Ultimate Airport Dubai (2013) s02e05 Episode Script

1
NARRATOR: In this episode
Carl is facing the
mother of all oversized baggage problems.
CARL: Whoa! Whoa!
JO: Adelaide or
Sydney, Australia?
NARRATOR: Jo is searching for
a herd of missing passengers
during Terminal Three's rush hour.
JO: 147 people, 25
minutes to find them.
Close to impossible I think.
NARRATOR: And Hassan in
customs can't believe what he's hearing.
HASSAN: What's
your profession?
MAN: I'm a contract killer.
HASSAN: Killer?
NARRATOR: Dubai
International Airport.
The busiest global hub on the
planet; and aiming to stay there.
PILOT: Clear for takeoff.
NARRATOR: But perfection
is never easy.
JUMAH: It's not finished,
it's supposed to be finished.
NARRATOR: More
planes to service.
ANDY: Can we open the
number three engine?
NARRATOR: More
situations to deal with.
MEL: What do you
mean live snakes?
NARRATOR: More
smugglers to stop.
HASSAN: This is
the heroin here.
NARRATOR: And massive
engineering projects to complete on time.
It's non-stop. 24/7.
It's the job of 90,000
staff from all over the
world to make this the Ultimate Airport.
Dubai Airport handles over 66 million
international passengers every year.
Major delays here can kick start a
domino effect, that causes connecting
passengers to miss flights,
all over the world.
But no matter the pressures, every
one of the 90,000 employees here
must maintain a high standard of service.
It's half past midnight.
Whilst some International airports have
night-time curfews that shut them down.
MAN: Golf Air 513
ground good evening.
NARRATOR: Dubai
is at its busiest.
At peak times as many as
34 planes land every hour.
MAN: 515.
MAN 2: Two.
NARRATOR: Each one adds
more passengers to the rush hour traffic
in Terminal Three.
JO: Eight flights same time.
No worries, leave it with me, OK thanks.
NARRATOR: Eight Emirates
flights, including three huge A380s
have landed one after the other.
JO: We're off to
the transfer desk.
We've got eight flights
arriving within ten minutes.
That's 3,000 people arriving in the same
area, so Zach and I are on our way there now.
NARRATOR: Emirates Passenger Operations
now have the huge challenge of helping 45%
transfer onto connecting flights.
JO: And we need to make sure we've
got enough man power down there.
OK just let me know I'll
give check-in a call.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
NARRATOR: Giovanna di Biasi, known
as Jo, is a new Airport Services Manager.
She's keen to impress her new employer and
there's no better way of doing that than
ensuring passengers catch
the two critical flights due to leave
for Australia in just over an hour's time.
JO: My priority is to get the Sydney
and Adelaide passengers out as quick as
I can cause we've got curfew
in Sydney and Adelaide.
If they leave even ten minutes late
the flights could end up staying in Dubai.
NARRATOR: Taking off
late isn't an option.
With more than 12 hours needed to travel
from Dubai to Australia any delay now
means the flights will not make it to
Sydney or Adelaide before the curfew.
The consequences, chaos for the
passengers and the airline's schedules.
JO: On any night the two most
important flights are our Sydney flight
and our Adelaide flight.
Between the two flights
over 800 passengers.
NARRATOR: Jo must find 800 passengers and
connect them to their outgoing Australia
flights and with 3,000
incoming arrivals this is no easy task.
JO: Any passengers going to Sydney or
Adelaide send them through counter H-One.
It's only gonna be open for
Sydney and Adelaide passengers
H-One at security machine H-One.
Sydney or Adelaide?
ZACK: Sydney? Adelaide?
NARRATOR: With time at a premium Jo tries
to make it easier for her passengers and
speeds up the security
process by setting up a dedicated line.
JO: So, this is Sydney
and Adelaide passengers?
MAN: Yes.
JO: To come through? MAN: Yes.
JO: All right, thank you.
This is a really busy time now
it's nearly at its capacity
so we need to do all we can to
get passengers through,
so they don't miss their flights.
You go through this line, H-One.
NARRATOR: Jo can't wait for her passengers
to find their own way through and sends
out her assistant Zach to proactively
track down the missing travelers.
ZACK: OK there is no time for you,
so you have to pass the security fast.
I'll let you pass first.
MAN: OK. ZACH: Go directly
to B21, all right? Follow me.
MAN: From Paris to Sydney
today, very close.
Bit too close I think so
now we have to make a run.
JO: Chaos here I've just found out
that four more aircrafts have just landed
that's over 1,500 passengers.
NARRATOR: As Jo struggles to transfer
passengers to their connecting flights.
JO: Anyone to
Sydney or Adelaide?
Adelaide or Sydney, Australia?
NARRATOR: Air traffic
control is landing more and more planes.
JO: Sydney, Adelaide,
straight through thank you.
Sydney or Adelaide?
NARRATOR: Terminal Three handles nearly
120,000 passengers a day and tonight
it feels like they've arrived all at once.
JO: Our first flight's
leaving in about 40 minutes.
I am going to have to go to the gate,
there will be enough staff down here
to make sure they can send the
last late runners through.
NARRATOR: Jo and Zach rush to the
departure gate to oversee the operation.
ZACK: How many missing?
JO: How many
passengers are on that?
NARRATOR: Emirates Network
Control Center monitors all
of the airline's flights.
And Jo has just been informed she has
to transfer more late arriving passengers.
JO: 147 people, 25
minutes to find them,
it's gonna be close to impossible I think.
NARRATOR: As Jo battles to get her
passengers on their way to Australia,
the relentless flow
of incoming travelers is making the job
in customs more difficult.
HASSAN: Tonight, is around 5,600
passengers, they are arriving now.
NARRATOR: Over 66 million
passengers enter Dubai every year.
HASSAN: Have a nice day.
MAN: Thank you very much.
HASSAN: Thank you.
NARRATOR: It's crucial
that the officers are
respectful, but they still
need to get results.
HASSAN: When it's more passengers
it's a little bit difficult to spot
and search any passengers.
So, it's make or spot one passenger
and focus on him, on his body language.
NARRATOR: Tonight, Customs' Officer Hassan
Ibrahim's job is to sniff out anything
illegal, suspicious, or dangerous, as
thousands of people pass through arrivals.
HASSAN: Hello? Just I have
call now from my colleague.
They spot one passenger.
Hi.
MAN: How are you?
HASSAN: Fine, thank you how are you?
You speak English, yeah?
MAN: Yes.
HASSAN: You are from Australia?
MAN: Yeah.
HASSAN: What these seeds?
MAN: They are marijuana seeds.
HASSAN: Marijuana
seeds, belongs to you? MAN: Unplanted.
HASSAN: Unplanted. MAN: Yeah,
they were given to me as like a something
like a gift souvenir, so
HASSAN: So, you don't these,
you don't use marijuana?
You don't smoke marijuana or
any kind of illegal drugs?
MAN: No. Mate when I was,
I think when I was 13.
HASSAN: When you was 13?
MAN: 13, 14. I used to sometimes smoke
some marijuana. HASSAN: Some marijuana.
But now you don't some anything?
MAN: No, nothing.
HASSAN: And these seeds
you said unplanted you carrying with you?
MAN: Yeah.
HASSAN: Why you carrying
marijuana seeds with you?
MAN: Well, because they're legal to
carry around as long as I don't plant
them from what I know.
HASSAN: No, but I know, but
what you will do with these seeds.
MAN: No, no they're
for display only.
HASSAN: For display?
MAN: Yeah just for display. HASSAN: Oh OK.
OK so you don't have anything
else more, more than all these seeds?
MAN: No.
HASSAN: OK.
So, my colleague
will now continue to check your bag to
make sure that you don't
have anything else with you.
MAN: Go ahead.
HASSAN: OK.
Just co-operate
with him please. OK.
MAN: Yeah. OK.
HASSAN: There's a big
possibility that he can plant
these seeds and get more marijuana
and maybe he will sell the marijuana
and that will be a big problem
for us and that will be serious problem.
NARRATOR: Dubai Customs has
a zero tolerance drug policy.
With 220 drug busts last year
they take it very seriously.
And a small amount of marijuana
could lead to a four year prison sentence.
It's certainly not a laughing matter.
HASSAN: What's
your profession?
MAN: I'm a contract killer.
HASSAN: Contract? MAN: Contract killer.
HASSAN: Killer?
MAN: Yeah.
HASSAN: How describe?
I didn't get you.
MAN: A professional hit man.
NARRATOR: Hassan can't quite
believe what he's hearing.
MAN: Yeah. You can choke
somebody with that.
You straight it out and put it
HASSAN: No problem, if we want to
know what the purpose of it we'll ask you.
MAN: Do you need, do you
need a hand with that.
HASSAN: No sir, he
will do it by himself one by one. Thanks.
NARRATOR: Hassan could be dealing with a
mere joker, an addict or a smuggler trying
to distract him from finding more drugs.
HASSAN: Just we making
sure that you don't have anything else.
NARRATOR: Either way
this passenger is not helping himself.
MAN: If you're looking
for the heroin it's in that pocket there.
HASSAN: So, you have
heroin with you?
MAN: In that there.
In that, side top pocket.
HASSAN: Where?
MAN: In the zipper there.
Gotcha.
HASSAN: Oh OK.
So, you funny right?
MAN: Thank you. HASSAN: Just
we put it in the X-ray machine now.
Your bags.
MAN: OK.
HASSAN: As you saw he was funny.
I'm not sure he's a funny guy
or maybe he's a little bit high.
NARRATOR: Hassan is
trained to remain focused.
He wants to investigate
this passenger's luggage thoroughly.
HASSAN: There's one spot here, I want to
check it now to make sure what this exactly.
MAN: Yeah that's my Bible you know I always
got it with me you know, like my handgun.
NARRATOR: Unlike guns, it's
not illegal to bring a Bible to Dubai.
MAN: Can I get a cup of tea?
NARRATOR: Or to be a comedian.
HASSAN: Just come with
us for the body check. MAN: OK.
NARRATOR: Hassan decides
to leave nothing to chance.
A full body scan will literally reveal
if this passenger is a serious drug
smuggler or an ill-informed joker.
HASSAN: What's wrong with him?
Is he dangerous on our country
on our people here or the
residents people here with us?
Or maybe also on himself.
So now he's coming.
NARRATOR: The body
check is negative.
The passenger is not
carrying any other drugs.
Hassan has done all that he can.
HASSAN: Let's go.
NARRATOR: But on the way to the
investigation room the passenger appears
to pull his trousers down.
HASSAN: There is a line for
respect, so don't cross this line.
MAN: Yeah, yeah, I
just checked my.
HASSAN: Listen to, I'm
here, listen to me. I'm right with you.
I try to be
reasonable with you. OK?
I respect that you be a little
bit funny with us, I accept that,
but otherwise don't cross the red line.
MAN: OK. HASSAN: OK?
There will be bad consequences
MAN: Yeah, I didn't see any
chalk on the ground, sorry.
HASSAN: Just come with me.
NARRATOR: Lewd behavior in public is
not acceptable in the United Arab Emirates
and this passenger is pushing his luck.
HASSAN: Your behavior not right
there is something wrong with you.
You're mentally you
are not, you are not like a natural guy.
NARRATOR: The passenger's behavior
gives Hassan little choice but to hand him
over to the police and
the judicial system.
HASSAN: My job is finished.
The drugs section they will test
his blood, and also they will check
the seeds and also he will
check what's wrong with him.
NARRATOR: The final call has gone
out for both curfew flights to Australia.
JO: Adelaide or
Sydney, Australia?
No, no, no.
NARRATOR: Adelaide is
scheduled to depart first
and ten minutes after that Sydney.
JO: It's gonna be tight,
yeah, it's gonna be tight.
NARRATOR: But with only 25 minutes remaining
before the gate is closed for Sydney,
Jo is still looking for 147 passengers.
JO: I've called and asked
I've got ten minutes, I've got till 2:00,
anything after that I really don't have.
NARRATOR: With more connecting customers
having just landed, and so many others missing,
Emirates Network Control
Center is forced to authorize a ten minute
extension for both flights.
JO: 81 passengers 18 minutes
so the clock's ticking too quickly.
It does sound impossible, but stranger
things have happened, so I'm hoping.
Sydney passengers to Sydney?
Wedding dress?
WOMAN: Yes.
JO: Congratulations. Anyone to Sydney?
NARRATOR: Despite the
pressure, Jo still needs to stay calm
and compassionate
when her passengers need a little TLC.
JO: You made it?
WATSON: Just arrived
105 from Manchester.
So, has it gone?
JO: No, no, no you made it.
WATSON: I'm on a
special mission.
I'm bringing my mother's ashes back.
So that's why I'm here.
JO: Oh, are you?
Oh no, no, no you've made it.
Now you've made it, now
you've made it so
WATSON: I'm sorry I'm
holding people up.
JO: No, no you haven't
we're waiting on about 70 more people.
WATSON: How many?
JO: 70.
WATSON: 70? My mother had eight
trips with me to Sydney.
Came to see me on eight occasions.
So, I'm just on my way
back now with her ashes to scatter over
the harbor, Sydney Harbor.
JO: There's no one in the
seat next to you either.
So, you can have both seats.
And just think your mum will be proud.
WATSON: Thanks
very much indeed.
JO: That's all right,
have a nice flight. Bye Mr. Watson.
NARRATOR: One down, 69
more passengers to go.
ZACK: Only Sydney
please, only Sydney.
JO: Hi it's Jo.
No, I just got a phone call that
Adelaide gate needs to close now.
Close the doors please and we'll go.
NARRATOR: Eight minutes after the scheduled
departure, the gate to Adelaide is closed.
JO: I'm gonna stick to Sydney
and just hope for the best.
11 minutes.
WOMAN: Please try to find them,
they're elderly passengers
and they're not in contact
with special handling.
JO: Are they
British passengers?
NARRATOR: There are still two missing
passengers for the Sydney departure.
JO: Zach, looking for two
wheelchair passengers.
Two elderly wheelchair
passengers from Birmingham.
WOMAN: They're not in contact.
JO: We don't know where they are.
So maybe if you go down to
central point, go downstairs.
ZACK: Central.
NARRATOR: Zach heads
off to track down the
two wheelchair bound latecomers.
With their bags already loaded onto the
plane, if he doesn't find them within the next
eight minutes, their bags
will have to be removed and the flight may
miss its takeoff slot to Australia.
JO: Are you OK?
WOMAN: We were supposed to have
had special assistance and we've had none.
JO: OK.
NARRATOR: The two missing elderly
passengers, minus their wheelchairs,
have finally made it.
JO: Are you going
just as far as Sydney? Or?
WOMAN: No to Sydney.
JO: You're going to Sydney? All right.
You've made the flight
so don't rush any more.
Is that it? Yes.
Hey, we've got them all 414 at the gate.
Close it up. Thank you.
Miracle happened, thanks.
NARRATOR: 1:55 AM.
Jo has transferred all
147 missing passengers onto both flights.
JO: Feeling a lot better now.
I really didn't think it was gonna
happen so I'm quite surprised.
At the time I think, help me, help me, but
then afterwards I think oh my gosh it's done.
It was great.
When's the next drama gonna happen,
so I am just waiting on that call.
Hi Emirates, it's Jo.
Yep minus five and what time's
that scheduled to depart?
2:55.
All right I'll go
there now. Thanks.
Never ending.
NARRATOR: Dubai International has a passenger
capacity of 75 million people a year.
Keeping the planes operating safely
and on time is central to the running of
the entire operation and
any future expansion.
ZO: They're having some portable water
issues where they're not getting water
pressure throughout
the airplane and they're having a delay,
it's supposed to go to San Francisco.
NARRATOR: Zo Ammoury is
a maintenance engineer.
He trouble shoots and tries to fix
aircraft faults at the terminal stands.
A good day's work is when he solves
problems without delaying any planes.
ZO: Not having any water
pressure in the aircraft is a problem,
especially on a long flight like San Francisco
because um, for everything for washing,
for coffee, tea pots and the ovens I
think on the airplane also have steam.
We'll be under pressure
and now until the aircraft pushes back.
There'll be a lot of phone calls and
a lot of people asking what's going
on until we get it sorted.
NARRATOR: The problem is all 300
passengers have already boarded the plane.
Zo and his crew must find the fault and fix
it before the plane is allowed to take off.
ZO: That's where the water
servicing takes place.
Let's go up inside there.
ZO: This is where our
water's held. Right here.
There are our water tanks
and our water pumps are down here.
It's a bit hard to hear as
the fans are blasting away.
NARRATOR: In Emirates Network Control
Center, news comes through of the fault.
MAN: All right mate, thank
you buddy, cheers, bye.
OK Georg the 225 they had a
primary water pump failure.
Because it's such a long sector the
engineering team are not happy for it to run on
the secondary pump solely just in case that
fails in flight because that would affect all
the toilets, the water
system everything. So
GEORG: The estimate
they're giving?
MAN: We're looking at probably
a 45 minute delay.
We'll have to hold the loading
and the bulk to fix it.
GEORG: OK. OK.
NARRATOR: Georg Brommer and
his team monitor every
single Emirates plane around the World.
Day and night, in the air and on the
ground, assessing and managing the global
knock on effects that occur to
the airline during any delays.
GEORG: We have 15 hours 30 minutes
flight time, so definitely we have to get
this fixed because if the water supply
doesn't work in flight, that could be a drama.
The terminal is also congested,
we've got immigration queues we've got
check in queues, all
of that so that is causing the problems.
NARRATOR: The failure of a little water
pump threatens to cause a big impact for
passengers on board that
have connecting flights
in San Francisco to other destinations.
GEORG: Most of the stations will
have extremely high passenger numbers,
there's hardly any space on flights
or even if something breaks anywhere
or there's no real option for
us to re-book passengers.
NARRATOR: Down in the belly
of the plane the temperature
is a stifling 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
Fortunately, Zo thinks he's
found the source of the fault.
ZO: Basically, the water
system has an over-ride switch
and somebody has put
it in the wrong selection.
So, if it's selected wrong, it won't
allow any pressure in the tank.
NARRATOR: And he thinks the solution
is a simple reversal of the switch.
ZO: At the moment I
think we got it sorted.
They've reset the system, they're
running one test and waiting for
a positive outcome before
we close up here.
So, we're about 20 minutes into
a delay, but it looks like it's gonna
have a good outcome anyway.
NARRATOR: Up in the Network
Control Center, the team
waits for confirmation
of the successful fix.
Delaying customers is bad business,
particularly if passengers
miss connecting flights.
MAN: Thanks, bye.
Failed. The pump
change has failed.
So now we've had the passengers
on board the aircraft for about an hour,
if that drags on another hour we'll
have to consider taking them off
which becomes a bigger issue.
NARRATOR: Network Control and
line maintenance are not
the only ones being scrutinized today.
It's day 17 of an 80 day, $300
million project to upgrade and repair the
airport's two runways, south and north.
YOUSUF: Deadline's a deadline
and we want to beat those deadlines.
NARRATOR: With only one runway open and
26% less planes able to use the airport,
revenue is down.
YOUSUF: We have only six or
seven shifts to finish all the works.
We have to do 90 kilometers of cables.
We have to do 700 airfield lights.
We have to meet that challenge
to beat the deadlines.
NARRATOR: The commercial pressure
to get back to full capacity rests on the
shoulders of Engineering
Projects Manager, Yousuf Pirzada.
YOUSUF: We are hoping
to open the runway slightly earlier.
That will just give us the opportunity
to start the North runway earlier.
Because the challenges
of the North runway
are much more than the South runway.
On the South runway
we have 95,000 cubic metres of asphalt.
On the North runway we have
290,000 cubic metres asphalt.
NARRATOR: The North runway
works, will be a tougher task.
More time will be needed if it's to
be delivered on schedule and budget.
But the sight won't be signed off and
opened earlier unless the Regulator and the
Operator of Dubai Airports is
happy it's fit for purpose and safe.
LAWRENCE: We're looking at paint markings,
signage, the asphalt, pit covers,
all this should now be finished, finished.
NARRATOR: Lawrence Vincent-Edwards
is in charge of Airfield Development.
If Yousuf is to open the South runway early
he will have to convince him it's ready.
LAWRENCE: If they're not,
it's a schedule issue now
and we start looking at
the schedule drifting.
NARRATOR: It's a classic battle
between commercial pressure and safety.
YOUSUF: I don't like
this inspection.
It is just like school
days. Somebody is checking your homework.
NARRATOR: But as he waits for
Lawrence to inspect his work,
he spots something he doesn't like.
YOUSUF: We have to grind
those edges.
This was caused by a sweeper brush.
The sharp edges on the airfield lights
can cause major damage
to the aircraft wheels
and it is very important
that those imperfections
are rectified before operations start.
NARRATOR: En route to meet
Yousuf, Lawrence and his team are taking
the opportunity to have a sneak peek.
LAWRENCE: Contractors and operators
always have slightly different agendas.
The contractor wants to do the minimum that he
needs to do in order to get it operationally
ready, and the end user wants
everything else in the scope that might
be a little bit more subtle.
YOUSUF: We don't think there is any
issue here there might be minor issues,
but we just want to move on
and to start other areas.
Hello.
LAWRENCE (over phone): We're,
we're about five minutes away.
LAWRENCE: So, we'll come down
and meet you at A and B yeah?
YOUSUF: Yeah and we've completed
the inspection and we found it perfect.
LAWRENCE: You've already completely
the inspection and you found it prefect?
Excellent.
YOUSUF: Yeah. I'm with you.
LAWRENCE: We'll see you on C and
D, then we can slot down to A and B.
YOUSUF: Oh OK.
LAWRENCE: Bye.
That was Yousuf.
He seems quite happy, he seems to
have everything under control let's see
whether finished actually means finished.
NARRATOR: Lawrence and his Airfield Development
Team are inspecting the South runway.
No stone is unturned, no detail is
too small, everything is examined.
JON: Just looking at
this light fitting,
I think this one should
be straight and it's not.
Everything has to be right on
the taxiway cause when a pilot
comes down here visual cues guiding up
on the lights and the markings, if
the lights point in the wrong direction
it could cause confusion or get him lost.
NARRATOR: Jon Hall and Lawrence are hoping
the runway can open early so that Yousuf
and his engineers can get a head
start on the second phase of the project
and shut down the North runway.
It's not to be.
JON: Stop bar markings
not complete, a sign base is missing.
We still need markings, stop bar, center
line lights, edge lights need to go in.
LAWRENCE: If you don't have good
control over their quality, cut corners,
cutting corners, production scope
and we will be out here in year seven
doing a major refurbishment rather
than year ten which we're banking on.
JON: Soft areas, look at
those, they're not finished.
LAWRENCE: Yeah.
JON: FOD everywhere.
LAWRENCE: That's
not, that's not good.
NARRATOR: FOD, Foreign
Object Debris,
can be sucked into the
engine of an airplane and destroy it.
It's an absolute no in aviation.
JON: Just a few tools
left lying around.
I'm sure they'd be picked up eventually,
but we like to see the area clean.
Can you have those, get rid of them, yeah.
On any other construction
site, it wouldn't be such an issue,
but if you're expecting planes down here in
ten days or less, it becomes a FOD issue.
It could cause an engine failure or a
tire burst, particularly on the runway.
LAWRENCE: A huge amount of effort's gone
into getting it to where we are today,
but the bit that counts
when it comes to safety is that last 20%.
At the moment that
20% isn't here yet, bit of disappointment.
NARRATOR: Jon and
Lawrence have seen enough.
It doesn't look good, safety always
wins over commercial pressure
and it's time to break the news to Yousuf.
LAWRENCE: Areas C
and D isn't complete.
Give the contractor a rocket, but we
need to be really explicit with them as
to what's outstanding.
I don't want them tripping over
things, and saying oh that's not done,
and we haven't told them about it.
YOUSUF: The difficult
task is already done.
Remaining are the easy tasks, they
take time, but we have plenty of time.
JON: All we're missing is
signs, lights and markings. YOUSUF: Yes.
JON: When we get those
done we can have an inspection, yeah?
YOUSUF: Oh yeah.
JON: So, set line markings.
No stop bar markings, no stop
bar lights, there's no edge lights.
YOUSUF: We are hoping to complete
everything tonight, all the physical work.
JON: It's a lot to do.
YOUSUF: No, no it's not.
JON: Does this include
these markings?
YOUSUF: Markings is
the easiest thing.
JON: FOD clearance.
YOUSUF: Markings is the easiest thing.
NARRATOR: Despite the
review Yousuf is optimistic.
He still has 14 days to complete the
South runway, but that won't stop him from
pushing to open it earlier.
YOUSUF: It's important to have a positive
attitude towards the project because the
project is difficult and if you don't
have an optimistic and can-do attitude
it can impact the whole team.
CARL: 2557. Chocks on.
Was 1710
NARRATOR: Ground dispatcher,
Carl Knight is at the sharp end,
pushing his crew to load
planes on time, every time.
CARL: Right now, I'm on the way,
just got the load plan, 90 minutes till
departure for a triple seven Frazer aircraft,
bound for Singapore and on to Sydney.
NARRATOR: More than
2.6 million tons of cargo travel through
Dubai Airport every year.
CARL: Here we go.
NARRATOR: It's a tough, competitive
business, there's no room for error.
CARL: We've just got
power on the airplane now.
Angel, Angel can we get the door open,
can we get the door open please, yeah?
We got the power in the last five minutes.
NARRATOR: But all is
not what it should be at the loading bay.
CARL: Which ones are
you missing Yarif?
Alpha Romeo yeah, but Echo Fox Lima yeah?
Chillia Lima yeah?
Papa Lima as well?
We're four pallets missing?
Is that ours?
No? No, it's not.
It looks like it's for another flight.
20 foot pallet on echo fox lima, we can't
change the loading so we're just gonna
have to wait for Romeo palette, currently
it's not located, not at the bay.
NARRATOR: 65 tons of cargo need to
be located and loaded in precise order
to keep the plane balanced.
To make matters worse one piece of
freight that has arrived poses the mother
of all oversized baggage problems.
CARL: It's as you see, it's a Rolls
Royce Trent 900 Engine it weighs 11 tons.
I've just spoken with the team loading
it, neither of them have actually loaded
this before so that's
another challenge we're going to face now,
but he's confident it will be OK.
We're just going to have to be extremely,
extremely careful because there isn't going
to be very much clearance.
The door, it's going to
be so close to the door.
This will only just fit
on the airplane, this will only just fit.
We're gonna be working to within maybe
an inch an inch or two of the door frame.
It's a very, very tight fit.
NARRATOR: Since coming into service Trent
900 engines have flown the equivalent of
10,000 times around the
world and carried 34 million passengers,
but this one's going nowhere
until Carl's crew find
and load all the other cargo.
CARL: There is a, there's weight restrictions
on certain compartments on this aircraft.
We're certainly not going
to change the loading position for that,
that's all been carefully planned.
The engine's critical
it's on the same position.
NARRATOR: Time
is slipping away.
Carl must load 65 tons of
miscellaneous freight
and 11 tons of awkward jet engine
in 45 minutes if this triple
seven is to leave on schedule.
CARL: Right, I'm just gonna go and brief
the Captain on the departure for the flight.
Hello.
MAN: Hello, how are you?
CARL: Captain good evening.
It's not looking good for on
time departure I'm afraid.
The bad news we're still missing
some cargo, we've got this engine to load.
MAN: Yep, yep, yep.
CARL: Realistically,
we'll try our best but
45 minutes and still missing
units, it's not looking great.
NARRATOR: In the Network Control Center,
the operations team have just found out the
attempt to fix a broken water pump on the
San Francesco bound triple seven has failed.
GEORG: OK speak to the crew tell them that
we're taking another 30 minutes and then
I think that makes sensible,
it's a sensible call at least.
NARRATOR: If Line Engineer, Zo doesn't
fix the pump within the next 30 minutes,
the flight will be canceled,
beginning a global domino effect,
with delayed and disgruntled customers missing
connecting flights and everything else.
ZO: So, with the troubleshooting
that our colleague did
Alessio, he decided that
the pump controller's not working
the controller that controls
both pumps A and B
so we're going to elect to replace it.
NARRATOR: Up in the
Control Center Georg knows he can't depend
on the part arriving in time.
GEORG: OK there's definitely no way to
release the aircraft with one pump only yeah?
MAN: We can release it if we want
but it's a risk, that's what he's saying,
if the secondary pump
fails in flight they'll be without water.
NARRATOR: His first thought,
can they manage without it?
GEORG: Golf echo has
a water pump failure,
and do you think there will
be any failures in flight?
Because if that happens,
then I have a problem. No?
ADVISER: No, I
don't think so.
I think the other pump is healthy.
GEORG: OK now can we determine
that it's healthy.
ADVISER: Luck!
GEORG: OK. That brings me
back to square one actually.
NARRATOR: Despite some ambiguous
reassurance from his technical adviser,
George won't take any
risks, Zo must fix the pump.
ZO: We're just changing the
water controller, the pump controller.
NARRATOR: Thankfully
the part has arrived.
Zo and his tam have just
15 minutes left to fit it.
ZO: We've got time
pressure, we've got the heat.
Yeah, you kind of feel the pressure's on.
NARRATOR: The part is
installed with just minutes to spare.
ZO: Now that we've got the controller
in, we've got to test that it works.
He's feeling now to make
sure these pumps are
working when they should be working.
So hopefully that'll
be the end of it and we can close up.
MAN: Can we just check with the
engineer and make sure it is serviceable.
All right thank you, cheers, thanks, bye.
It's now serviceable Georg.
NARRATOR: After 90 minutes delay
EK225 to San Francisco is back in service.
GEORG: Makes you extremely uncomfortable
if things are not workings as per plan,
but that's unfortunately
the name of the game here.
NARRATOR: A mix up with some missing cargo
means Carl and his crew only have 45 minutes
to fully load this triple
seven with 65 tons of freight.
CARL: Listen everyone,
stop kidding.
That's the one.
This is the one we're waiting for,
we can continue with the loading now.
It's gonna be really, really,
really pushing it now.
We are on a very tight deadline now.
Now time is really of the essence.
Go, go, go we need it straight on.
NARRATOR: Carl needs to load the remaining
standard size cargo quickly so that
they can finally load the
awkward 11 ton engine.
With the help of this plane's on-board
loading rollers the heavy pallets
are rapidly put into position.
CARL: What's he saying?
MAN: There's two pallets
that's overhang.
CARL: No, no it's
not gonna work.
We shouldn't have done it then.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
OK 9822 it's not
gonna work because of the double overhang.
We're gonna have to rethink
the whole thing mate.
Basically, the problem here
is the height of this pallet.
This unfortunately
touches the roof and will damage the roof
if we try to load this on position.
This one being a lot lower it won't touch
the ceiling, so we have to swap these.
NARRATOR: Each pallet
is allocated a position on board depending
on its weight and height.
CARL: This should all have been pre-planned,
we shouldn't be having to do this.
NARRATOR: It's all carefully calculated
to ensure the plane's maximum capacity is
safely used, but someone
has made a mistake.
CARL: If this doesn't fit,
we're gonna be here all night.
Back, back, back.
MAN: Back, back!
CARL: All the way,
all the way, yahoo.
Yeah it's fine, it's perfect.
Absolutely perfect. Perfect.
Another inch wouldn't go.
We're only done with approximately
a third of the loading right now.
Flight is supposed to
depart in 24 minutes.
As you can see we're
nowhere near gonna be ready in 24 minutes.
NARRATOR: An hour has passed,
and Carl still hasn't started loading
the over-sized A380 engine.
CARL: We're ready for loading the
engine now, this is the big challenge,
this is the bit we've been waiting for.
Bigger than your average
car engine isn't it?
NARRATOR: The loaders cautiously maneuver
11 tons of precision engineered jet
engine through the hatch of
the $300 million triple seven.
CARL: You'll see how tight it is to
the top of the, the door once it comes in.
We'll bring it in another couple of
feet and then they'll start to turn it.
NARRATOR: One wrong move could
cost millions in damages and delays.
CARL: Whoa, whoa.
CARL: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
NARRATOR: Carl and his
crew are 20 minutes over their scheduled
departure time and still
struggling to load the awkward jet engine.
CARL: It's very close
to the door frame.
If we seriously damage
the aircraft, well the aircraft won't go.
What is that?
What is that?
What is that?
NARRATOR: The rollers are
straining under the weight of the engine.
CARL: It's just getting
a little bit close.
It's still, there's still a risk of it
touching so we just take it back.
They'll twist it in a little bit,
give us a little bit more room.
Are we in?
Can we just straighten it a little?
Ah it's fine, it's fine now.
It's fine now, it was very
close, but we've done it.
The team has done that very well.
Yeah we just got the engine in position.
NARRATOR: Network Control is
not happy about the delay
and they want a progress update from Carl.
CARL: First of all, I got to the
log plan, 90 minutes to departure.
90 minutes departure, log plan is here.
I got to the aircraft, we had no power on
the aircraft for another 15 to 20 minutes.
Then we were missing cargo, the last
cargo only received at minus, minus 14.
Minus 14 last cargo received.
And then we had some loading changes on board
so there are a whole multitude of things
running, multitude of things.
NARRATOR: There's commercial pressure
to get the cargo in the air as quickly as
possible, but Carl won't
take any risks with safety.
CARL: You can imagine
11 tons, you can see how close there is,
there's no clues to the ceiling.
If we don't tie this down that
11 tons in turbulence is gonna
become a bouncing ball in here.
So that poses a serious
structural risk to this aircraft in flight
if that's not secured.
That's why we need 40 lashing belts.
If this aircraft was to try and take off
now like this, this whole unit would start
breaking the engine, breaking
this cargo, posing a whole safety risk
to the whole flight.
Is that, is that tied in?
Is that tight now?
MAN: Yeah.
CARL: How are we getting
vertical restraint on this?
What about it hitting
the ceiling if it goes in turbulence?
Do we have any lashing
points under this thing?
I'd be very surprised if we have you know?
We don't have an option?
Oh no, we do, we do, we do.
We have these.
Just make sure these are tied down.
We can only work with
what we've got can't we?
Here we've got enough
room to put the tie downs.
That side we're gonna have to play a
little bit and be a little bit inventive.
What you need to do is you need to
put a belt from here, across the corners.
MAN: Oh, OK.
CARL: Nothing is holding
the frame to the floor.
Nothing is going over the frame.
I've already told you,
it's got to be across
MAN: Yeah we've gonna put
it, but we're gonna do the sides first.
And then gonna put on the top.
CARL: Yeah OK can we
do that now please?
NARRATOR: 30 minutes over schedule and
under pressure, Carl puts his back into it.
CARL: OK guys right I'm gonna
try and slip this through this handle.
I can't get it in. Guys.
Somebody's gonna have
to lie down and do that.
I've had a slipped disc
I can't really do that.
I'm trying to get it on.
Can you attach it to the pallet please?
Are we almost ready there?
Yeah. We're almost finished with
this lashing, almost finished.
NARRATOR: Before the freight can take
off for Singapore the Captain of the plane
has to inspect Carl's work.
If he doesn't like the way the engine has been
strapped down Carl will have to start again
and the flight will be further delayed.
CAPTAIN: It's strapped
down securely, it won't move at all.
I'm very pleased,
they've done a great job.
CARL: OK. Doors closed, EK9822,
doors are closed finally.
The flights gone with a total
of 53 minute delay in the end.
You cannot cut corners with this.
We do it properly or
we don't do it at all.
(music plays through credits).
Captioned by Cotter Captioning Services.