Ultimate Airport Dubai (2013) s03e08 Episode Script

1
NARRATOR: In this episode Mel
must contain a possible Ebola incident.
MEL: A lot of passengers are walking
past thinking maybe this is an Ebola case.
NARRATOR: Fixing a faulty aircraft
requires some basic detective work.
LEIGH: $150 million airplane
and it comes down to my nose.
NARRATOR: And the opening of the
$1 billion Concourse D depends on
a paint job.
MYLES: It's just not
an option to fail.
MYLES (off-screen): The one who
screams the loudest gets the job done.
NARRATOR: Dubai
International Airport.
The busiest global hub on the planet.
Staying on top takes a crack team.
PHIL: No one else in the world is doing it but
everybody else in the world is watching us.
JO (off-screen): Gatwick,
Kuwait, Paris, Hamburg, Munich.
Think it might be a nightmare shift.
HASSAN: It is very
dangerous because it can explode any time.
MYLES: This concourse
will help Dubai Airport stay number one.
NARRATOR: It's the job
of 90,000 staff from all over the world,
to make this the ultimate airport.
Dubai International employs 90,000 staff
who come from over 50 countries worldwide
and they all have one key priority.
Whether it's at customs, in the concourse
or on the runways, job number one is
protect the passengers and
crew who use the airport
and protect Dubai.
MEL: Emirates, Mel speaking.
NARRATOR: Airport Services Manager, Mel,
spends every working day in Terminal 3.
Meeting the needs of passengers as
they travel through the largest terminal
in the world onto their flights.
MEL: Where?
MEL (off-screen): What
do you mean, he's
Has he collapsed?
I'm on my way.
NARRATOR: Now a colleague
informs her of a sick passenger
who needs urgent attention.
MEL: He's vomiting blood.
It seems that the staff member is quite
nervous, but with the current climate,
it could be suspected Ebola
so I'm not sure.
NARRATOR: The Ebola epidemic has ravaged
West Africa and people have been fleeing the
region in their thousands.
And here at Dubai, the authorities have
been planning for the possibility that one
victim might make it to the airport.
They've prepared for medical scares such
as SARS and avian flu before so there are
carefully laid emergency plans in place.
MEL: We may even consider a situation
whereby we close part of the airport.
We may have to quarantine anybody
that's been in contact with the passenger.
Reham!
What's happened?
NARRATOR: Mel takes over from her colleague,
Reham, as medics treat the patient.
REHAM (off-screen): Staff
were trying to redirect him.
He was behaving, um, a little bit strange.
By the time the staff
was redirecting him, he fell on the floor.
REHAM (off-screen): He ha it seems he had
a kind of a seizure and he's vomiting blood.
MEL: Okay, let's get working
on clearing the passengers.
You didn't touch him, right?
REHAM: No, no, no.
We didn't touch him.
NARRATOR: Vomiting
blood is treated as a medical emergency
as it could point to
liver disease, leukemia or stomach cancer.
But it's also a possible sign of Ebola; a
deadly virus which attacks the immune system.
Symptoms can include fever,
diarrhea and unexplained blood loss.
MEL (off-screen): I can see that
there is blood coming out of his mouth.
The concern here is to keep everyone away,
keep the area clear and let the medical
teams do their job, so
that's the concern here.
Reham, get ev all the staff
away from here as well please.
REHAM (off-screen): Sure, sure.
NARRATOR: While medics do
their job, Mel does hers.
First ensure the safety of passengers.
REHAM: Please if you can just,
like, move a little bit this way. We're
NARRATOR: By forming a
strict exclusion zone.
Until doctors can diagnose
this man's condition, Mel will
ensure that he's kept away
from the public.
She also has to think about who may
already have been in contact with him.
MEL: He's in Terminal
3, he's in Dubai International Airport.
Has he been in contact with other
people around the airport? Obviously.
Logistically this is absolutely huge in
trying to determine where he's been and
what he's been doing.
NARRATOR: Right now, it's rush hour at Dubai
International and Mel has no idea how long
this man has been here.
Because five and a half thousand travelers
move through Terminal 3 every hour,
he could have come
into contact with hundreds of people.
MEL: Just excuse me a moment.
NARRATOR: Following procedure, Mel contacts
the Emirates Network Control Center,
where they monitor all
Emirates flights worldwide.
Peter Ishak gets the phone call.
PETER: Network Control, Peter.
MEL: We've got a gentleman
that's collapsed in Terminal 3.
MEL (off-screen): He's got
blood coming from his mouth.
He looks quite feverish.
Now at this stage, I
don't know what it is.
I'm just thinking of
the worst case scenario.
PETER: We'll need a
name to start with.
Are you able to get that?
PETER (off-screen): If we can
get any further information
beyond just a name, that'd be great.
MEL: As soon as I do
I'll let you know. Bye.
NARRATOR: Peter's team
needs to inform the airport authorities.
PETER: Nihad
NIHAD: Yes, Peter, come.
PETER: Look, we have a bit of
a situation in the terminal,
with a sick passenger who
paramedics are treating.
NARRATOR: In an
unfolding scenario like this,
the airport puts key teams on red alert.
Air traffic control, highly trained
medical professionals and terminal staff.
They're all on standby as
the situation develops.
Mel urgently needs to find the passenger's name
to be sure of which aircraft he arrived on.
MEL: We need to identify each and every single
passenger and crew member on that aircraft.
MEL (off-screen): Such a huge task to follow
through and try and find out where those
passengers are, who they've
come into contact with.
I mean, imagine, it's huge!
NARRATOR: Air side at the same terminal,
veteran engineer, Leigh is at Gate D7
where he needs to fix a
plane fast before its scheduled departure.
LEIGH: We've got a smell in the
cabin, an oil smell that is,
is not good for anyone's health.
NARRATOR: Strong oil smells
are not just unpleasant.
It could be a serious problem
as sustained exposure could
make the passengers and crew sick.
Leigh only has two hours to find the source
of the smell or the flight will be grounded.
But there's a hitch.
The plane is nowhere to be seen.
LEIGH: The aircraft should have
towed at 9:00, it's now 10:20 so
we've been we've
been waiting for it for a
just over an hour now.
NARRATOR: The plane and it's tug tractor
are stuck on the other side of the runway,
waiting for clearance to
cross over to the terminal.
LEIGH: The aircraft which
is a couple of miles away
from where we currently are, so there's,
there's quite a long way for it to move and
it's gotta work its way around all the other
traffic that's coming in and departing.
NARRATOR: In air traffic
control, the operators
are involved in a constant juggling act.
MAN: Way seven, push
start, face west.
NARRATOR: While an aircraft takes off or
lands on the runways every 90 seconds
they have to make sure that another
30 planes cross runways and taxiways
safely at any one time.
WOMAN: We're just trying
to get them across in the gaps you get and
because radar is quite busy, they're giving
us very small gaps so to get aircraft
across, they really have to move.
NARRATOR: All Leigh can do is
wait for the missing plane.
LEIGH: The aircraft's
flying at 12:00.
We've only got two hours and it's
you know, so it's a bit tight.
NARRATOR: The longer he waits,
the less time he has to fix
the aircraft when it finally arrives.
And 20 minutes later,
the plane is still AWOL.
LEIGH (off-screen):
Not looking good.
In 40 minutes the crew are gonna be here.
NARRATOR: Back
inside the terminal,
Mel's possible Ebola patient
is being treated by medics.
MEL: At the top of my head I'm just thinking
of all the different scenarios that could
occur because of this.
Is it a simple case or is
it something a lot bigger?
NARRATOR: This man could have come into contact
with people who have now continued their
journey to all four corners of the world.
Just one case like this could
cause Ebola to go global.
Mel urgently needs to give Emirates
Network Control Center an update.
She must find out this man's name,
where he came from and where he's going.
Her colleague, Faraz,
has his boarding pass.
FARAZ: The passenger
is traveling on Delta Airline to Atlanta.
NARRATOR: Faraz also has the
man's South Sudan passport.
It's not an Ebola hit country
but his nationality doesn't prove
where he started his journey.
It's still possible he's
flown in from West Africa.
In the Network Control
Center, Peter urgently needs information.
PETER: Okay, does this
passenger have a name?
NARRATOR: Mel now has enough
information for Peter to start work.
MEL: And he's traveling
onwards on Delta to Atlanta.
PETER: Alright, thanks Mel.
Leave it with me, it'll take a little bit
of doing but leave it with me and we'll
we'll get back to you with
some more information.
NARRATOR: As Mel waits for more news, the
medics prepare to take the patient to the
medical center, quickly and quietly.
MEL (off-screen): Reham,
he's gonna be sick again.
REHAM: Oh my god, yeah, he's
vomiting now, he's vomiting.
MEL: What we've been told is to look for signs
of fever, of shivering, vomiting blood and
he's displaying all of
these signs right now.
NARRATOR: It's imperative they find out
exactly how the passenger reached Dubai
before it's too late.
NARRATOR: After a long
wait, Leigh Faulkner's faulty triple seven
is coming on stand at last.
LEIGH: Yeah, finally
arrived, so it's only
an hour later than I expected so
but we'll, we'll do what
we can do in the time we've got remaining.
NARRATOR: Now Leigh
is up against it.
He only has 90 minutes to find the source
of a mysterious oil smell in the cabin.
LEIGH: Yeah, yeah, let's
NARRATOR: As the
odor is dangerous to passengers and crew,
it could be a serious problem.
He's beginning his search with the engine
that provides air conditioning on the ground,
the auxiliary power unit.
LEIGH: Plane coming back.
The main concern with these pieces of
equipment is the potential for damage on the
airplane so when you're maneuvering
it, that's the most important thing,
don't hit the airplane.
Although I hope I haven't jinxed myself.
NARRATOR: The auxiliary power
unit is known as the APU.
With 1200 horse power it's almost
twice as powerful as a NASCAR engine.
And it's used as the plane's backup system
on the ground when the engines are off.
LEIGH: The APU can be used to actually start
the engines on the ground and to generate
cool air for the passengers.
NARRATOR: As it pumps conditioned
air into the cabin, it's likely the APU is
at fault if there's a smell
especially if the unit is
at the end of its lifespan.
LEIGH: It's brand new,
it's been replaced.
NARRATOR: But it seems
this APU is fresh out of the factory.
LEIGH: It does look very new.
MAN: Yeah.
LEIGH: You know, there, you can see the
color of the looms, they're bright white,
tubes are clean.
I reckon this could only have been on,
we're talking a
week maybe two.
NARRATOR: The lifespan of an
APU can exceed seven years.
But this $2.5 million machine was
installed just three weeks previously.
LEIGH: You know, it's not a cheap unit so
for us to fit a new APU and then for it to
have an oil leak, not something you expect,
like if you buy a new car, you don't
expect to take it out of the
showroom and it to breakdown.
I'm moving away to thinking that it's not
actually an APU oil smell, it's a smell that
you get when you've, you've got a new APU.
So we're gonna run it and see what we get
in terms of smell in the, in the cabin,
before the crew get here.
NARRATOR: The crew will arrive in
ten minutes so Leigh and engineer Eros
need to act fast.
First they fire up the
APU on the flight deck.
Now Leigh needs to do some
old fashioned detective work.
LEIGH: $150 million airplane
and it comes down to my nose.
So I'm half blind, half deaf, but
I've got a good, got a good schnoz.
NARRATOR: Any cabin smell caused by the
APU will be coming into the plane through
the air conditioning system.
LEIGH: We'll
we'll put both packs on.
NARRATOR: With the air conditioning packs
activated, the smell begins to circulate.
LEIGH: I can smell
that smell now.
Can you smell it?
That's not oil.
Now I've had a smell like
this before and it's been from
birds that have been ingested into the
the inlet for the APU.
It does smell very bird-like to me.
NARRATOR: Bird strikes are most commonly a
problem for engines and windshields during
takeoff and landing.
They cost the global aviation industry
over $1 billion in damage every year.
In 2009 an airbus A320
crash landed in New York's Hudson River
when a flock of geese took out
both engines at the same time.
Leigh's bad smell is far less serious,
but when a bird gets
stuck in the APU inlet tube,
it can cause a foul smell
in the air conditioning.
LEIGH: Oil is a sickly
smell and that's
that's more pungent.
NARRATOR: After running the APU
for a few minutes, the smell intensifies.
LEIGH (off-screen):
Smells more like oil now.
EROS: (inaudible).
LEIGH: No, no, I can smell it
now, yeah, I have changed my mind.
It's more pungent now than it
was before when we first put it on.
Let's kill that.
EROS: Now I feel a bit dizzy.
NARRATOR: Sustained exposure to
oil smells can be extremely dangerous.
Dizzy spells can lead to blackouts
from toxic chemicals in the oil.
LEIGH (off-screen): I want the
clear air before the crew come here.
Leave that on while I have
a walk through, okay? Eros?
NARRATOR: If the smell has filled
the plane, Leigh will have to act fast.
LEIGH: Yeah, no, it's
definitely not right.
NARRATOR: With a high level of noxious
gasses, he needs to shut off the APU.
Unless he does it immediately, it
could cause a delay to this flight.
NARRATOR: In Terminal 3,
Mel's possible Ebola patient
is being taken away to the medical center.
MEL: It's really, really important that
we get as much information as we can,
right now, and then get him medically assessed
and get that information back to us so
that we can move forward and
see what we need to do next.
NARRATOR: In the Network Control Center,
Peter and the team are in overdrive.
PETER (off-screen): We're trying
to determine whether this
passenger actually flew with us at all.
We can then try and understand
whether there's any further
requirements from our side to
to either quarantine or activate our
our procedures for a communicable disease.
NARRATOR: It's a mammoth task.
They have hundreds of flight records to
check, consisting of up to 65,000 people.
And that's only the Emirates
flights that have come into
Terminal 3 in the last 12 hours.
While Peter gathers information, NCC's
senior manager, George, needs to make
sure Mel and the team follow correct
procedure while dealing with the passenger.
GEORG: We are following
the same guidelines which
come from the World Health Organization.
GEORG (off-screen): Important
thing is now to check him out quickly,
to make sure we know, is it Ebola or not.
Quarantine him for the time
being and the information
needs to come back to us immediately.
NARRATOR: Back in the terminal, Mel needs
to escort the passenger to the medical
center so he can be quarantined.
MEL: We are taking you
to the doctor, okay?
Just relax, I'll stay
with you, don't worry.
MAN: Just relax, lay down.
Just stay with me, okay?
NARRATOR: They
need to go quietly.
Mel's priority is to keep everyone
calm, including the passenger himself
who appears confused.
MEL: Can you move
please, thank you.
REHAM: Just need to
relax, sleep a little bit.
We will take you to the doctor,
shwe shwe, and we will be fine, okay?
REHAM (off-screen):
No, no, no, no, sit!
NARRATOR: But the
passenger is not complying.
REHAM: Oh, oh, oh, oh.
MEL: Reham, back off.
REHAM: I know, I know.
NARRATOR: Mel has only
one course of action.
MEL: Faraz, police, because
he's a danger to himself now.
FERAZ: Yeah, just don't
(inaudible radio chatter)
Guys, just make sure there's
no passengers around at least.
MAN (off-screen): Is he alright?
MEL: No, he's not.
REHAM: Please keep on moving.
MEL (off-screen): I have called for
the airport authorities to come and assist
because we don't know exactly
what the situation is going to turn into.
NARRATOR: Mel and
Reham know what to do.
They form a ring of steel around the
passenger, isolating him from the public
until the police arrive.
MEL: With a lot of the Ebola virus in the
media, a lot of passengers are walking past
thinking maybe this is an Ebola case.
REHAM: Please continue
walking the other side.
Sir, you need to please
walk on the other side.
MEL: We ourselves cannot
force him to come off here.
We have to wait for the local
authorities to assist us.
NARRATOR: Plain clothes police
officers arrive immediately.
MEL: Wait, they're gonna
use constraint now.
NARRATOR: Now they can escort
him to the medical center.
MEL: We'll check
on him later on.
You guys go and wash up, yeah?
NARRATOR: Mel now has the
physical problem contained.
MEL: Airport
adventures part three.
NARRATOR: And in the Network
Control Center, Peter Ishak
has further news about the passenger.
NIHAD: Okay Peter, I just want to inform you
regarding this passenger regards Ebola
PETER: Yep.
NIHAD: He did not travel
with Emirates Airline.
MEL: Hello, it's Mel.
PETER: How's the
passenger doing?
MEL: He's gone into
the medical center.
He's just walking in now.
MEL (off-screen): Took
a bit of persuasion.
PETER: Confirmed that the passenger
did not travel in on an Emirates flight.
PETER (off-screen): He traveled
in with another airline.
But I guess Dubai Airports
will want to know.
NARRATOR: Although this man is
definitely not an Emirates passenger,
the airport is still on action stations.
There are over 120 airlines operating
in and out of the three terminals here.
Airport authorities may now need to reach
out to all of them to find out if the
passenger came in from
Ebola-hit West Africa.
MEL: I think we'll just have a
quick check in the medical center.
Are you sure you're okay coming with me?
REHAM: Yeah, yeah.
MEL: Yeah?
NARRATOR: Authorities
need an answer fast.
In air traffic control,
operators could face tough decisions.
If there's an Ebola case in
the terminal, incoming flights
could have to be diverted
to other airports
and departures could be canceled.
Part of the airport could
even face a lock down.
NARRATOR: Away from the
medical drama in Terminal 3,
Leigh has his own problem to diagnose.
He now thinks the cabin smell
is caused by oil for sure.
LEIGH: Yeah, take it
off, it definitely
EROS: It smells really bad.
LEIGH: Let's go and put
the ground AC back on, get
some fresh air through the airplane.
Don't want a smelly airplane.
NARRATOR: Now Leigh needs to
work fast to fix the fault.
Cabin crew have already arrived and
he still needs to find exactly where the
smell is coming from.
LEIGH: What we're gonna do then, quickly, is
we're gonna move forward into the aft stab
bay and inspect the ducts in there.
Given that smell that we
had, we should, if it is oil,
we should find something in that duct.
NARRATOR: Back at the APU, Leigh starts by
opening up the air inlet panel which draws in
air to keep the unit cool.
If there's an oil leak, it's the most
likely place to find the telltale signs.
LEIGH: Yeah, that's a
very heavy oily smell.
LEIGH (off-screen):
I can see a drip.
It has a bit of color that
would indicate oil in that
it's slight brown in color, or golden.
NARRATOR: Finding traces
of oil is not enough.
Leigh needs to keep searching.
LEIGH: We really need to
find evidence of an oil leak.
There's always a possibility the
source could be somewhere else.
NARRATOR: Leigh checks
the APU exhaust.
LEIGH: Sometimes if you've got an oil leak
inside the engine, you can see staining on the
blades but it looks
pretty clean down there.
No, can't see anything.
NARRATOR: If the leak is not in the exhaust
or the air inlet, the next suspect is the
pipe work which carries
clean air into the cabin.
MAN: Yeah, we've had a look,
it's pretty, it's just dry.
There's no, you know, any
sort of smell coming from it.
NARRATOR: They still haven't
found hard evidence of an oil leak.
Now they've run out of time.
LEIGH (off-screen): The only thing
to do is to keep the APU unavailable to
the crew during this flight.
If we sent it with it not deactivated,
the aircraft would come back 'cause the
crew wouldn't be able to
perform and the passengers
would start to feel ill as well.
NARRATOR: The plane is
still safe to fly with the APU turned off.
But when the plane arrives in tropical
Thailand, it will rely on ground support for
power, starting the engines
and air conditioning.
The captain needs to prepare his flight
plan, but Leigh has another problem.
LEIGH: Showing blank.
NARRATOR: He now has an APU
error message in the cockpit.
LEIGH (off-screen): Before they can leave,
that APU message needs to go away
which it's not.
NARRATOR: If they can't clear it fast,
the flight is in danger of being delayed.
LEIGH: No, still got nothing.
EROS: Okay, I will check
the connector then.
LEIGH (off-screen): Alright,
yeah, check the connector.
NARRATOR: To fix it, engineer Eros will
need to climb down beneath the flight deck.
It's an inconvenience for the cabin crew.
Boarding has already started.
But with the floor hatch open,
first class passengers now
have to board from the
economy class air bridge.
Eros quickly resets
the circuit breakers
and hopefully that will kill the fault.
LEIGH: We've got our
indication back so they can close up.
NARRATOR: With this problem
solved, Leigh can now dispatch
the flight with minutes to spare.
For now the APU is shut off, to be
fixed when it comes back from Thailand.
LEIGH (off-screen): When it returns,
hopefully they're gonna see an oil leak,
then they'll be able to say,
"Yeah, it's an APU change."
LEIGH (off-screen): It's a very
expensive item to replace.
We're getting closer and we
just need to pin it down.
NARRATOR: Back in the
terminal, Mel has a conclusive
diagnosis from the medical center.
MEL: Good news.
I've spoken to the doctor in charge
and he's confirmed it's a seizure attack,
and it's not Ebola.
You can see the smile on my
face, I'm actually quite relieved.
MEL (off-screen): What it would have meant for
us, what it would have meant for anybody else
that came into contact with
him, is beyond my imagination process.
But yes, we're relieved.
NARRATOR: All across the airport,
emergency teams can now stand down.
This is no longer the red alert that
the authorities were preparing for.
PETER: It is a bit different
to, to the usual days but
but now that things are back to
normal, we go back to our usual grind.
NARRATOR: After
11 years working at Dubai International,
Mel is ready for anything.
MEL: Cases such as Ebola or SARS or H1N1,
these are all part of our everyday lives,
we have to deal with it.
This one, I think, in my memory has
got to be one of the most serious ones.
GEORG: Just another day
and this is what can happen.
A lot of other things can happen.
We'll see, we'll find out tomorrow again.
REHAM: Scary but relieved
at the same time.
MEL: Good girl, well done.
NARRATOR: At the cargo terminal, customs
officer Mohammed is on the lookout for
suspicious packages, 24/7.
MOHAMMED: We prevent things to
come inside Dubai many times a day.
NARRATOR: Mohammed
has a sophisticated tool at his disposal.
A computer program that checks
every shipment that comes
into the airport and flags the
suspicious ones.
This time it's alerted Mohammed
to a shipment of 18 boxes.
MOHAMMED: Here is the shipment,
the one that we suspected, and we have
something called the risk engine
that tells us that we have to check it.
NARRATOR: The customs risk
engine uses an advanced
algorithm to detect suspect packages.
In this case, it has identified a
number of inconsistencies with a
shipment of 400 electrical
circuit breakers.
MOHAMMED: These goods arrived from a
suspicious country; a country that doesn't
manufacture this type of goods.
NARRATOR: This shipment's country of
origin is on the risk engine's blacklist.
But the shipping document claims that
the circuit breakers are made in China
by a major German brand.
MOHAMMED: The normal
Siemens packing looks different than this.
It has logo above with the
serial codes on it and everything.
But this one, it looks
like a regular packing.
NARRATOR: The country of
origin and the packaging are both suspect,
and the risk engine has also flagged
that the circuit breaker switches
have a suspiciously low retail value.
MOHAMMED: I am 90% sure that
these are fake switches.
NARRATOR: If the boxes contain
fake circuit breaker switches,
it's both dangerous and illegal in Dubai.
And if there's something
else like drugs or weapons inside,
Mohamed needs to know immediately.
To take this case to the next level,
he'll use the $100,000 x-ray machine.
MOHAMMED: We only x-ray or check
things that we are suspicious about.
NARRATOR: Every day around 6,500 tons
of shipments come through Dubai airports.
That's 4.5 tons each minute.
So customs cannot x-ray
every single package.
That's why they must rely on the
risk engine to flag suspect shipments.
And when a package does trigger an
alert, the x-ray gives immediate results.
MOHAMMED: Well we have got two
different angles on the x-ray;
one is from the side and
the other is from the top.
NARRATOR: Now Mohammed needs to check
every one of the 18 packages thoroughly
to be absolutely sure of what
this shipment really contains.
MOHAMMED: Maybe drugs,
weapons, anything that's hidden inside.
NARRATOR: In the maintenance
hangar, paint controller Ian
is the engineering team's perfectionist.
IAN: Everybody's happy with
what we're gonna be doing? Yeah?
MAN: Yes.
NARRATOR: Today his team is installing a
massive array of 28 stickers called a decal.
IAN: We need to get it
installed right and we need to
get it installed right first
time, so that the
it won't delay the ground
time of the aircraft.
NARRATOR: Ian's team is
working against the clock.
The plane is in the hangar for a
routine inspection called the A check
and by the evening, it must
go back into service.
IAN: I will not be the guy that
delays the departure of this aircraft.
NARRATOR: 60 feet up,
Ian's team gets busy.
IAN: We don't want it going
on like that, we want it straighter.
NARRATOR: Two orange lines act as markers
to position the six foot high first letter.
IAN: This is the most
critical point on the decal installation.
There is absolutely no room for error.
If we get the first letter
wrong, from our measurements,
the whole of the decal will go
out of position.
NARRATOR: One slip here and the
$2,000 decal may have to be remade.
Worse, it could delay the A check, costing
the airline tens of thousands of dollars.
On the other side of the airport, Dubai
International is building a new concourse
in a $1 billion extension plan.
Inside, restaurants and duty free
shops are beginning to take shape.
And outside, Project Delivery Manager, Myles,
is preparing for a make or break trial.
MYLES: So tomorrow's the first major trial
that we've got where there's gonna be a
number of airport volunteers
coming in to do an arrivals departures.
NARRATOR: 250 people will
be brought in by bus to the
concourse to take part in the trial.
Myles has one urgent priority: make
sure the buses can reach the concourse.
For that he needs the ground support
equipment, or GSE road, to be in service.
MYLES: Number one, we need
to open this GSE road,
before we can even get
inside the building.
MYLES (off-screen): It doesn't matter where
you look on this airport, whatever job
we're doing, it is under pressure.
If there's no GSE road open, then there's
no buses then, that's it, no trial.
NARRATOR: It's a high security airside
thoroughfare that connects the new concourse
to runways and taxiways.
As it's a restricted area,
it can only be opened with
permission from the airside
operations team.
MYLES: Airside operations have forced us to
put a temporary measure as a stop sign but
they're not happy with it
so they, we've gotta paint the
red and white stop sign on the ground.
NARRATOR: Unless two
stop signs are painted,
airside operations will keep
the road closed.
That means Myles' key
trial could be canceled
and completion of the
$1 billion concourse could be delayed.
All for the sake of two $50 pots of paint.
MYLES: Seems easy, right, to paint a few
white lines and red, red paint, but the
painting company's already on another
project about a kilometer away and it was
meant to be 12:00 today,
now it's the afternoon.
NARRATOR: With the main painting contractor
busy, senior contract manager, Henk,
needs to find an alternative.
HENK: Yeah, I've got a
another contractor that I
possibly can use here so.
He said he'll put some people here.
MYLES: Yeah, we need
to get that done.
MYLES (off-screen): It's just
not an option to fail.
NARRATOR: With a plan in place for the
road outside, Myles wants to continue his
pre-trial inspection inside
the concourse building.
But first, he needs to
get through the door.
MYLES: Now there was a bit of a clash between
the level of the paving and the door where
it was scraping so they've
obviously just started to
to re-level it at the worst possible time.
MYLES (off-screen):
This was not expected.
Someone needs to get on it now and
get this access done and make it safe.
NARRATOR: A door out of action
may seem trivial but it's
enough for the trial to fail completely.
And inside, Myles has another
detail to check which is just as critical.
MYLES: You can see here, we've got a lot of
furniture here for the lounges and for the
departure area and so it's
right in the way of everyone
walking and blocks the signage.
NARRATOR: Unless he moves the furniture fast,
Myles will owe his bosses an explanation.
MYLES: Looks like some of the
labor here for, to move it actually.
NARRATOR: For the laborers
to do their job efficiently,
they need their foreman to direct them.
MYLES: Hey, where's Vinod?
Where, what, what time?
Yeah, hey, Vinod.
Yeah, when are you gonna be here mate?
One hour! I just got, thought you
were gonna be in half an hour ago.
I'm gonna get your
people working now, okay?
It is frustrating to
come there and see things are not done.
NARRATOR: Determined not
to waste valuable time,
Myles takes matters into his own hands.
MYLES: This furniture, put one on the
trolley and then come with me, follow me.
If we can get them to do one piece into
the truck lift which is a big lift made for
vehicles, then we can stack it up.
NARRATOR: To get
to the truck lift,
the laborers must wheel
the furniture through the concourse,
using passageways which are
designed for people, not heavy furniture.
MYLES (off-screen): No,
it's not gonna work.
No, no, no, no, guys, guys, guys.
It's, can't damage this furniture.
NARRATOR: It takes ten
minutes to move just one sofa.
MYLES: Can't do every piece
of furniture like this though.
NARRATOR: And the truck
lift is not working.
MYLES: It's time, how
long it's gonna take.
You know, we've got eight people moving
one piece of furniture and there's at least
50 pieces of furniture out
there that we need to move.
NARRATOR: Minutes later, a different contractor
comes to help with the furniture move.
MYLES: Okay, so they're
gonna move the furniture now.
I'll come back in an hour's
time and make sure it's gone.
NARRATOR: Myles can now
continue with his concourse inspection.
Everything has to be ready when
the trial begins in 20 hours time.
MYLES: It's not a good start and we've not
even walked towards one of the gates where
we've actually got to do the trial
so, it's not a fantastic start at all.
NARRATOR: In the maintenance hangar,
Ian's decal is quickly taking shape.
IAN: The guys have actually been working
on it for an hour and 15 minutes now.
NARRATOR: After laying it
out, they now trace around the
11 windows that are underneath the decal.
IAN: We actually have to remove this
from the fuselage and do it on the ground
because the engineers will do
an inspection to see if we've
scored or damaged anything
on the aircraft.
Right guys, ready to install.
NARRATOR: Now sticking the
letters down is the point of no return.
And as they slowly reveal the strong
adhesive, they must take extreme care to avoid
their worst enemy, air bubbles.
IAN: We need to have it stuck, flat to the
surface, to ensure that we don't get bubbles in
it because, obviously
appearance wise it doesn't
look good and so the
aircraft can fly well.
NARRATOR: Eliminating air bubbles
is not just about the look of the decal.
Any slight inconsistency on the plane's
surface can affect aerodynamics, creating drag
and harming the aircraft's
in-flight performance.
Now the team meticulously
peels off the top layer of
paper to reveal the glossy sticker.
IAN: Trim that piece, yeah? And
the letter E and on the window there.
NARRATOR: If the edges of the decal are not
stuck down carefully, it can have serious
consequences for the aircraft.
IAN: In previous history, the decal has
actually come off the front of a fuselage and
gone into an engine and actually
damaged the fan blades on an engine.
NARRATOR: For added safety, the team seals
the edge of the letters with a special glue.
Then the decal is ready for
Ian's thorough inspection.
IAN (off-screen): That's it,
I've had a final check of it.
I'm happy with the work.
The door cut-outs have been trimmed
properly and especially round the slide
raft because if they didn't trim it
there, then it could create problems.
NARRATOR: Over the next four
months, this plane will fly
around the world more than ten times
on an epic warm up lap ahead
of the Rugby World Cup.
IAN: All I've got left to do, yeah, is
go get some Rugby World Cup tickets.
Can you do me any favors?
NARRATOR: In the cargo terminal,
Mohammed has completed his checks of all
400 suspicious circuit breakers.
MOHAMMED: What the x-ray
indicates that everything is
fine and as mentioned in the documents.
NARRATOR: There are no drugs
or weapons in this shipment,
but now Mohammed needs to open the boxes.
If they do contain dangerous
fakes, this shipment could
be lethal when it reaches the streets.
Circuit breakers cut off electrical
currents during a power surge.
If they malfunction, they can cause
electric shocks and even large fires.
MOHAMMED: Our role in the customs is to
protect Dubai so we can prevent the fires that
these things can cause.
NARRATOR: Mohammed soon
finds more evidence to support his theory.
MOHAMMED (off-screen): The country of
origin, it shows on the cover that it's made
in Germany, but on the bill of
entry, it says 'made in China'.
MOHAMMED (off-screen): So there
is for sure something wrong about it.
NARRATOR: Mohammed now needs expert
confirmation that the shipment contains fakes,
so he calls in counterfeit
specialist, Ahmed, for a second opinion.
MOHAMMED: Everyone who imports, uh, should
register so now we will check if this
company is registered or not.
AHMED: It is registered
number seven.
MOHAMMED: Ah, it is?
Is this, er
AHMED: Yes, it is
registered number seven.
NARRATOR: Although the importer is registered
with the manufacturer, that doesn't
prove the circuit breakers are genuine.
AHMED: The finishing, it is very bad,
you can see here where the circle
MOHAMMED: Poor
quality finishing.
AHMED: This is the
same, broken, in here.
MOHAMMED (off-screen):
A broken piece?
AHMED (off-screen): Yeah.
It is fake, it is fake.
100% is fake.
NARRATOR: It's illegal to import fakes
into Dubai, so Mohammed has brought in the
importer who's responsible for
the package for questioning.
MOHAMMED: Salaam.
(speaking Arabic).
These are Siemens products, right?
MAN: Yeah.
NARRATOR: Importing
counterfeit goods here
can carry a five year prison sentence.
MOHAMMED: See here, it is
fake, it is not original.
MAN: Yeah.
MOHAMMED: Also here.
MAN: Yeah, that's fake. Yeah.
MOHAMMED: Yeah, also here.
NARRATOR: If the importer is guilty,
he could also face a fine of $270,000.
MOHAMMED: The finishing,
it is very bad.
NARRATOR: But he claims he didn't know
they were fake until Mohammed and Ahmed
showed him the products.
If this $120,000 shipment is proven to
be illegal, the customs computers will be
programmed to flag his imports in future.
MOHAMMED: It's bad news for the importer
because products will now go to the legal
department in Dubai customs and
they may press charges in the court
and they may destroy the products.
NARRATOR: The importer could
now face heavy penalties.
Mohammed's professional hunch
has kept these potentially
deadly electronics out of Dubai.
MOHAMMED: We have to keep the community
safe from these things to go inside the UAE.
NARRATOR: Back in concourse D,
Myles has returned to check on
progress ahead of his crucial
passenger trial.
Unless all the problems have been
solved, the trial cannot go ahead
and Myles will have to take the blame.
MYLES: We, we have
to get it open.
The embarrassment for all of
us who's organized this trial,
it's just a huge expense to do this.
NARRATOR: Myles'
key priorities:
make sure people can reach
the concourse by road,
get into the concourse through the doors
and move through it during the trial.
MYLES: We had a few
problems with the
the leveling of the pavement here which was
stopping the doors from opening so that's
been rectified on this door
and it looks like they've
done it on all the doors which is good
Okay, door's not
opening, that's okay.
The other problem we had is the furniture
inside the building here where we're
gonna do all the
briefings and debriefings.
NARRATOR: The trial cannot happen
unless the downstairs lobby is empty
and ready to accommodate 250 volunteers.
MYLES: Alright, so this
area is looking good now.
It was full of furniture.
Now it's, it's got a clear
path through there now.
There's a few pieces on the
side, there's no issues.
NARRATOR: That's two out
of three problems solved.
Now Myles needs to inspect the GSE road.
MYLES (off-screen): To even have this trial
going forward, we have to have the buses to be
able to drop the volunteers
off so that's what we're gonna check now.
NARRATOR: On the previous
inspection, two key stop signs
were missing from the road surface.
If they're not painted on by
now, the airside operations
team will refuse to open the road.
One small paint job could cause delays
costing tens of thousands of dollars.
MYLES: This is the bit we've been
waiting for, dreading but waiting for.
I see vehicles, I see
painting going on now
and I'm really not ha
impressed at all.
NARRATOR: The first
stop sign is not ready.
MYLES: Still got wet paint
and masking tape on it.
It doesn't look good, does it?
Well how long will this take to dry?
MAN: 30 minutes maximum.
MYLES (off-screen): So 30
minutes to dry for that.
MAN: Yeah, and that's, that's
the last thing we're waiting on.
MYLES: Did we do that,
and that one's
oh, they're just painting that one now?
MAN (off-screen): Oh
its 30 minutes
NARRATOR: The second stop
sign is still not finished
and the airside operations team
are due to inspect the road at any minute.
MYLES (off-screen): We want to
open this GSE road right now.
To be honest it's so last
minute, it's just not funny at all.
It could jeopardize the trial because we're
gonna have the inspection and they have to
approve it and if it doesn't
get approved, then we're gone.
NARRATOR: All Myles can do is hope that
airside operations overlook the wet paint
and allow the road to open.
MYLES: Yeah, airside
operations are here now so let's go and
see what they say.
NARRATOR: As all roads near to high security
runways and taxiways are controlled by
airside operations, the GSE road cannot
open unless they give their approval.
MYLES: Hi Faisal.
FAISAL: How are you?
MYLES: Yeah, good
thanks. Alright?
MAN: I'm OK, and you?
MYLES: I don't know,
tell me, am I alright?
NARRATOR: Will Myles get the
news that he needs to hear?
FAISAL: OK, from what I see
We have the painting
stop markings to go in.
The area needs to be tidied up.
All these items needs to be barricaded.
It should be fine, so I think the
trials can happen at 10:00 as planned.
MYLES (off-screen):
Excellent, excellent.
It's good, I think
that's great, great news.
Thanks mate.
NARRATOR: Myles finally
has the go-ahead.
His major trial will be a landmark moment
in making sure concourse D opens on time.
It's now clear, the
trial will not fail before it even starts.
Captioned by Cotter Captioning Services.