy, have fun.
- Thanks. Thank you.
- All right?
Okay, that's it.
Start bringing him forward.
Too early on the turn, forward.
NARRATOR: Ali makes his first mistake,
signaling the A330 to turn
towards him too soon.
Luckily, the pilot ignores him.
Keep on going. Now turn him.
The right hand down.
That's the one. Well done.
See how he turns? Good lad.
Bring him on to the center line, okay?
A little bit more of a turn to the left.
NARRATOR: Ali now needs
to correct the pilot
to bring him back
onto the stand center line.
Keep him straight. Stand where you are.
Stand exactly where you are.
You're doing really, really well.
Okay, keep on going.
Little bit faster, little bit faster.
Move to your right.
Keep on going, keep on going.
And
stop.
NARRATOR: Aside from trying
to turn the plane too soon,
Ali has made a good job
of marshaling his first live aircraft.
It was a bit scary, but--
Yeah, because you couldn't hear anything.
It's too noisy,
and you have to concentrate.
JOHN: Okay, how did you find that?
Intimidating?
- Yes. Bit scary.
- Yeah?
- Bit scary?
- But it was okay. Yes.
So, not as easy as you thought, no?
- Yes, not as easy as I thought.
- Okay.
- Really good job, okay?
- Thank you.
I think this just hopefully grounds you,
but well done.
NARRATOR:
The second of the eight students
John wants to test marshaling
a live plane tonight is Siva.
- You're gonna smile.
- Yeah.
JOHN: Okay, and enjoy it.
- Okay. Yeah.
- It's the first one, okay.
You're gonna be slightly nervous.
Okay.
But you're more than capable
of doing this.
NARRATOR: Siva's aircraft is a 777.
I'm a bit nervous, because it's the first
time I'm going to park,
because it's a big aircraft.
The worst thing he could do is panic.
Uh, that could be
either drops the wands or walks away.
That's why obviously we stand
very, very close to them
to take over
if anything, uh, should happen.
NARRATOR: It's crunch time for Siva.
The pilot of the 777 that's just landed
needs clear directions to his stopping
point on his parking stand.
JOHN: That's it. Now start
bringing him forward. Keep on going.
Wait until the nose wheel's
passed the center line
before you turn him left, okay?
Keep on going, keep on going, keep going,
keep going. That's the one, well done.
Little bit early on the turn,
but that's fine, okay. Bring him up.
That's it. Keep on bringing him up,
keep on coming straight.
Coming straight, coming straight.
No, no, no, no.
NARRATOR: But instead of keeping
the plane on the center line,
Siva signals the pilot to turn left
JOHN: No, no, straight, Siva.
NARRATOR: then panics
and signals the pilot to turn right.
JOHN: No, straight. Siva, straight.
Walk to the side,
turn and face the captain.
Keep him up. Okay.
NARRATOR: Siva's first experience of
marshaling an aircraft has not gone well.
Don't make the aircraft
do one quick movement, then another.
I learned that small mistakes
may make a big impact.
Siva did, uh, a few strange signals.
The left and the right that he gave the
aircraft as it was taxiing up the line.
So obviously we'll spend
some more time with him,
bit more one-to-one,
bit more bringing the aircraft up live.
Then hopefully over the next two, three
weeks, we'll sign him off as competent,
so he'll able to marshal,
uh, on shift on his own.
Right, back in the van, and we'll go home.
NARRATOR: Dubai International
is bidding to become
the biggest international
airport in the world.
And with the airport already
running close to capacity,
they're racing to build
a massive $3.2 billion concourse.
This will have space
for 15 million new passengers.
MAN: So many things to do.
NARRATOR: The airport is also desperate
for more stands to park its planes.
Emirates has 90 A380s on order
from manufacturer Airbus
and needs parking for 33 of these massive
superjets at the new concourse.
Failure is not an option for us here.
This is Dubai.
NARRATOR: Jumah Al-Mazrooie must get this
huge concourse completed on schedule.
JUMAH: The pressure I have
is the project is not finished.
We set a target of January,
and we are in October,
and I see that the time
is passing very fast for us.
I can't sleep at night.
NARRATOR: The concourse is
swarming with contractors.
But with passengers and planes
arriving in just 80 days,
the pressure is immense.
The everyday pressures, logistics,
of doing a job this quick
changes not just on a day-to-day basis,
it changes throughout the day.
Things are moving at such a pace.
JUMAH: There is no space for failure.
If there is a weak point that we notice,
or we can identify,
this weak point is removed.
It's either you can deliver
or you're out of the building.
NARRATOR: Today, it's Jumah
who has to deliver.
The new terminal
must be ready to be tested
by guinea pig passengers
in two days' time.
I need more than this, people.
I need the whole thing to be finished.
NARRATOR: There's only an hour
before a crucial site inspection
that will decide
if it's ready for the test.
Jumah's still pushing
to get things finished.
I don't need friends here in the airport,
I need the building to be finished.
I can't.
Once it is done,
then we can be friends forever.
Why do we need a footrail here?
So they can go straight down to get the
I mean, why do we need it?
There is no buggies, there's nothing.
NARRATOR: Myles Jones knows that Jumah's
last-minute tidying won't change much.
Jumah's, uh, out there
trying to, uh, clean up what's not done,
but ultimately, you know, we're an hour
away, so whatever's done is done.
NARRATOR: Success or failure
will depend simply
on whether the concourse signs
along the test route
are in place and easy to follow.
Today is important, because the airport
has to be ready for all the signage.
There's 10 gates out of the 20
that we're trialing,
so those have to be available,
otherwise this walk will be a no-go.
(phone ringing)
And that's him now.
Yeah, Jumah.
(indistinct conversation)
Yeah, it's at--
The meeting's at 9:30. I'll call them now.
All right, no problems,
no worries. See ya.
My gut feeling is
that it's going to be very tight.
NARRATOR: Everything for Jumah
is riding on this.
But I need it to be covered,
I can't have it like this.
NARRATOR: If today's site inspection
reveals the signs
to departure gates aren't ready,
the trial with test passengers
in two days' time
will be a disaster.
Jumah especially,
he's put a lot of effort, you know,
he's worked a lot of hours,
so he won't be happy with a no-go.
NARRATOR: A canceled trial
means the concourse may not open on time.
But ready or not,
15 million new passengers a year
and 33 new A380s are on their way.
Not all passengers need good signposting.
In these crates
we have two elephants each,
so in total we have four elephants
being carried to Peking.
(elephant trumpets)
NARRATOR: Adil Usmani has
to ensure these baby elephants
arrive in China in good shape.
(trumpeting)
We made sure
they come out of the warehouse
just in time for the departure,
so about minus 35 minutes to departure,
we move them out.
They came in from Harare,
uh, came in at about quarter past 6:00,
going out now,
so about five hours of ground time.
NARRATOR: In 2012,
Dubai International shipped
more than 2.2 million tons
of freight to 95 countries.
Everything from flowers and fruit
to machinery and horses.
These baby African elephants are
aged between 26 and 32 months.
Adil is in charge of their
exclusive travel arrangements.
There's a special notification
provided to the crew
that we have special passengers
in the cargo hold,
and they maintain
the temperatures accordingly.
(trumpeting)
They're getting grumpy now, yeah?
NARRATOR: Mohammed Morsy
has worked at the airport for a year,
but today's cargo
is a whole new experience.
How many times I've
loaded elephants before?
This is the first time
for me to load them here.
The weights for the elephant,
including the cage,
one cage is 1,977, the other is 2,025.
So total of them,
both of them, it's about four tons.
So they are pretty heavy.
NARRATOR: The elephants are going
into the temperature-controlled hold
of a B777 passenger jet.
Total cargo capacity, 22 tons.
And just like any other
passenger on board,
in-flight catering
is all part of the deal.
They got their food, they got their water,
uh, they will be comfortable, you know.
All doors are closed
and equipment removed.
NARRATOR: The flight to China
will take around seven hours
before the elephants arrive
at their new home in Beijing.
Over in the new $3.2 billion
A380 concourse,
Damien Bolton, head of operational
readiness and airport transfer,
and consultant Ben have arrived
to start their site inspection.
If they're happy with the concourse signs
for the passenger test route
from Terminal 3 check-in
to the departure gates
in the new concourse,
they'll approve a trial
with mock passengers in two days.
What we're expecting to see is all
of the main passenger routes completed.
We'll walk the departures level,
look at what the status is like
within the signage,
uh, make sure the passengers
will be able to find their gates.
NARRATOR: If they don't think
passengers can follow the signs,
they'll cancel the trial.
There's a lot at stake.
The 15 million new passengers
must be able to follow the signs
to their departure gates
when the concourse opens in 80 days,
or there will be chaos
with missed flights.
So let's just, uh, concentrate
and if it's available, fine.
When the people come, they need to see
if they can get into their area or not.
MAN: Right. Well done.
JUMAH: Yeah, I don't want
to get into a lot of details
about if it's the correct sign or not.
There's a lot of pressure on Jumah today,
because obviously we don't want
to ever cancel any of our trials.
I won't hand everyone a sheet out.
We're just gonna keep one master sheet.
Yeah.
Um But if you can all
raise any comments or concerns you got.
NARRATOR: The inspection team
head off on their tour.
You know, this light box here,
that's supposed to have signage in there.
It's supposed to be--
Is it a matter of just plugging it in
and getting it going, or is it--
DAMIEN: Well, we've been told
there's signage.
All the signage is on site,
so all they need to do is fix it.
There's not even, uh,
a light box in there.
Then they've got to put
all of the signage in,
they've got to test it to make sure
the signage makes sense
before we do the trial,
so there's a lot to do.
David, this thing is not working.
I'm sorry, Dave.
NARRATOR: It's not just the signs to
the departure gates that aren't finished.
MAN: Yeah, we can't get through there.
NARRATOR: One of the doors
on the passenger test route is locked.
That's not good.
No, on the day of trial,
that would cause a bit of a problem.
The problem we'd have is finding
the people afterwards actually, isn't it?
That's the risk.
We are significantly
further away than we need to be.
NARRATOR: With the signs in this state,
passengers trying to find
their departure gates
could easily miss flights.
We're supposed to have
all of the signage up
and all of the flight information display
screens are supposed to be activated.
And as you can see
from what we've come across so far,
upstairs is a long way behind.
Um, the lower level that we're on now,
the arrivals level,
is a lot more complete.
Yeah, we are significantly away
from where we needed to be today.
NARRATOR: It's not looking good.
BEN: You guys, just,
can we just stop a second?
I think it's pretty clear
that we're not going to be
in a position from what's here
to do the full trial.
Listen, I have all the displays.
We're not putting them on.
We just did not put them on.
NARRATOR: Jumah fights back
to try and reverse the decision to cancel.
The sign is gonna be on Tuesday available.
It's gonna be there.
- You've got them though?
- We got them. We have them here.
NARRATOR: But the missing signs
mean today's test is a failure.
The trial with the mock passengers
is canceled.
Fundamentals, can a passenger go through
a process and find his way to his gate?
That's the principle.
And based on what we've seen so far,
no, they can't.
NARRATOR: Damien is adamant
the site is in no state
for 243 guinea pig passengers to test.
DAMIEN: If there's no signs,
there's no signs, no point.
Still a lot to do.
NARRATOR: The cancellation of the trial
means the concourse may not be ready
for new passengers and planes
scheduled to start arriving
in just 80 days.
We can't keep planning trials
and then two days out canceling them,
because we just don't have
the luxury to re-plan them.
We haven't got any time left.
NARRATOR: Without a finished concourse,
there will be no space for the airport's
15 million new passengers
or 33 of Emirates' massive new superjets.
We've got to show that this airport
is ready for operations.
And that's to all of our stakeholders
before we start doing
live flights out of here.
Captioned by Pixelogic Media