Ultimate Airport Dubai (2013) s02e10 Episode Script
Aircraft Makeover
1
NARRATOR: In this episode, an emergency on an
inbound flight threatens to close the airport.
MAN (over phone): Blue
hydraulic quantity has a zero.
GEORG: Would he be
stuck on the runway?
NARRATOR: A refurbished
runway is far from complete.
JOHN: Obviously, there should
be a light fitting in here.
LAWRENCE: Yeah, not happy.
Not pleased at all.
CARL: Hey! Hey!
NARRATOR: And dispatcher
Carl turns traffic policeman.
CARL: You do not drive
like that on here.
NARRATOR: Dubai International
Airport, the busiest global hub
on the planet and aiming to stay there.
MAN: 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.
CARL: 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 International employs the equivalent
of a fifth of the
city's resident population.
An operation of such awesome scale means
all staff, from engineers to catering to
Air Traffic Control, must pull together
as a team to keep it moving at full steam,
balancing the pressures of
huge economic growth while
safeguarding themselves
and their passengers.
The beating heart of Emirates
airline is its Network Control Center
located right next to the runway.
Here, the team must work together to ensure
all 230 Emirates aircraft that are in
the air at any one time run as
efficiently and as smoothly as possible.
GEORG: Perfect.
Thank you very much.
NARRATOR: Georg Bröemmer heads up the team,
making crucial split-second decisions on
flights across the world.
GEORG: And we okay
to depart, yeah?
NARRATOR: Now, a flight that's just taken
off from Dubai urgently needs his help.
GEORG: Emergency, what is it?
MAN (over phone):
Hydraulic quantity has a zero.
Yeah, quantity has a zero.
NARRATOR: Georg is talking to the pilot
of Emirates flight 733 bound for Khartoum,
which has close to 300
passengers on-board.
GEORG: One of our A330s echo
hotel on the way to Khartoum,
it's already airborne for 20 minutes,
just reported a loss of a hydraulic, and
we're just trying to determine how severe
it will be, what is impacted and
whether he could continue to Khartoum
or whether we need to bring them back.
NARRATOR: Georg remains
calm, but it's not that easy.
The loss of hydraulic fluid is one of the
most serious situations a pilot can face.
A plane's hydraulic system controls
everything, from its brakes to its landing gear
and its steering system.
If these systems can't be
controlled, the plane can't land safely.
MAN (over phone): We're just holding
in the Dubai area for the moment.
MAN: Just standby for one minute
while we have a quick discussion here.
NARRATOR: The team needs to
decipher if the plane can land safely.
But passenger safety
isn't the only concern.
Georg must consider what course of action
will cause the least disruption to the
Emirates network.
GEORG (off-screen): The flight could continue
to Khartoum, but the chances for repair here
with the hydraulic loss and a leak is
much better than, than in Khartoum.
NARRATOR: So this failing plane
needs to land back in Dubai and fast.
But Dubai International currently has
only one operational runway while its
other one is being upgraded.
GEORG: If he comes back, would
he be stuck on the runway, steering?
NARRATOR: If this flight lands back at Dubai
and gets stuck on the only functioning runway
after landing it would
cripple the airport.
Head of Air Traffic Control, Phil
Marques, is concerned about the impact
of a faulty plane landing.
PHIL: A hydraulic leak, meaning that the
pilot can't turn the plane left or right.
What it means is that
that aircraft can't exit the runway.
When you're down to one runway it's
extremely important to clear the runway.
NARRATOR: If the flight blocks the runway
it will delay numerous scheduled takeoffs
and divert every landing, having a $100,000
commercial impact on the airport and all
of the airlines it serves.
So the crucial decision is where to land.
One option is to divert the faulty
aircraft to Dubai's new Al Maktoum Airport,
known as DWC.
And then ferry the passengers back to Dubai
International and put them on a new plane.
But DWC is over 20 miles away.
It will be no easy task getting the
aircrew, passengers and their baggage
back, costing Emirates
both time and money.
GEORG: If there is a chance that he blocks
the runway, we have to send him to DWC.
NARRATOR: But then further
news filters through.
WOMAN: Just to fill you in, DWC is closed
at the moment for the next three hours.
GEORG: Okay.
NARRATOR: A runway closure at DWC means
diverting flight 733 to that airport is now no
longer an option.
Georg and his team are now
in an impossible situation.
GEORG (off-screen): That's how
quickly something can get out of control.
It looks all right and then suddenly
within a minute you've got a phone call and
things are not looking too good.
NARRATOR: Meanwhile, unaware of the real
drama going on in the skies above them,
two pilots are preparing for
their next simulated emergency,
and it's one that couldn't be
more relevant, hydraulic failure.
RORY: I suppose if it can happen in here
it can happen in the aircraft, can't it?
NARRATOR: First Officers Dave Storey and Rory
Smith are just two of 150 Emirates pilots
training to fly the biggest
passenger jet in the world.
The A380.
Located in Emirates' very own bespoke training
center, these state-of-the-art cockpit
simulators are exact replicas
of aircraft in service,
preparing pilots for
every emergency imaginable.
Both pilots will be assessed on their ability
to cope with real-time problems as well as
how well they work together as a team.
NICKLAS: And then
they stay there
NARRATOR: Nicklas Dahlstrom
is an expert on how
human behavior can affect safety on-board.
NICKLAS: There are very few situations
in aviation that are unrecoverable
if you have a good pilot there.
So, in the end of the day, it's about
human performance; it's to maximize that.
NARRATOR: The level of automation in
modern-day aviation has made coping with
an emergency even harder.
Pilots must go from a long period
of inactivity to dealing with a crisis
in a split-second.
Captain Peter Vandentillaart
will monitor each and every
reaction of the trainee pilots.
PETER: We have a whole generation now
of pilots that nothing has gone wrong in
their careers and that's attributed
to the technologies that we work with,
so now we have to train them to deal with
those black swan events,
the things that are
never supposed to happen
but they do happen.
NARRATOR: Inside the simulator,
it seems like a routine flight
outbound from Dubai.
DAVID: Standard crosscheck
passing 137 now.
RORY: Check.
NARRATOR: But just ten minutes
after they've reached cruising altitude,
there's a problem.
RORY: Hey, (inaudible).
DAVID: The hydraulic yellow
reservoir lower level.
PETER: One of our
two hydraulic systems has just failed.
NARRATOR: Just like
the troubled flight bound for Khartoum,
the hydraulic system powering
the brakes, steering and landing gear
seems to be failing.
DAVID: Yellow engine
three pump alpha off.
NARRATOR: It's a
major technical fault.
DAVID: Alpha.
NARRATOR: The pilots' careers may depend
on what course of action they choose now.
DAVID: Yellow engine
three pump bravo off.
RORY: So we're still thrust
climb, autopilot's engaged.
NARRATOR: First, they must decipher if it's
the computer that's at fault or if this is
a genuine emergency.
RORY: If you're happy I'll put out a pan, let
them know we'd like to maintain level while
we sort this out.
NARRATOR: A pan call to Air Traffic Control
alerts them there's an urgency on-board
but, for the time being,
no immediate danger.
Time is of the essence, but they
don't want to make a rash decision.
DAVID: Is there any reason why we can't
go to cruise altitude with this problem?
RORY: It's just, we're
near, we're near Dubai.
I'm gonna at least let them
know. We'll continue the climb.
DAVID (off-screen):
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
NARRATOR: But as they
work through the checklists,
the scale of the emergency becomes clear.
RORY: So it's
definitely a goner.
DAVID: Alert's impacting
landing performance.
Hydraulic yellow system pressure low.
RORY: Check. So obviously we've
lost a whole hydraulic system.
NARRATOR: A loss of hydraulics has
caused some of the worst passenger crashes
in aviation history.
The crash at Sioux City in the USA in
1989 caused the deaths of 110 passengers.
NICKLAS: The third engine
blew and threw pieces.
All the control system was
severed, all the hydraulics.
NICKLAS (off-screen): Half of the
passengers did perish in the crash.
But they tested, I don't know, a great
number of crews in a simulator afterwards.
No one even made it to the airport.
RORY (off-screen):
We could press on.
I'm not desperately keen to do that so my
preference is to go back to Dubai if the weather's
still suitable.
DAVID: Yep, okay.
NARRATOR: They decide
to land the plane.
But with no way of controlling the landing
gear, they must draw on all their training
skills to pull off this
difficult maneuver safely.
NARRATOR: In the Emirates Network Control
Center, Georg and his team are finding out
from a pilot if his failing plane is
safe enough to land at Dubai Airport.
MAN: EK 733, this is
Maintenance Control.
MAN (over radio): Maintenance
Control, you all right? You there?
NARRATOR: An alternative airport hundreds
of miles away may have to be used unless
Georg persuades Air
Traffic Control that this A330 is no risk.
MAN: You can confirm that you've
lost your blue hydraulic quantity as well?
MAN (over phone): Blue
hydraulic quantity has a zero.
NARRATOR: Although the plane's blue hydraulic
system controls all the primary flight
systems, so do the green and
yellow hydraulic systems.
MAN: If you were to come back, you have no
other issues with the airplane related to
vacating the runway, is that correct?
MAN (over phone): Yeah, there's
no issue. There's no issues at all.
We have Green and Yellow,
there's no problem there.
NARRATOR: The pilot confirms that
the yellow and green systems are working.
Crucially, it's these that control
the steering and landing gear,
meaning the plane should be able to vacate
the runway unassisted if it lands at
Dubai International.
GEORG: Okay, then get it back.
Do we have another airplane, another crew?
MAN (off-screen):
Yeah. We do, yeah.
GEORG (off-screen): We
launch it again, yeah?
NARRATOR: But even with the steering
hydraulics working, that doesn't guarantee the
plane will be able to
touchdown problem-free.
GEORG: This 733, can we
check what its weight is?
MAN: He's overweight
by 17 tons.
Just go for the fuel jettison.
It might take just 15, 20
minutes to finish that.
GEORG: Yeah. Okay. Okay.
MAN: Get 'em on ground.
Change the aircraft. Change the crew.
GEORG (off-screen): Good.
NARRATOR: The decision to dump $16,000
worth of fuel minimizes the chance of a
heavy landing that could
damage the aircraft's undercarriage,
stopping it from leaving the runway.
MAN: Okay, we will go ahead
with the fuel jettison then.
NARRATOR: Problem solved.
Now, Georg must get clearance
for flight 733 to land.
GEORG: Now we have to speak to ATC supervisor
and they need to understand that this will
not close the runway.
NARRATOR: The Air Traffic
Control Supervisor on duty is Shaun Ellis.
SHAUN: Tower.
GEORG: The blue hydraulic
system has no impact on steering.
NARRATOR: Georg has
little time before flight 733 will land.
GEORG: But DWC today has the
schedule closure between 11 and 1400.
NARRATOR: Alternative airport DWC is still
closed and it's too late to direct the plane
to an airport further away.
GEORG: They are jettisoning
fuel now, 17 tons.
NARRATOR: He must convince Shaun that the
aircraft won't block Dubai's only operational
runway when it lands, and just as importantly,
won't leak flammable oil that would force
the runway to close for cleaning.
GEORG: The blue hydraulic
is empty so there's no fluid spillage.
GEORG (off-screen): He
will vacate the runway.
There's no real issue from our end.
We land, we swap the
airplane and launch it again.
SHAUN (off-screen): Okay.
GEORG: ATC has now agreed to let
the aircraft land without issues in Dubai.
SHAUN (off-screen): Obviously,
they want their flight to come back here.
At the end of the day, they've got a business
decision to make and we've got an ATC and
safety decision to make as well.
NARRATOR: Down on the runway, a construction
team has been diverted from a crucial
inspection to assist in the
emergency landing of the stricken flight.
Air Traffic Control is
not taking any chances.
Even though reassurances have been given,
emergency services are put
into position as a precaution.
JOHN (off-screen): Airside one
two at November two, sir.
Proceed three zero right by
November two, airside one two.
NARRATOR: Airside Operations Manager John
Taylor is keen to minimize the disruption to
vital runway upgrade works.
JOHN: If an aircraft should become disabled
or there's a problem on the runway and
we're closed for an
indefinite amount of time,
the knock-on effect will
actually be felt worldwide.
NARRATOR: If they can get the
aircraft off the runway within 20 minutes,
the airport can recover the lost time.
But if it shuts down the runway for
longer, other aircraft would have to be
diverted and it'll be more difficult
to make up for the shift in schedule.
GEORG (off-screen): Worst case scenario for
me would be that the airplane's stuck on
the runway despite all our efforts to
convince everybody that it hasn't got any
steering issue, which I
still strongly believe.
If it is stuck on the runway
then we have an issue.
NARRATOR: The pilots can't be
100% sure that the steering will work
until they touchdown.
Just in case the unthinkable happens,
the runway team has a back-up plan.
JOHN: We've actually got a 100-ton
crane and a 70-ton flatbed on standby
for the whole of the runway works,
so if need be we can
technically lift an aircraft,
put it onto the flat
loader and drive it off.
SHAUN (off-screen):
That's him there.
NARRATOR: It's the
moment of truth.
GEORG: Under 20 seconds, yeah.
NARRATOR: All eyes
may be on flight 733.
GEORG (off-screen):
There it is!
NARRATOR: But if it blocks the
runway the focus will soon shift to Georg.
Engine reverse thrusters
generate 50,000 pounds of thrust.
16 carbon disc brakes fire down,
and spoilers flip up to increase drag,
bringing the 200-ton plane to a halt.
But it must now vacate
the runway unassisted
to avoid bringing the
airport to a standstill.
SHAUN: Tower Watch Manager, Emirates
733 is just off the runway now and the
inspection's in progress.
NARRATOR: The steering
worked, as predicted.
The A330 taxies safely off the runway.
GEORG (off-screen): 733
has vacated the runway!
Happy now.
Thank you very
much. That was good.
NARRATOR: Georg and his
team's risk has paid off.
GEORG: Time is money, yeah.
It's a fast industry, we are flying
fast, we have to make fast decisions,
and actually it didn't cause
any issue on the runway closure.
NARRATOR: Now the crisis is over, a rigorous
inspection of the new southern runway
can continue in earnest.
The runway's been closed for 26
days for a billion-dollar upgrade.
At 6:00 PM tonight, it's set to
re-open, allowing for phase two,
the resurfacing of the
northern runway, to start.
But first, John Taylor and his team
must scrutinize every inch of this
2.5-mile-long
runway for any flaws.
JOHN: We're ready
to rock and roll.
LAWRENCE: Right, okay.
JOHN: Just waiting for
the big nod from you guys.
NARRATOR: 2,500 new lights have been installed
and three million square feet of asphalt
freshly laid.
Any imperfection found puts the crucial
start of the northern runway works into
jeopardy; something Head of Airfield
Development Lawrence Edwards is hyper-aware of.
LAWRENCE (off-screen): There's a
lot of pressure on the team.
The guys are really, really tired,
they've been working all night,
'cause we're not gonna
compromise on safety.
YOUSUF: We are between A and
B, extreme end, pressure.
NARRATOR: Project Engineer
Yousuf Pirzada awaits the verdict.
YOUSUF (off-screen): We are
confident there's nothing wrong.
Even there is something
wrong, it can be rectified quite easily.
NARRATOR: The switchover of flights from
northern to southern runway is due to take
place in ten hours' time,
unless the inspection reveals problems.
JOHN: So this is a primate
example of why we check the runway.
This bolt here is actually loose, so I
can actually undo it with my fingers.
NARRATOR: A tiny piece of construction
material such as this could easily be sucked
into the vortex of an aircraft,
with devastating consequences.
LAWRENCE: There's luminaries which aren't
torqued down properly which is obviously a
safety issue.
Bolts or nuts not secured down, very,
very easily take out an aircraft engine.
NARRATOR: It looks like this
runway is going to fail the inspection.
The whole runway upgrade
project hangs in the balance.
NARRATOR: 40,000 feet above a virtual
Dubai, pilots Rory Smith and Dave Storey are
simulating the very real danger of a hydraulics
failure on an A380 just after takeoff.
DAVID: You still
have comm one.
RORY: Our operations
one three two six check.
No problems with it.
NARRATOR: Their every move is
being meticulously observed by examiners.
PETER: Well, we can hear
that Rory is, he's back up.
You can, can hear he's
involved, he's engaging.
RORY: So if you tell
the Air Traffic Control.
DAVID (off-screen): Yep.
RORY: Advise them that we're
probably gonna request vectors and return.
PETER (off-screen): It's
all about tempo and pace.
Crews that don't talk to each other
and they're just doing checklists,
oh you get a bit nervous as an examiner to
watch that because they're not working together.
NICKLAS: There is, in fact,
evidence that crews that do
talk more actually make less errors.
So, that doesn't
mean they should be talking all the time,
but if you sit quiet for a while it
takes more for me to bring up,
"Hey, what's that
going on there?"
So, there we again come back to
the tension between the technological
and the social aspects of flying.
RORY: Bounce the eyes.
DAVID: Landing checklist.
NARRATOR: Their only option
is to land the plane.
With complete loss of the yellow hydraulic
system, they now have to depend on gravity
forcing the landing gear into position.
DAVID: Landing gear
gravity extension only.
RORY: Advised.
DAVID: Auto-thrust mode.
RORY: Speed.
DAVID: Landing checklist complete.
RORY: Check.
DAVID: Yeah, emergency services are about
two-thirds of the way down the runway.
RORY (off-screen): Right.
NARRATOR: They're just 500 yards from the
runway and, if this was a real life scenario,
the whole airport would be on
standby for an emergency landing.
RORY: Just waiting for
a landing clearance.
PETER (off-screen): They're just going
through the final details of the landing.
They have the hydraulic problem but
they're going through the process and
they're doing well.
MAN: 30.20. Recharge.
DAVID: Spoilers.
Reverse grain. RORY: We're on the runway.
DAVID: Brake two, decal.
RORY: Check.
DAVID: Checked.
RORY: Lovely.
PETER: Job well done.
NARRATOR: Like the Khartoum-bound
flight, the pilots make a good landing.
Their teamwork has saved the day.
But their stress levels have
really been put to the test.
DAVID (off-screen): It's a very bad
feeling as a pilot when you feel yourself
getting overloaded, and that
happened once or twice to me.
NARRATOR: They've
passed the exam.
Only one more hurdle to go
before they can fly a real A380
with 500 passengers on-board.
But for now they can relax.
RORY: I'm very glad that's
over and it's time for a beer.
NARRATOR: Fresh from
their real emergency incident earlier,
John Taylor and his team are inspecting
the newly refurbished south runway.
Early signs are not good.
JOHN: Obviously, there should be a light
fitting in here, and due to the amount of sand
in there it's probably been
left open for a little while.
Last thing we wanna do is have an aircraft
trying to depart, it's got a damaged tire,
and then we've got a whole
different scenario to worry about.
NARRATOR: As they progress down the runway,
its reopening in a few hours' time is
looking more and more doubtful.
JOHN: That's been there
a while, the amount of sand around it!
We're just trying to find out
how long before they can fix it.
LAWRENCE: Um, yeah,
not a happy bunny.
The airfield lighting's not gone as well as
we'd hoped, so at the moment we've still got
testing, commissioning ongoing, which
should have been completed a number of
hours ago.
So where we thought we'd be in a fairly
healthy go status, it's still extremely,
extremely borderline.
NARRATOR: The inspection
team has seen enough.
The runway has been deemed
too unsafe to reopen.
A new plan must be forged.
MAN: We are not in a position to
open the runway up at 6:00 tonight.
A few of us are willing to come back
at 4:00 in the morning and we'll do
another lighting check then with
a view to opening up this runway
at 7:00 in the morning.
NARRATOR: The construction crew must now
pull together, working through the night to
bring the runway up to scratch
for another inspection at 4:00 AM.
MAN: Thanks very much.
JOHN: Okay.
NARRATOR: This 13 hour delay will have huge
implications for an already tight schedule.
MAN: The last thing we can do is bring a
runway into service that's not fully operable,
so we're gonna go for continued working.
When we arrive we
need a totally sterile airfield, okay?
NARRATOR: Project Engineer Yousuf Pirzada
was depending on the southern runway
reopening tonight to start phase two,
the upgrade works on the northern runway.
YOUSUF: A little tough because we are trying
to resolve everything which need to be
resolved, so that's making it
a little bit more complicated.
We are sure that the north
runway will be smoother.
NARRATOR: The construction crew has got
to get this runway up to spec fast or the
whole billion-dollar upgrade of the northern
runway, making it safe and efficient
for 21st Century flight,
will be jeopardized.
LAWRENCE: We should
have got it finished.
It's not.
We've missed the target.
Yeah, not happy.
Not pleased at all.
NARRATOR: 43 million
passengers pass through
Emirates' Terminal Three every year.
Teamwork is vital for Emirates passenger
operations staff who give help to those who need
it, from the late to the lost
and those with star status.
GIOVANNA: Hello
Emirates, it's Gio.
NARRATOR: 11:50 PM.
Airport Services Manager
Gio Di Biasi is on the way to meet a VIP.
GIOVANNA: We're going
to the check in counter.
We've got Cat Stevens traveling today.
He's due to arrive in about half an hour
so I need to make sure I'm there ready.
I don't want him to
arrive before I get there.
NARRATOR: Triple platinum selling
artist and Muslim convert Cat Stevens,
is now known as
Yusuf Islam and lives in Dubai.
All Gio needs to do is make sure
he boards his flight to New York.
WOMAN (over loudspeaker):
F and J check in.
GIOVANNA: I'm here to meet him,
bring him from the check in counter,
through to the gate.
NARRATOR: But when Gio meets
Airport Services Manager John Krempa,
she realizes this task isn't as
straightforward as initially thought.
KREMPA: Had a bit of a
cock-up this morning.
We couldn't board him
on the flight to JFK,
only because he didn't
have the right documentation.
Now we have that all cleared.
When he arrives, we're gonna expedite
his baggage, bring him to the lounge.
GIOVANNA (off-screen): Yeah.
KREMPA: And then explain to him
the procedures when he gets to the gate.
Thanks. All right.
GIOVANNA: Sounds good. Okay.
NARRATOR: Yusuf Islam was denied boarding
15 hours earlier due to US immigration
clearances being granted too late.
Passengers don't just
need a ticket to fly.
If they don't have the right
paperwork to enter their destination,
Emirates will refuse to let them board.
So, no documentation, no flight.
GIOVANNA: Everyone has to be
treated the same, no matter who you are.
We can't allow you into
a country unless the authorities say yes,
you've got the clearance to go.
NARRATOR: Security Duty Officer Denzil
Rahman is confident that everything will
work this time.
GIOVANNA: When he boards, it's just boarding
pass, look at the passport and then go,
no more phone calls.
DENZIL: I understand. Yes,
everything been taken care of.
GIOVANNA (off-screen):
Okay. All right.
I've just been told that they're
here so we're heading outside
to greet them and welcome them.
NARRATOR: At 1:00 AM, two hours before his
scheduled takeoff, the man in question arrives at
the check in entrance for
first class passengers.
KREMPA: Hi, I'm John Krempa,
Airport Manager tonight for Emirates.
We're gonna facilitate you
getting through. All right.
YUSUF: That's
very nice of you. Thank you so much.
KREMPA: You're very welcome.
NARRATOR: Yusuf is traveling
with his son and manager Muhammad.
With boarding now open,
Gio escorts them to the gate.
But there's more than just
the flight deadline to meet.
GIOVANNA: You're going to
New York and then Los Angeles?
YUSUF: Yeah. We're being inducted
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
GIOVANNA: Oh really!
YUSUF: Yeah. The rehearsals are like tomorrow,
so it's really important that we get on there.
GIOVANNA: Yeah,
that you get on this. Okay.
All right.
Now it makes sense. Okay.
NARRATOR: So far, everything
is running smoothly.
But out of the blue the
computer starts saying no.
GIOVANNA: We've got the
clearance to board from US immigration,
however our computer system's
saying we can't board them.
NARRATOR: Once again, Yusuf's journey
to America has been stopped in its tracks.
It's up to Gio to get him on this flight or
risk the highly embarrassing consequences for
the Emirates team.
GIOVANNA: I wasn't
expecting this at all.
I don't know what's happened.
NARRATOR: It's not just passengers
who have to make it onto the plane.
From the moment a bag is checked in, a
network of man and machine ferries it to the
right flight at the right time.
But a myriad of different obstacles
stands in the way of successful loading.
Customers oversized hand
baggage is just one of them.
CARL: Okay, echo one four
landing in about five minutes.
I'll see you at the bay.
NARRATOR: An Air India flight has just
landed and must depart within a very tight
50-minute turnaround time.
Ex-military man Carl Knight works at
the airport's multi-million-dollar baggage
and airfreight front line.
CARL: Right now I'm on the way to
an Air India express turnaround flight
to and from Calicut in India.
It's a pretty full flight coming in and
it's a very heavy flight going out as
well, approximately 180
passengers in both directions.
CARL (off-screen): Time
will be a critical factor on this flight.
Everything will have to
be closely controlled.
NARRATOR: Carl must turnaround
360 passengers, 400 pieces of luggage,
and ready the aircraft
by 4:30 AM if the outbound flight to India
is to leave on schedule.
CARL: 50 minutes is quite tight, so
it's gonna be a real push, push, push.
CARL (off-screen): Everything's
pretty much gotta be continuous.
There's no time for
any breaks for anybody.
Soon as the last passenger's off, we
need to get the cleaners straight on.
NARRATOR: Good team communication
is vital if this quick turnaround
is to be successful.
CARL: Calling gate supervisor,
IX three four four.
Calling gate supervisor
from Air IX three four four.
NARRATOR: Carl is trying to reach the gate
supervisor to say the passengers can start
making their way to the
plane, without much success.
CARL: What's going
on in there, please?
Could you get them to call me,
please, because I'm getting no response?
NARRATOR: If the flight is to make its 4:30
departure time, there's no room for delays.
CARL (off-screen): Everybody's
trying to get hold of you.
I've been calling and calling and calling.
Okay, IX three four four is okay to board.
NARRATOR: With the gate
supervisor now up to speed,
the outbound passengers are on their way.
CARL: The cleaners are
on-board. They'll do a fast job.
CARL (off-screen): If you time it right,
soon as the cleaners are over the first coach
should be just arriving.
But if one thing is out of sync
the whole flight runs off schedule.
NARRATOR: But baggage loading
is not going as planned.
CARL: What is going on?
Aswan! Yo!
What is going on? Come on!
CARL: I saw this was sitting here a
long time ago and it's still sitting here!
Come on buddy.
Get it loaded.
CARL: When I took the load sheet up there,
that baggage trolley was ready for loading.
Five minutes later it's
still sitting there.
We can't afford that extra five minutes.
NARRATOR: With just 40 minutes
until departure, Carl gives the thumbs up
to board the passengers.
But the team is thrown a curveball.
MAN (over radio): We have 91 pieces
in total in excess of hand baggage.
CARL: Yeah, we'll need one more
trolley for hand baggage at the gate.
91 hand bags.
MAN: Yeah, okay.
CARL: Yeah.
Yeah, please.
Let's gee it up.
NARRATOR: The team suddenly needs to fetch
and load over 90 oversized carry-on bags.
But with time ticking away, it's an
extra job Carl and his crew don't need.
CARL: 90 pieces of hand baggage
have been removed from the passengers.
CARL (off-screen): That's really gonna
push us right up to the departure time
getting that hand baggage loaded.
NARRATOR: Some airlines now
charge for oversize hand luggage to
try to avoid this problem.
But Carl's team will have to suck it up and
cope with the mountain of extra baggage.
CARL: One more trolley
hand baggage coming.
CARL (off-screen): Just that
hand baggage, that's it.
All passengers on-board.
Equipment, steps on IX, please.
Ready for departure.
NARRATOR: With passengers and bags finally
loaded, all Carl needs to do now is clear the
area safely for departure.
But not everyone in his
team has got the message.
CARL: Hey! Hey! You do
not drive like that on here.
NARRATOR: Carl is under pressure
to get the Air India flight out on time,
but he won't let his team
compromise on safety.
CARL: I'm just
warning you now.
I don't wanna see you driving
like that again, all right?
MAN: Yeah.
CARL: You do not drive
like that on here.
You know the rules about driving.
You don't drive like that on here, okay?
MAN: Yeah. CARL: It's not a
laughing matter, mate, yeah?
NARRATOR: It's estimated 27,000
ramp incidents occur worldwide every year,
ranging from injury to
personnel to aircraft damage,
at a cost of $10 billion
to the aviation industry.
CARL (off-screen): The guy was reversing
the steps off the back of the aircraft
to the parking position without
a marshal at about 20 kilometers
an hour completely out of control.
It's not acceptable, mate.
NARRATOR: Carl wants to make
sure it won't happen again.
CARL: I've just made
a report to Stanley.
He wants to see you in the office.
I'm not having you
behaving like this, okay?
MAN: Okay, I'm sorry. CARL:
Okay, I'm sending him to your office.
I'm sending him to your office Stanley.
If you see anything
like that just stop him.
MAN: Yeah, I will.
I will try and work this.
CARL (off-screen): If he hits
somebody he'll kill them like that.
I'm not having that on the ramp.
NARRATOR: No matter the commercial
pressure, safety should never be
sacrificed for speed.
CARL (off-screen): Was an urgent
requirement to get the steps off,
but that doesn't excuse driving like that,
especially so close to the proximity of
the aircraft wing.
NARRATOR: Despite Carl's safety concerns,
his team has managed to get the flight to
push back five minutes ahead of schedule.
CARL: It's like being a headmaster of
school looking after a bunch of children
sometimes, you know?
CARL (off-screen): I do get frustrated
with them when they've been told and safety
is drilled into people and they
just think they can do what they like.
I'm not here to win friends,
I'm here to do a job and look
after our customers as best I can.
NARRATOR: Over in the terminal, Airport
Services Manager Gio has just received
unwelcome news.
The Emirates computer system believes the
VIP Yusuf Islam is on a no-fly list to the
United States.
This first class passenger won't be
receiving any special treatment now,
even if he is a celebrity.
GIOVANNA: We've got
everyone trying to work on it.
GIOVANNA (off-screen): It's
getting close to departure time.
About ten minutes before the
flight's meant to depart.
NARRATOR: This is not the first time
Yusuf has experienced trouble entering
the United States.
YUSUF: I'm kinda getting
used to these little hiccups.
MAN: Okay.
NARRATOR: In 2004, he made the headlines when
he was detained flying to meet Dolly Parton.
YUSUF: The plane gets diverted
to a military airport and I'm going,
"Hang on,
this isn't Washington!"
YUSUF (off-screen): Then on
come like seven FBI agents.
Suddenly this whole kind of saga and
this drama unfolds in front of my eyes
and I'm the star.
NARRATOR: Yusuf believes the FBI mixed him
up with another person of a similar name and
he's had difficulties ever since.
YUSUF: And now it's in the system
it's kind of difficult to take it out.
NARRATOR: But there's a
silver lining in every cloud.
YUSUF: Anyway, I wrote a song about it called
"Boots And Sand" and Paul McCartney came on and
did it with me and so did Dolly Parton.
NARRATOR: But it looks
like history is about to repeat itself.
Gio's determined not to
be beaten by a computer.
GIOVANNA: Okay, no one touch this
system, they're working on it downstairs.
NARRATOR: Yusuf's son Muhammad
is getting concerned about the delays.
GIOVANNA: They're
just on the phone to US immigration again.
MUHAMMAD: Okay.
GIOVANNA: We're waiting so.
It'll be okay.
Have faith, please.
The system's saying still we cannot board
these passengers even though US immigration
have said that we can.
(radio chatter)
GIOVANNA: Time's running out, but I'm
not gonna let this aircraft leave unless
they're on this flight.
NARRATOR: Yusuf is due to start
rehearsals in New York the following day.
Gio will have to delay
departure as long as possible to ensure
that he makes it in time.
GIOVANNA: It's meant to leave
in two minutes and 25 seconds.
NARRATOR: Gio makes a last minute phone
call to Emirates Security to see if she can
override the computer's decision.
GIOVANNA: And that's
the problem, can't even manually board,
but I really wanna get them on their way.
NARRATOR: Finally, she gets
the news she's hoping for.
GIOVANNA (off-screen): Even though
the system won't let us board them,
we've got the verbal okay from
Emirates Security so I'm happy with that.
GIOVANNA (off-screen): We'll
send them on their way.
NARRATOR: Gio has
beaten the computer.
Father and son are cleared for takeoff.
GIOVANNA: It's
departure time now.
I'm not gonna hold them up any longer.
NARRATOR: Yusuf Islam is
finally cleared to board.
With only two minutes before
his flight is due to depart,
it's touch and go if he'll make it.
YUSUF (off-screen): I think I
should find another profession.
GIOVANNA: No, don't say that!
YUSUF: Something to
do with rock and roll.
I'm too old for it.
GIOVANNA (off-screen): No.
YUSUF: We're almost there.
NARRATOR: The rock and roll
legend boards with seconds to spare.
GIOVANNA: Bye.
Thank you. Lovely meeting you.
YUSUF: Thank you so much, Gio.
Let's hope we don't do this too often.
GIOVANNA: I know. I know.
YUSUF: Okay. Peace.
GIOVANNA: Bye. Nice meeting
you. Sorry about the delay.
Relief. Thank you.
All right, have a good flight, okay?
MAN: Bye.
WOMAN: Thanks.
NARRATOR: Job done for Gio.
GIOVANNA: I've got three
hours left in my shift then four days off.
I think I need four days off after this.
NARRATOR: On the southern runway, the
construction team has been working through the
night to get the site ready.
Earlier, crucial safety
lights were found to be broken or missing,
so the runway failed its inspection.
Now, the team has a second chance to put
things right and get the planned reopening of
the southern runway
and closing of the northern back on track.
JOHN: Tower Control, could you select
kilo eight lead on and offs, please?
NARRATOR: Operations Manager
John Taylor has been doing an early recce.
JOHN: For the southern runway there's
over 2,500 separate light fittings.
Compared to yesterday, we're
already a lot better off than we were.
NARRATOR: As the sun rises, Project Engineer
Yousuf is feeling much more confident
about a positive outcome.
YOUSUF: I think today my
blood pressure is normal.
Yesterday it was a little, you know, over
the top, but I believe that today it's fine.
YOUSUF (off-screen): And I think that
we are going to reopen the south runway.
STEVE (off-screen):
Hi, it's Tower.
All right John?
NARRATOR: All that stands in the way
of the newly refurbished southern runway
reopening for business is a
final lighting test conducted
by Air Traffic Control
Watch Manager Steve Toohey.
STEVE: Okay. So lima three
alpha is gonna come on for you now.
JOHN: Yeah, that all
looks fine, mate. Lovely job.
STEVE: Well, we don't want to be surprised
when we open the runway and all of a sudden
find out that we've got a couple
of lights that aren't working.
STEVE (off-screen): So they're just double-checking
now, making sure that when the first
aircraft arrives that
everything's gonna be working.
NARRATOR: It looks like
John's work is done.
JOHN: Seen a lot of progress, to the
point where I think we're okay to open.
NARRATOR: The runway will be able to open
at 7:00 AM, 13 hours later than scheduled.
JOHN: Hello mate.
Right, so lima four alpha east.
NARRATOR: But with only
one hour left until the
reopening, the team discovers one stretch
of lighting still isn't operating correctly,
despite being worked on
since yesterday afternoon.
JOHN (off-screen): This is
one of the critical parts.
We need that area open
for crossing traffic.
NARRATOR: It's a massive problem
that needs to be fixed if they're going
to meet the deadline.
JOHN: This is one of
the showstoppers for us.
NARRATOR: Lima four alpha is a
critical crossing point for air traffic.
JOHN: Seems to be
a circuit issue.
JOHN (off-screen): If we don't have it, can't
get aircraft from the north side of the airfield
to the south side of the airfield so without
it you can't shut the northern runway,
so it's very integral to the whole plan.
NARRATOR: As airfield lighting
engineers race to fix the problem,
Steve in Air Traffic
Control is looking for another solution.
STEVE (off-screen): Lima four's
not working though, is it?
Lima three try.
MAN: Lima three?
STEVE: Yeah. And try lima three bravo.
JOHN: Hello?
STEVE: Hey John, we can do it.
JOHN: Good man.
STEVE (off-screen): So we're gonna do
the lima three alpha and bravo stop bars.
JOHN: All right, thanks.
Cheers buddy. Bye.
STEVE (off-screen): Bye.
JOHN (off-screen): We're not
gonna use lima four now.
There's not 100% confidence in it,
so what we're gonna do is we're gonna
operate lima three.
NARRATOR: Steve has
come up with a plan.
Lima three alpha and
bravo lights are working.
They can use this as the crossing
point for now so they can open
the south runway on schedule.
MAN: Time, time, time.
I'm really, really pushing
hard to get this runway open.
To get this one closed.
JOHN: You see that
stop bar just there?
MAN: Okay.
JOHN: Lima four alpha?
Just stick it there for me, okay?
NARRATOR: John opens the lima three crossing
and puts barriers in place to close the
faulty lima four, making the area safe.
JOHN: So that's the last piece of the puzzle
that we needed to open the south and close
the north.
NARRATOR: It's all systems go for
the reopening of the southern runway.
JOHN: Ground Control
from Control Mobile Two.
WOMAN (over radio):
Control Mobile Two.
JOHN: Morning Ma'am.
Just to let you know that taxiway mike
from lima three to mike five alpha is now
open, fully serviceable and over to you.
WOMAN (over radio): Roger.
WOMAN: We have
the runway back!
MAN (off-screen):
Runway's back, all right.
NARRATOR: A milestone moment the almost
3,000-strong construction team has been
working towards for a month.
The team are four days ahead of schedule and
can now begin work on Dubai International's
second runway, after they have watched
the first plane takeoff from the fresh new
asphalt and sparkly new
lights of the southern.
MAN: Look, it's a miracle.
NARRATOR: The last plane lands at
the northern runway before it closes.
BOB: The north
runway is now closed.
STEVE: A seamless transition
from an ATC perspective.
Our last aircraft lands on one runway, our
first aircraft takes off on the other runway.
Another day another dollar!
JOHN: It's, it's exciting 'cause
now I know I can go to bed.
NARRATOR: The airport's ambitious plan
to upgrade both runways is still on track.
YOUSUF: When something need to be done in
Dubai, all the stakeholder comes together and
they work as one
team, and that's what make Dubai special.
Captioned by Cotter Captioning Services.
NARRATOR: In this episode, an emergency on an
inbound flight threatens to close the airport.
MAN (over phone): Blue
hydraulic quantity has a zero.
GEORG: Would he be
stuck on the runway?
NARRATOR: A refurbished
runway is far from complete.
JOHN: Obviously, there should
be a light fitting in here.
LAWRENCE: Yeah, not happy.
Not pleased at all.
CARL: Hey! Hey!
NARRATOR: And dispatcher
Carl turns traffic policeman.
CARL: You do not drive
like that on here.
NARRATOR: Dubai International
Airport, the busiest global hub
on the planet and aiming to stay there.
MAN: 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.
CARL: 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 International employs the equivalent
of a fifth of the
city's resident population.
An operation of such awesome scale means
all staff, from engineers to catering to
Air Traffic Control, must pull together
as a team to keep it moving at full steam,
balancing the pressures of
huge economic growth while
safeguarding themselves
and their passengers.
The beating heart of Emirates
airline is its Network Control Center
located right next to the runway.
Here, the team must work together to ensure
all 230 Emirates aircraft that are in
the air at any one time run as
efficiently and as smoothly as possible.
GEORG: Perfect.
Thank you very much.
NARRATOR: Georg Bröemmer heads up the team,
making crucial split-second decisions on
flights across the world.
GEORG: And we okay
to depart, yeah?
NARRATOR: Now, a flight that's just taken
off from Dubai urgently needs his help.
GEORG: Emergency, what is it?
MAN (over phone):
Hydraulic quantity has a zero.
Yeah, quantity has a zero.
NARRATOR: Georg is talking to the pilot
of Emirates flight 733 bound for Khartoum,
which has close to 300
passengers on-board.
GEORG: One of our A330s echo
hotel on the way to Khartoum,
it's already airborne for 20 minutes,
just reported a loss of a hydraulic, and
we're just trying to determine how severe
it will be, what is impacted and
whether he could continue to Khartoum
or whether we need to bring them back.
NARRATOR: Georg remains
calm, but it's not that easy.
The loss of hydraulic fluid is one of the
most serious situations a pilot can face.
A plane's hydraulic system controls
everything, from its brakes to its landing gear
and its steering system.
If these systems can't be
controlled, the plane can't land safely.
MAN (over phone): We're just holding
in the Dubai area for the moment.
MAN: Just standby for one minute
while we have a quick discussion here.
NARRATOR: The team needs to
decipher if the plane can land safely.
But passenger safety
isn't the only concern.
Georg must consider what course of action
will cause the least disruption to the
Emirates network.
GEORG (off-screen): The flight could continue
to Khartoum, but the chances for repair here
with the hydraulic loss and a leak is
much better than, than in Khartoum.
NARRATOR: So this failing plane
needs to land back in Dubai and fast.
But Dubai International currently has
only one operational runway while its
other one is being upgraded.
GEORG: If he comes back, would
he be stuck on the runway, steering?
NARRATOR: If this flight lands back at Dubai
and gets stuck on the only functioning runway
after landing it would
cripple the airport.
Head of Air Traffic Control, Phil
Marques, is concerned about the impact
of a faulty plane landing.
PHIL: A hydraulic leak, meaning that the
pilot can't turn the plane left or right.
What it means is that
that aircraft can't exit the runway.
When you're down to one runway it's
extremely important to clear the runway.
NARRATOR: If the flight blocks the runway
it will delay numerous scheduled takeoffs
and divert every landing, having a $100,000
commercial impact on the airport and all
of the airlines it serves.
So the crucial decision is where to land.
One option is to divert the faulty
aircraft to Dubai's new Al Maktoum Airport,
known as DWC.
And then ferry the passengers back to Dubai
International and put them on a new plane.
But DWC is over 20 miles away.
It will be no easy task getting the
aircrew, passengers and their baggage
back, costing Emirates
both time and money.
GEORG: If there is a chance that he blocks
the runway, we have to send him to DWC.
NARRATOR: But then further
news filters through.
WOMAN: Just to fill you in, DWC is closed
at the moment for the next three hours.
GEORG: Okay.
NARRATOR: A runway closure at DWC means
diverting flight 733 to that airport is now no
longer an option.
Georg and his team are now
in an impossible situation.
GEORG (off-screen): That's how
quickly something can get out of control.
It looks all right and then suddenly
within a minute you've got a phone call and
things are not looking too good.
NARRATOR: Meanwhile, unaware of the real
drama going on in the skies above them,
two pilots are preparing for
their next simulated emergency,
and it's one that couldn't be
more relevant, hydraulic failure.
RORY: I suppose if it can happen in here
it can happen in the aircraft, can't it?
NARRATOR: First Officers Dave Storey and Rory
Smith are just two of 150 Emirates pilots
training to fly the biggest
passenger jet in the world.
The A380.
Located in Emirates' very own bespoke training
center, these state-of-the-art cockpit
simulators are exact replicas
of aircraft in service,
preparing pilots for
every emergency imaginable.
Both pilots will be assessed on their ability
to cope with real-time problems as well as
how well they work together as a team.
NICKLAS: And then
they stay there
NARRATOR: Nicklas Dahlstrom
is an expert on how
human behavior can affect safety on-board.
NICKLAS: There are very few situations
in aviation that are unrecoverable
if you have a good pilot there.
So, in the end of the day, it's about
human performance; it's to maximize that.
NARRATOR: The level of automation in
modern-day aviation has made coping with
an emergency even harder.
Pilots must go from a long period
of inactivity to dealing with a crisis
in a split-second.
Captain Peter Vandentillaart
will monitor each and every
reaction of the trainee pilots.
PETER: We have a whole generation now
of pilots that nothing has gone wrong in
their careers and that's attributed
to the technologies that we work with,
so now we have to train them to deal with
those black swan events,
the things that are
never supposed to happen
but they do happen.
NARRATOR: Inside the simulator,
it seems like a routine flight
outbound from Dubai.
DAVID: Standard crosscheck
passing 137 now.
RORY: Check.
NARRATOR: But just ten minutes
after they've reached cruising altitude,
there's a problem.
RORY: Hey, (inaudible).
DAVID: The hydraulic yellow
reservoir lower level.
PETER: One of our
two hydraulic systems has just failed.
NARRATOR: Just like
the troubled flight bound for Khartoum,
the hydraulic system powering
the brakes, steering and landing gear
seems to be failing.
DAVID: Yellow engine
three pump alpha off.
NARRATOR: It's a
major technical fault.
DAVID: Alpha.
NARRATOR: The pilots' careers may depend
on what course of action they choose now.
DAVID: Yellow engine
three pump bravo off.
RORY: So we're still thrust
climb, autopilot's engaged.
NARRATOR: First, they must decipher if it's
the computer that's at fault or if this is
a genuine emergency.
RORY: If you're happy I'll put out a pan, let
them know we'd like to maintain level while
we sort this out.
NARRATOR: A pan call to Air Traffic Control
alerts them there's an urgency on-board
but, for the time being,
no immediate danger.
Time is of the essence, but they
don't want to make a rash decision.
DAVID: Is there any reason why we can't
go to cruise altitude with this problem?
RORY: It's just, we're
near, we're near Dubai.
I'm gonna at least let them
know. We'll continue the climb.
DAVID (off-screen):
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
NARRATOR: But as they
work through the checklists,
the scale of the emergency becomes clear.
RORY: So it's
definitely a goner.
DAVID: Alert's impacting
landing performance.
Hydraulic yellow system pressure low.
RORY: Check. So obviously we've
lost a whole hydraulic system.
NARRATOR: A loss of hydraulics has
caused some of the worst passenger crashes
in aviation history.
The crash at Sioux City in the USA in
1989 caused the deaths of 110 passengers.
NICKLAS: The third engine
blew and threw pieces.
All the control system was
severed, all the hydraulics.
NICKLAS (off-screen): Half of the
passengers did perish in the crash.
But they tested, I don't know, a great
number of crews in a simulator afterwards.
No one even made it to the airport.
RORY (off-screen):
We could press on.
I'm not desperately keen to do that so my
preference is to go back to Dubai if the weather's
still suitable.
DAVID: Yep, okay.
NARRATOR: They decide
to land the plane.
But with no way of controlling the landing
gear, they must draw on all their training
skills to pull off this
difficult maneuver safely.
NARRATOR: In the Emirates Network Control
Center, Georg and his team are finding out
from a pilot if his failing plane is
safe enough to land at Dubai Airport.
MAN: EK 733, this is
Maintenance Control.
MAN (over radio): Maintenance
Control, you all right? You there?
NARRATOR: An alternative airport hundreds
of miles away may have to be used unless
Georg persuades Air
Traffic Control that this A330 is no risk.
MAN: You can confirm that you've
lost your blue hydraulic quantity as well?
MAN (over phone): Blue
hydraulic quantity has a zero.
NARRATOR: Although the plane's blue hydraulic
system controls all the primary flight
systems, so do the green and
yellow hydraulic systems.
MAN: If you were to come back, you have no
other issues with the airplane related to
vacating the runway, is that correct?
MAN (over phone): Yeah, there's
no issue. There's no issues at all.
We have Green and Yellow,
there's no problem there.
NARRATOR: The pilot confirms that
the yellow and green systems are working.
Crucially, it's these that control
the steering and landing gear,
meaning the plane should be able to vacate
the runway unassisted if it lands at
Dubai International.
GEORG: Okay, then get it back.
Do we have another airplane, another crew?
MAN (off-screen):
Yeah. We do, yeah.
GEORG (off-screen): We
launch it again, yeah?
NARRATOR: But even with the steering
hydraulics working, that doesn't guarantee the
plane will be able to
touchdown problem-free.
GEORG: This 733, can we
check what its weight is?
MAN: He's overweight
by 17 tons.
Just go for the fuel jettison.
It might take just 15, 20
minutes to finish that.
GEORG: Yeah. Okay. Okay.
MAN: Get 'em on ground.
Change the aircraft. Change the crew.
GEORG (off-screen): Good.
NARRATOR: The decision to dump $16,000
worth of fuel minimizes the chance of a
heavy landing that could
damage the aircraft's undercarriage,
stopping it from leaving the runway.
MAN: Okay, we will go ahead
with the fuel jettison then.
NARRATOR: Problem solved.
Now, Georg must get clearance
for flight 733 to land.
GEORG: Now we have to speak to ATC supervisor
and they need to understand that this will
not close the runway.
NARRATOR: The Air Traffic
Control Supervisor on duty is Shaun Ellis.
SHAUN: Tower.
GEORG: The blue hydraulic
system has no impact on steering.
NARRATOR: Georg has
little time before flight 733 will land.
GEORG: But DWC today has the
schedule closure between 11 and 1400.
NARRATOR: Alternative airport DWC is still
closed and it's too late to direct the plane
to an airport further away.
GEORG: They are jettisoning
fuel now, 17 tons.
NARRATOR: He must convince Shaun that the
aircraft won't block Dubai's only operational
runway when it lands, and just as importantly,
won't leak flammable oil that would force
the runway to close for cleaning.
GEORG: The blue hydraulic
is empty so there's no fluid spillage.
GEORG (off-screen): He
will vacate the runway.
There's no real issue from our end.
We land, we swap the
airplane and launch it again.
SHAUN (off-screen): Okay.
GEORG: ATC has now agreed to let
the aircraft land without issues in Dubai.
SHAUN (off-screen): Obviously,
they want their flight to come back here.
At the end of the day, they've got a business
decision to make and we've got an ATC and
safety decision to make as well.
NARRATOR: Down on the runway, a construction
team has been diverted from a crucial
inspection to assist in the
emergency landing of the stricken flight.
Air Traffic Control is
not taking any chances.
Even though reassurances have been given,
emergency services are put
into position as a precaution.
JOHN (off-screen): Airside one
two at November two, sir.
Proceed three zero right by
November two, airside one two.
NARRATOR: Airside Operations Manager John
Taylor is keen to minimize the disruption to
vital runway upgrade works.
JOHN: If an aircraft should become disabled
or there's a problem on the runway and
we're closed for an
indefinite amount of time,
the knock-on effect will
actually be felt worldwide.
NARRATOR: If they can get the
aircraft off the runway within 20 minutes,
the airport can recover the lost time.
But if it shuts down the runway for
longer, other aircraft would have to be
diverted and it'll be more difficult
to make up for the shift in schedule.
GEORG (off-screen): Worst case scenario for
me would be that the airplane's stuck on
the runway despite all our efforts to
convince everybody that it hasn't got any
steering issue, which I
still strongly believe.
If it is stuck on the runway
then we have an issue.
NARRATOR: The pilots can't be
100% sure that the steering will work
until they touchdown.
Just in case the unthinkable happens,
the runway team has a back-up plan.
JOHN: We've actually got a 100-ton
crane and a 70-ton flatbed on standby
for the whole of the runway works,
so if need be we can
technically lift an aircraft,
put it onto the flat
loader and drive it off.
SHAUN (off-screen):
That's him there.
NARRATOR: It's the
moment of truth.
GEORG: Under 20 seconds, yeah.
NARRATOR: All eyes
may be on flight 733.
GEORG (off-screen):
There it is!
NARRATOR: But if it blocks the
runway the focus will soon shift to Georg.
Engine reverse thrusters
generate 50,000 pounds of thrust.
16 carbon disc brakes fire down,
and spoilers flip up to increase drag,
bringing the 200-ton plane to a halt.
But it must now vacate
the runway unassisted
to avoid bringing the
airport to a standstill.
SHAUN: Tower Watch Manager, Emirates
733 is just off the runway now and the
inspection's in progress.
NARRATOR: The steering
worked, as predicted.
The A330 taxies safely off the runway.
GEORG (off-screen): 733
has vacated the runway!
Happy now.
Thank you very
much. That was good.
NARRATOR: Georg and his
team's risk has paid off.
GEORG: Time is money, yeah.
It's a fast industry, we are flying
fast, we have to make fast decisions,
and actually it didn't cause
any issue on the runway closure.
NARRATOR: Now the crisis is over, a rigorous
inspection of the new southern runway
can continue in earnest.
The runway's been closed for 26
days for a billion-dollar upgrade.
At 6:00 PM tonight, it's set to
re-open, allowing for phase two,
the resurfacing of the
northern runway, to start.
But first, John Taylor and his team
must scrutinize every inch of this
2.5-mile-long
runway for any flaws.
JOHN: We're ready
to rock and roll.
LAWRENCE: Right, okay.
JOHN: Just waiting for
the big nod from you guys.
NARRATOR: 2,500 new lights have been installed
and three million square feet of asphalt
freshly laid.
Any imperfection found puts the crucial
start of the northern runway works into
jeopardy; something Head of Airfield
Development Lawrence Edwards is hyper-aware of.
LAWRENCE (off-screen): There's a
lot of pressure on the team.
The guys are really, really tired,
they've been working all night,
'cause we're not gonna
compromise on safety.
YOUSUF: We are between A and
B, extreme end, pressure.
NARRATOR: Project Engineer
Yousuf Pirzada awaits the verdict.
YOUSUF (off-screen): We are
confident there's nothing wrong.
Even there is something
wrong, it can be rectified quite easily.
NARRATOR: The switchover of flights from
northern to southern runway is due to take
place in ten hours' time,
unless the inspection reveals problems.
JOHN: So this is a primate
example of why we check the runway.
This bolt here is actually loose, so I
can actually undo it with my fingers.
NARRATOR: A tiny piece of construction
material such as this could easily be sucked
into the vortex of an aircraft,
with devastating consequences.
LAWRENCE: There's luminaries which aren't
torqued down properly which is obviously a
safety issue.
Bolts or nuts not secured down, very,
very easily take out an aircraft engine.
NARRATOR: It looks like this
runway is going to fail the inspection.
The whole runway upgrade
project hangs in the balance.
NARRATOR: 40,000 feet above a virtual
Dubai, pilots Rory Smith and Dave Storey are
simulating the very real danger of a hydraulics
failure on an A380 just after takeoff.
DAVID: You still
have comm one.
RORY: Our operations
one three two six check.
No problems with it.
NARRATOR: Their every move is
being meticulously observed by examiners.
PETER: Well, we can hear
that Rory is, he's back up.
You can, can hear he's
involved, he's engaging.
RORY: So if you tell
the Air Traffic Control.
DAVID (off-screen): Yep.
RORY: Advise them that we're
probably gonna request vectors and return.
PETER (off-screen): It's
all about tempo and pace.
Crews that don't talk to each other
and they're just doing checklists,
oh you get a bit nervous as an examiner to
watch that because they're not working together.
NICKLAS: There is, in fact,
evidence that crews that do
talk more actually make less errors.
So, that doesn't
mean they should be talking all the time,
but if you sit quiet for a while it
takes more for me to bring up,
"Hey, what's that
going on there?"
So, there we again come back to
the tension between the technological
and the social aspects of flying.
RORY: Bounce the eyes.
DAVID: Landing checklist.
NARRATOR: Their only option
is to land the plane.
With complete loss of the yellow hydraulic
system, they now have to depend on gravity
forcing the landing gear into position.
DAVID: Landing gear
gravity extension only.
RORY: Advised.
DAVID: Auto-thrust mode.
RORY: Speed.
DAVID: Landing checklist complete.
RORY: Check.
DAVID: Yeah, emergency services are about
two-thirds of the way down the runway.
RORY (off-screen): Right.
NARRATOR: They're just 500 yards from the
runway and, if this was a real life scenario,
the whole airport would be on
standby for an emergency landing.
RORY: Just waiting for
a landing clearance.
PETER (off-screen): They're just going
through the final details of the landing.
They have the hydraulic problem but
they're going through the process and
they're doing well.
MAN: 30.20. Recharge.
DAVID: Spoilers.
Reverse grain. RORY: We're on the runway.
DAVID: Brake two, decal.
RORY: Check.
DAVID: Checked.
RORY: Lovely.
PETER: Job well done.
NARRATOR: Like the Khartoum-bound
flight, the pilots make a good landing.
Their teamwork has saved the day.
But their stress levels have
really been put to the test.
DAVID (off-screen): It's a very bad
feeling as a pilot when you feel yourself
getting overloaded, and that
happened once or twice to me.
NARRATOR: They've
passed the exam.
Only one more hurdle to go
before they can fly a real A380
with 500 passengers on-board.
But for now they can relax.
RORY: I'm very glad that's
over and it's time for a beer.
NARRATOR: Fresh from
their real emergency incident earlier,
John Taylor and his team are inspecting
the newly refurbished south runway.
Early signs are not good.
JOHN: Obviously, there should be a light
fitting in here, and due to the amount of sand
in there it's probably been
left open for a little while.
Last thing we wanna do is have an aircraft
trying to depart, it's got a damaged tire,
and then we've got a whole
different scenario to worry about.
NARRATOR: As they progress down the runway,
its reopening in a few hours' time is
looking more and more doubtful.
JOHN: That's been there
a while, the amount of sand around it!
We're just trying to find out
how long before they can fix it.
LAWRENCE: Um, yeah,
not a happy bunny.
The airfield lighting's not gone as well as
we'd hoped, so at the moment we've still got
testing, commissioning ongoing, which
should have been completed a number of
hours ago.
So where we thought we'd be in a fairly
healthy go status, it's still extremely,
extremely borderline.
NARRATOR: The inspection
team has seen enough.
The runway has been deemed
too unsafe to reopen.
A new plan must be forged.
MAN: We are not in a position to
open the runway up at 6:00 tonight.
A few of us are willing to come back
at 4:00 in the morning and we'll do
another lighting check then with
a view to opening up this runway
at 7:00 in the morning.
NARRATOR: The construction crew must now
pull together, working through the night to
bring the runway up to scratch
for another inspection at 4:00 AM.
MAN: Thanks very much.
JOHN: Okay.
NARRATOR: This 13 hour delay will have huge
implications for an already tight schedule.
MAN: The last thing we can do is bring a
runway into service that's not fully operable,
so we're gonna go for continued working.
When we arrive we
need a totally sterile airfield, okay?
NARRATOR: Project Engineer Yousuf Pirzada
was depending on the southern runway
reopening tonight to start phase two,
the upgrade works on the northern runway.
YOUSUF: A little tough because we are trying
to resolve everything which need to be
resolved, so that's making it
a little bit more complicated.
We are sure that the north
runway will be smoother.
NARRATOR: The construction crew has got
to get this runway up to spec fast or the
whole billion-dollar upgrade of the northern
runway, making it safe and efficient
for 21st Century flight,
will be jeopardized.
LAWRENCE: We should
have got it finished.
It's not.
We've missed the target.
Yeah, not happy.
Not pleased at all.
NARRATOR: 43 million
passengers pass through
Emirates' Terminal Three every year.
Teamwork is vital for Emirates passenger
operations staff who give help to those who need
it, from the late to the lost
and those with star status.
GIOVANNA: Hello
Emirates, it's Gio.
NARRATOR: 11:50 PM.
Airport Services Manager
Gio Di Biasi is on the way to meet a VIP.
GIOVANNA: We're going
to the check in counter.
We've got Cat Stevens traveling today.
He's due to arrive in about half an hour
so I need to make sure I'm there ready.
I don't want him to
arrive before I get there.
NARRATOR: Triple platinum selling
artist and Muslim convert Cat Stevens,
is now known as
Yusuf Islam and lives in Dubai.
All Gio needs to do is make sure
he boards his flight to New York.
WOMAN (over loudspeaker):
F and J check in.
GIOVANNA: I'm here to meet him,
bring him from the check in counter,
through to the gate.
NARRATOR: But when Gio meets
Airport Services Manager John Krempa,
she realizes this task isn't as
straightforward as initially thought.
KREMPA: Had a bit of a
cock-up this morning.
We couldn't board him
on the flight to JFK,
only because he didn't
have the right documentation.
Now we have that all cleared.
When he arrives, we're gonna expedite
his baggage, bring him to the lounge.
GIOVANNA (off-screen): Yeah.
KREMPA: And then explain to him
the procedures when he gets to the gate.
Thanks. All right.
GIOVANNA: Sounds good. Okay.
NARRATOR: Yusuf Islam was denied boarding
15 hours earlier due to US immigration
clearances being granted too late.
Passengers don't just
need a ticket to fly.
If they don't have the right
paperwork to enter their destination,
Emirates will refuse to let them board.
So, no documentation, no flight.
GIOVANNA: Everyone has to be
treated the same, no matter who you are.
We can't allow you into
a country unless the authorities say yes,
you've got the clearance to go.
NARRATOR: Security Duty Officer Denzil
Rahman is confident that everything will
work this time.
GIOVANNA: When he boards, it's just boarding
pass, look at the passport and then go,
no more phone calls.
DENZIL: I understand. Yes,
everything been taken care of.
GIOVANNA (off-screen):
Okay. All right.
I've just been told that they're
here so we're heading outside
to greet them and welcome them.
NARRATOR: At 1:00 AM, two hours before his
scheduled takeoff, the man in question arrives at
the check in entrance for
first class passengers.
KREMPA: Hi, I'm John Krempa,
Airport Manager tonight for Emirates.
We're gonna facilitate you
getting through. All right.
YUSUF: That's
very nice of you. Thank you so much.
KREMPA: You're very welcome.
NARRATOR: Yusuf is traveling
with his son and manager Muhammad.
With boarding now open,
Gio escorts them to the gate.
But there's more than just
the flight deadline to meet.
GIOVANNA: You're going to
New York and then Los Angeles?
YUSUF: Yeah. We're being inducted
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
GIOVANNA: Oh really!
YUSUF: Yeah. The rehearsals are like tomorrow,
so it's really important that we get on there.
GIOVANNA: Yeah,
that you get on this. Okay.
All right.
Now it makes sense. Okay.
NARRATOR: So far, everything
is running smoothly.
But out of the blue the
computer starts saying no.
GIOVANNA: We've got the
clearance to board from US immigration,
however our computer system's
saying we can't board them.
NARRATOR: Once again, Yusuf's journey
to America has been stopped in its tracks.
It's up to Gio to get him on this flight or
risk the highly embarrassing consequences for
the Emirates team.
GIOVANNA: I wasn't
expecting this at all.
I don't know what's happened.
NARRATOR: It's not just passengers
who have to make it onto the plane.
From the moment a bag is checked in, a
network of man and machine ferries it to the
right flight at the right time.
But a myriad of different obstacles
stands in the way of successful loading.
Customers oversized hand
baggage is just one of them.
CARL: Okay, echo one four
landing in about five minutes.
I'll see you at the bay.
NARRATOR: An Air India flight has just
landed and must depart within a very tight
50-minute turnaround time.
Ex-military man Carl Knight works at
the airport's multi-million-dollar baggage
and airfreight front line.
CARL: Right now I'm on the way to
an Air India express turnaround flight
to and from Calicut in India.
It's a pretty full flight coming in and
it's a very heavy flight going out as
well, approximately 180
passengers in both directions.
CARL (off-screen): Time
will be a critical factor on this flight.
Everything will have to
be closely controlled.
NARRATOR: Carl must turnaround
360 passengers, 400 pieces of luggage,
and ready the aircraft
by 4:30 AM if the outbound flight to India
is to leave on schedule.
CARL: 50 minutes is quite tight, so
it's gonna be a real push, push, push.
CARL (off-screen): Everything's
pretty much gotta be continuous.
There's no time for
any breaks for anybody.
Soon as the last passenger's off, we
need to get the cleaners straight on.
NARRATOR: Good team communication
is vital if this quick turnaround
is to be successful.
CARL: Calling gate supervisor,
IX three four four.
Calling gate supervisor
from Air IX three four four.
NARRATOR: Carl is trying to reach the gate
supervisor to say the passengers can start
making their way to the
plane, without much success.
CARL: What's going
on in there, please?
Could you get them to call me,
please, because I'm getting no response?
NARRATOR: If the flight is to make its 4:30
departure time, there's no room for delays.
CARL (off-screen): Everybody's
trying to get hold of you.
I've been calling and calling and calling.
Okay, IX three four four is okay to board.
NARRATOR: With the gate
supervisor now up to speed,
the outbound passengers are on their way.
CARL: The cleaners are
on-board. They'll do a fast job.
CARL (off-screen): If you time it right,
soon as the cleaners are over the first coach
should be just arriving.
But if one thing is out of sync
the whole flight runs off schedule.
NARRATOR: But baggage loading
is not going as planned.
CARL: What is going on?
Aswan! Yo!
What is going on? Come on!
CARL: I saw this was sitting here a
long time ago and it's still sitting here!
Come on buddy.
Get it loaded.
CARL: When I took the load sheet up there,
that baggage trolley was ready for loading.
Five minutes later it's
still sitting there.
We can't afford that extra five minutes.
NARRATOR: With just 40 minutes
until departure, Carl gives the thumbs up
to board the passengers.
But the team is thrown a curveball.
MAN (over radio): We have 91 pieces
in total in excess of hand baggage.
CARL: Yeah, we'll need one more
trolley for hand baggage at the gate.
91 hand bags.
MAN: Yeah, okay.
CARL: Yeah.
Yeah, please.
Let's gee it up.
NARRATOR: The team suddenly needs to fetch
and load over 90 oversized carry-on bags.
But with time ticking away, it's an
extra job Carl and his crew don't need.
CARL: 90 pieces of hand baggage
have been removed from the passengers.
CARL (off-screen): That's really gonna
push us right up to the departure time
getting that hand baggage loaded.
NARRATOR: Some airlines now
charge for oversize hand luggage to
try to avoid this problem.
But Carl's team will have to suck it up and
cope with the mountain of extra baggage.
CARL: One more trolley
hand baggage coming.
CARL (off-screen): Just that
hand baggage, that's it.
All passengers on-board.
Equipment, steps on IX, please.
Ready for departure.
NARRATOR: With passengers and bags finally
loaded, all Carl needs to do now is clear the
area safely for departure.
But not everyone in his
team has got the message.
CARL: Hey! Hey! You do
not drive like that on here.
NARRATOR: Carl is under pressure
to get the Air India flight out on time,
but he won't let his team
compromise on safety.
CARL: I'm just
warning you now.
I don't wanna see you driving
like that again, all right?
MAN: Yeah.
CARL: You do not drive
like that on here.
You know the rules about driving.
You don't drive like that on here, okay?
MAN: Yeah. CARL: It's not a
laughing matter, mate, yeah?
NARRATOR: It's estimated 27,000
ramp incidents occur worldwide every year,
ranging from injury to
personnel to aircraft damage,
at a cost of $10 billion
to the aviation industry.
CARL (off-screen): The guy was reversing
the steps off the back of the aircraft
to the parking position without
a marshal at about 20 kilometers
an hour completely out of control.
It's not acceptable, mate.
NARRATOR: Carl wants to make
sure it won't happen again.
CARL: I've just made
a report to Stanley.
He wants to see you in the office.
I'm not having you
behaving like this, okay?
MAN: Okay, I'm sorry. CARL:
Okay, I'm sending him to your office.
I'm sending him to your office Stanley.
If you see anything
like that just stop him.
MAN: Yeah, I will.
I will try and work this.
CARL (off-screen): If he hits
somebody he'll kill them like that.
I'm not having that on the ramp.
NARRATOR: No matter the commercial
pressure, safety should never be
sacrificed for speed.
CARL (off-screen): Was an urgent
requirement to get the steps off,
but that doesn't excuse driving like that,
especially so close to the proximity of
the aircraft wing.
NARRATOR: Despite Carl's safety concerns,
his team has managed to get the flight to
push back five minutes ahead of schedule.
CARL: It's like being a headmaster of
school looking after a bunch of children
sometimes, you know?
CARL (off-screen): I do get frustrated
with them when they've been told and safety
is drilled into people and they
just think they can do what they like.
I'm not here to win friends,
I'm here to do a job and look
after our customers as best I can.
NARRATOR: Over in the terminal, Airport
Services Manager Gio has just received
unwelcome news.
The Emirates computer system believes the
VIP Yusuf Islam is on a no-fly list to the
United States.
This first class passenger won't be
receiving any special treatment now,
even if he is a celebrity.
GIOVANNA: We've got
everyone trying to work on it.
GIOVANNA (off-screen): It's
getting close to departure time.
About ten minutes before the
flight's meant to depart.
NARRATOR: This is not the first time
Yusuf has experienced trouble entering
the United States.
YUSUF: I'm kinda getting
used to these little hiccups.
MAN: Okay.
NARRATOR: In 2004, he made the headlines when
he was detained flying to meet Dolly Parton.
YUSUF: The plane gets diverted
to a military airport and I'm going,
"Hang on,
this isn't Washington!"
YUSUF (off-screen): Then on
come like seven FBI agents.
Suddenly this whole kind of saga and
this drama unfolds in front of my eyes
and I'm the star.
NARRATOR: Yusuf believes the FBI mixed him
up with another person of a similar name and
he's had difficulties ever since.
YUSUF: And now it's in the system
it's kind of difficult to take it out.
NARRATOR: But there's a
silver lining in every cloud.
YUSUF: Anyway, I wrote a song about it called
"Boots And Sand" and Paul McCartney came on and
did it with me and so did Dolly Parton.
NARRATOR: But it looks
like history is about to repeat itself.
Gio's determined not to
be beaten by a computer.
GIOVANNA: Okay, no one touch this
system, they're working on it downstairs.
NARRATOR: Yusuf's son Muhammad
is getting concerned about the delays.
GIOVANNA: They're
just on the phone to US immigration again.
MUHAMMAD: Okay.
GIOVANNA: We're waiting so.
It'll be okay.
Have faith, please.
The system's saying still we cannot board
these passengers even though US immigration
have said that we can.
(radio chatter)
GIOVANNA: Time's running out, but I'm
not gonna let this aircraft leave unless
they're on this flight.
NARRATOR: Yusuf is due to start
rehearsals in New York the following day.
Gio will have to delay
departure as long as possible to ensure
that he makes it in time.
GIOVANNA: It's meant to leave
in two minutes and 25 seconds.
NARRATOR: Gio makes a last minute phone
call to Emirates Security to see if she can
override the computer's decision.
GIOVANNA: And that's
the problem, can't even manually board,
but I really wanna get them on their way.
NARRATOR: Finally, she gets
the news she's hoping for.
GIOVANNA (off-screen): Even though
the system won't let us board them,
we've got the verbal okay from
Emirates Security so I'm happy with that.
GIOVANNA (off-screen): We'll
send them on their way.
NARRATOR: Gio has
beaten the computer.
Father and son are cleared for takeoff.
GIOVANNA: It's
departure time now.
I'm not gonna hold them up any longer.
NARRATOR: Yusuf Islam is
finally cleared to board.
With only two minutes before
his flight is due to depart,
it's touch and go if he'll make it.
YUSUF (off-screen): I think I
should find another profession.
GIOVANNA: No, don't say that!
YUSUF: Something to
do with rock and roll.
I'm too old for it.
GIOVANNA (off-screen): No.
YUSUF: We're almost there.
NARRATOR: The rock and roll
legend boards with seconds to spare.
GIOVANNA: Bye.
Thank you. Lovely meeting you.
YUSUF: Thank you so much, Gio.
Let's hope we don't do this too often.
GIOVANNA: I know. I know.
YUSUF: Okay. Peace.
GIOVANNA: Bye. Nice meeting
you. Sorry about the delay.
Relief. Thank you.
All right, have a good flight, okay?
MAN: Bye.
WOMAN: Thanks.
NARRATOR: Job done for Gio.
GIOVANNA: I've got three
hours left in my shift then four days off.
I think I need four days off after this.
NARRATOR: On the southern runway, the
construction team has been working through the
night to get the site ready.
Earlier, crucial safety
lights were found to be broken or missing,
so the runway failed its inspection.
Now, the team has a second chance to put
things right and get the planned reopening of
the southern runway
and closing of the northern back on track.
JOHN: Tower Control, could you select
kilo eight lead on and offs, please?
NARRATOR: Operations Manager
John Taylor has been doing an early recce.
JOHN: For the southern runway there's
over 2,500 separate light fittings.
Compared to yesterday, we're
already a lot better off than we were.
NARRATOR: As the sun rises, Project Engineer
Yousuf is feeling much more confident
about a positive outcome.
YOUSUF: I think today my
blood pressure is normal.
Yesterday it was a little, you know, over
the top, but I believe that today it's fine.
YOUSUF (off-screen): And I think that
we are going to reopen the south runway.
STEVE (off-screen):
Hi, it's Tower.
All right John?
NARRATOR: All that stands in the way
of the newly refurbished southern runway
reopening for business is a
final lighting test conducted
by Air Traffic Control
Watch Manager Steve Toohey.
STEVE: Okay. So lima three
alpha is gonna come on for you now.
JOHN: Yeah, that all
looks fine, mate. Lovely job.
STEVE: Well, we don't want to be surprised
when we open the runway and all of a sudden
find out that we've got a couple
of lights that aren't working.
STEVE (off-screen): So they're just double-checking
now, making sure that when the first
aircraft arrives that
everything's gonna be working.
NARRATOR: It looks like
John's work is done.
JOHN: Seen a lot of progress, to the
point where I think we're okay to open.
NARRATOR: The runway will be able to open
at 7:00 AM, 13 hours later than scheduled.
JOHN: Hello mate.
Right, so lima four alpha east.
NARRATOR: But with only
one hour left until the
reopening, the team discovers one stretch
of lighting still isn't operating correctly,
despite being worked on
since yesterday afternoon.
JOHN (off-screen): This is
one of the critical parts.
We need that area open
for crossing traffic.
NARRATOR: It's a massive problem
that needs to be fixed if they're going
to meet the deadline.
JOHN: This is one of
the showstoppers for us.
NARRATOR: Lima four alpha is a
critical crossing point for air traffic.
JOHN: Seems to be
a circuit issue.
JOHN (off-screen): If we don't have it, can't
get aircraft from the north side of the airfield
to the south side of the airfield so without
it you can't shut the northern runway,
so it's very integral to the whole plan.
NARRATOR: As airfield lighting
engineers race to fix the problem,
Steve in Air Traffic
Control is looking for another solution.
STEVE (off-screen): Lima four's
not working though, is it?
Lima three try.
MAN: Lima three?
STEVE: Yeah. And try lima three bravo.
JOHN: Hello?
STEVE: Hey John, we can do it.
JOHN: Good man.
STEVE (off-screen): So we're gonna do
the lima three alpha and bravo stop bars.
JOHN: All right, thanks.
Cheers buddy. Bye.
STEVE (off-screen): Bye.
JOHN (off-screen): We're not
gonna use lima four now.
There's not 100% confidence in it,
so what we're gonna do is we're gonna
operate lima three.
NARRATOR: Steve has
come up with a plan.
Lima three alpha and
bravo lights are working.
They can use this as the crossing
point for now so they can open
the south runway on schedule.
MAN: Time, time, time.
I'm really, really pushing
hard to get this runway open.
To get this one closed.
JOHN: You see that
stop bar just there?
MAN: Okay.
JOHN: Lima four alpha?
Just stick it there for me, okay?
NARRATOR: John opens the lima three crossing
and puts barriers in place to close the
faulty lima four, making the area safe.
JOHN: So that's the last piece of the puzzle
that we needed to open the south and close
the north.
NARRATOR: It's all systems go for
the reopening of the southern runway.
JOHN: Ground Control
from Control Mobile Two.
WOMAN (over radio):
Control Mobile Two.
JOHN: Morning Ma'am.
Just to let you know that taxiway mike
from lima three to mike five alpha is now
open, fully serviceable and over to you.
WOMAN (over radio): Roger.
WOMAN: We have
the runway back!
MAN (off-screen):
Runway's back, all right.
NARRATOR: A milestone moment the almost
3,000-strong construction team has been
working towards for a month.
The team are four days ahead of schedule and
can now begin work on Dubai International's
second runway, after they have watched
the first plane takeoff from the fresh new
asphalt and sparkly new
lights of the southern.
MAN: Look, it's a miracle.
NARRATOR: The last plane lands at
the northern runway before it closes.
BOB: The north
runway is now closed.
STEVE: A seamless transition
from an ATC perspective.
Our last aircraft lands on one runway, our
first aircraft takes off on the other runway.
Another day another dollar!
JOHN: It's, it's exciting 'cause
now I know I can go to bed.
NARRATOR: The airport's ambitious plan
to upgrade both runways is still on track.
YOUSUF: When something need to be done in
Dubai, all the stakeholder comes together and
they work as one
team, and that's what make Dubai special.
Captioned by Cotter Captioning Services.