:00:11. > :00:14.to paint a plane or how to take your dog across the Atlantic on holiday
:00:14. > :00:19.with you, or what air traffic control do when a pilot decides not
:00:19. > :00:29.to land his plane after all, then you are in the right place. This is
:00:29. > :00:40.
:00:40. > :00:45.here at Heathrow Airport. This is the busiest international transport
:00:45. > :00:50.hub in the world. The weather has rather dominated today. It's been
:00:50. > :00:55.glorious here. Pretty calm and warm. Not very windy. But the weather,
:00:55. > :01:01.oddly, has been causing a great deal of anxiety and not a little stress
:01:02. > :01:05.to the people who work in the tower here. There are two letters in the
:01:05. > :01:09.alphabet that air traffic controllers don't want to hear and
:01:09. > :01:19.those are C and B which stand rather oddly, I am not sure I understand
:01:19. > :01:20.
:01:20. > :01:26.it, for cumulus Nimbus. Thunder storms. They've been causing
:01:26. > :01:31.disruption that we will find out about later. First, let's go to
:01:31. > :01:37.Terminal 3. One of those people down there is Anita.
:01:37. > :01:44.I am at stand number 319. If you were to board this plane you would
:01:44. > :01:49.be at gate 19. Behind me is an A340. It has four engines. This flight is
:01:49. > :01:53.a Virgin plane and there's being else quirky about it and that is all
:01:53. > :01:57.Virgin flights have girls' names. Nice touch. Ours is called Bubbles,
:01:57. > :02:05.she was born in July 2006 and Bubbles has been a very busy lady
:02:05. > :02:10.this week, she's flown from Johannesburg to Los Angeles, to
:02:10. > :02:13.Tokyo at 4.00 and at 9.00 she will be departing to Johannesburg. This
:02:13. > :02:17.evening we have access all areas to discover what goes on to prepare a
:02:17. > :02:22.plane for a long haul flight. Behind me they're actually loading the
:02:22. > :02:28.cargo on to this plane. Find out what a little bit later.
:02:28. > :02:32.Thank you very much, Anita. How about Dallas, what's he up to? Those
:02:32. > :02:42.buildings out in the distance there are the maintenance sheds and Dallas
:02:42. > :02:44.
:02:44. > :02:48.is doing DIY but on a grand scale. Thank you, I have been spared the
:02:49. > :02:56.pink high-vis. I have been put to work today, I am in the paint bay
:02:56. > :02:59.hangar and with me is the man in charge, I say this is the paint bay
:02:59. > :03:04.hangar, this is the only one? Every single BA plane in the fleet will
:03:04. > :03:09.come here to be painted several times during its lifetime? That's
:03:10. > :03:16.right. We have the fleet through here on a rotation. Every five years
:03:16. > :03:20.through the facility. Behind us you will see a shiny looking Airbus A320
:03:20. > :03:23.which is hopefully going to be taken out later on the programme. Almost
:03:23. > :03:26.finished, there is more work that needs to be done. That's right.
:03:26. > :03:32.There is a couple of very important jobs that need doing. We are going
:03:32. > :03:39.to get to you do them, Dallas. the overalls. It does look brand new
:03:39. > :03:44.but that plane, how old is it? Delivered on December 2002, about 11
:03:44. > :03:50.years old. Over the week we have been asking you to send your
:03:50. > :03:55.questions about Heathrow and we have one here from Tina and her son,
:03:55. > :03:58.Jack. They want to know how long does it take to paint a plane,
:03:58. > :04:08.that's a very good question. I have been very, very involved in the
:04:08. > :04:16.
:04:16. > :04:19.For Dave Barnes and his team the art of painting a plane begins with
:04:19. > :04:26.careful preparation. It's a painstaking and time-consuming
:04:26. > :04:34.process. When we get to the painting stage it's a sigh of relief because
:04:34. > :04:39.it's easy from there on. Protecting the plane is the first job for the
:04:39. > :04:45.paint bay's newest recruit, Sophie. When the aircraft first arrives in
:04:45. > :04:50.it's looking a bit tired. Worse for wear. Like an old car, it just needs
:04:50. > :04:56.tender loving care. First thing we do is protect the wheels. Then we
:04:57. > :05:01.begin with things like the windows and then all the parts of the
:05:01. > :05:05.aircraft, for example, the fin will be protected, the stabilisers, the
:05:05. > :05:10.wings. Sophie started as cabin crew before realising her real passion
:05:10. > :05:14.was painting. When they come in I am always thinking about, I probably
:05:14. > :05:20.did Paris there and back on this. Sometimes I do sort of crave flying
:05:20. > :05:26.a little bit. I miss the glamour. There is no comparison. I have lost
:05:26. > :05:30.all glamour. Every moment this A320 is out of service costs the company
:05:30. > :05:36.money. So over six days a team of more than 40 painters will work
:05:36. > :05:39.around the clock to get it back in the air as soon as possible. I am
:05:39. > :05:44.intrigued to see how we start stripping the paint off, but I am
:05:44. > :05:48.ready. We are going to take a layer of paint off and it's going to go
:05:48. > :05:54.down to the primer that was first put on by Airbus during the
:05:54. > :05:59.manufacturing stages. Are you not going to the aluminium? During the
:05:59. > :06:05.manufacturing they bake on the primer and it's a protective coat.
:06:06. > :06:13.All we want to do is get a nice even coat. It's easy, on the trigger and
:06:13. > :06:19.off you go. OK. Got it. You can see the difference between
:06:19. > :06:23.yours and mine. Yours is beautiful and neat and gorgeous and mine is a
:06:23. > :06:27.blooming mess. It comes with practice. Today you are my
:06:27. > :06:31.apprentice and by the end of the day yours is going to look like that.
:06:31. > :06:38.The based stripper works on a warm and humid environment so the entire
:06:39. > :06:43.floor is sprayed with water and the hangar heated to a balmy 22 Celsius.
:06:43. > :06:49.It's coming off, I thought we would be here for days, but it's flaking
:06:49. > :06:59.off. That is really quite satisfying. It's lovely. Just watch
:06:59. > :07:18.
:07:18. > :07:24.offers engineers a rare glimpse of the naked fuselage. Over eight hours
:07:24. > :07:27.they examine every inch of the plane looking for any evidence of
:07:27. > :07:33.corrosion or impact damage. Then four days after it came in, it's
:07:33. > :07:39.finally time to start painting. sort of start at the top and then we
:07:39. > :07:42.will work down in lengths. aircraft is earthed to give it a
:07:42. > :07:47.negative electrostatic charge. Turbines inside the spray guns give
:07:47. > :07:52.the paint a positive charge. This helps attract it to the body of the
:07:52. > :07:59.plane and minimises waste. Do I paint this? Yeah, when you get to
:07:59. > :08:04.this area flip upwards. OK. What was it about painting that really gets
:08:04. > :08:09.you so excited? My father has his own spray shop back in Essex. I have
:08:09. > :08:13.always watched him and I really admire his creativity. Is your dad
:08:13. > :08:23.excited you are working here? tells everyone. First day I come
:08:23. > :08:34.
:08:34. > :08:37.home in boots and covered in paint, is kept at a toasty 35 Celsius, the
:08:37. > :08:42.opt minimum temperature to cure the paint over a six-hour period. Then
:08:42. > :08:46.it's time for the tricky bit. The bit we see is the artwork. Talk me
:08:46. > :08:53.through how that works. I assumed it was stickers you put on for each bit
:08:53. > :08:58.of colour. That's now it? We have our graphics department and we cut
:08:58. > :09:02.our stencils and they make them to smaller manageable sizes and are
:09:02. > :09:09.given a map. The complex bit is getting the tail right. They build
:09:09. > :09:13.from the bottom up. If they get that right the rest goes up. With the
:09:13. > :09:16.stencils in place, the plane gets braped in plastic with the --
:09:16. > :09:21.wrapped in plastic with only the areas left to be painted blue
:09:21. > :09:24.exposed and the process is repeated for the red sections. Once that's
:09:24. > :09:31.dried, the covers come off and the plane is ready to go back into
:09:31. > :09:35.service. Seeing the aircraft go out is just so satisfying for the soul
:09:35. > :09:39.to know that you have worked on something, worked on your passion. I
:09:39. > :09:43.do take a little picture and keep a record of the registration. As the
:09:43. > :09:49.years go on I am going to have a nice long list to keep an eye on in
:09:49. > :09:53.the sky. There you go, that's how it all
:09:53. > :09:57.works. I should point out that the plane in that film is not this
:09:57. > :10:00.plane. That plane is long gone. We don't care about that any more. This
:10:00. > :10:05.is the one we are thinking about. Although we did try and work out
:10:05. > :10:10.about an hour ago find out where that plane is. Did we get that?
:10:10. > :10:13.found out. It should be over Greece by now and on the way to Istanbul.
:10:13. > :10:18.It's earning a living, taking passengers to where it needs to go.
:10:18. > :10:22.When you decided to change your career from working in cabin crew to
:10:22. > :10:27.working in the paint bay, how did you get the job? Well, I had a very
:10:27. > :10:30.long flight to LA and due to jet lag woke up in the middle of the night,
:10:30. > :10:36.found the job internally and had an interview when I got back. Boredom
:10:36. > :10:40.and lack of sleep is what got you to work in the paint bay? Exactly.Did
:10:40. > :10:45.your friends think you were bonkers? They thought I was mad. The Captain
:10:45. > :10:50.on the last flight said, please, remember, don't paint the windows
:10:50. > :10:55.when he signed a card. We have all these actual stencils to do, most
:10:55. > :11:00.have been done. Why do we have to paint these, the rest of the plane
:11:00. > :11:05.we have been using spray guns. guns creates a cloud of dust that
:11:05. > :11:10.could ruin the work. To keep it clean we use a roller and stencils.
:11:10. > :11:14.That's it? That's like the one I do around my light switch. Like at
:11:14. > :11:19.home. Here white is information. And red is anything important warning
:11:19. > :11:24.signs. I didn't realise how many stencils were on here. There is a
:11:24. > :11:29.lot of text. There is 66 on this engine alone. You have saved the
:11:29. > :11:34.last one for me. I have been nervous about this all day. Here it is here.
:11:34. > :11:39.Shall I have a go? Sure. Rip that paper off for me. That's the backing
:11:39. > :11:43.paper off like that. Give that to you. I feel like I am about to go
:11:43. > :11:47.into surgery with my green gloves. Do I just roll it? Because it's a
:11:47. > :11:51.smaller stencil you can dab it in lightly. Here goes. This is what I
:11:51. > :12:01.have been nervous about all day. long as there is no blue that should
:12:01. > :12:06.be fine. How is that?A little bit more on the T. OK.Perfect I will
:12:06. > :12:10.hold that, one thing I am not going to do is peel off the backing. It's
:12:10. > :12:14.all your fault if it goes horribly wrong. I thought you would have to
:12:14. > :12:19.wait for it to dry. If it's dry it could rip off the paint with it. We
:12:19. > :12:25.like to do it when it's still wet. There we are. Wow, that's amazing.
:12:26. > :12:29.Look at that. Not too bad, lovely. Andy Warhol would be very impressed.
:12:29. > :12:33.Back to you, Kate. Thank you very much, Dallas. He is
:12:34. > :12:37.available for paint jobs after Thursday, I gather. Now I have come
:12:37. > :12:41.here up to the visual control room and I am here with Dave Marshall.
:12:41. > :12:44.It's been a little bit of a complicated day, would that be fair
:12:44. > :12:48.to say? Yeah, this morning was a little bit tricky for us and that
:12:48. > :12:51.gathered into the rest of the day. It's still the epitome of calm that
:12:51. > :12:56.it always is, but apparently it's been difficult. We will be finding
:12:56. > :13:01.out why in a moment. But, frankly, if you are not an airtraffic
:13:01. > :13:08.controller every single moment of every day seems tricky, particularly
:13:08. > :13:17.the early morning rush. Heathrow's runways are quiet at
:13:17. > :13:25.night. There are no scheduled flights between 11. 30 and 4. 30.
:13:25. > :13:30.This morning controllers Aidy and Dave are on the early shift. 4. 30,
:13:30. > :13:36.first arrival is 26 from Hong Kong. His lights are starting to appear in
:13:36. > :13:41.the distance now. Clear to land, runway...
:13:41. > :13:48.Because of Heathrow's noise restrictions for the next hour and a
:13:48. > :13:52.half this is no -- no more than a trickle of planes, but that changes.
:13:52. > :13:57.Continue approach. Number two. that time dozens of flights have
:13:57. > :14:00.arrived into London air space from the Far East and America. They will
:14:00. > :14:10.now be circling in the four holding stacks serving Heathrow, all waiting
:14:10. > :14:12.
:14:12. > :14:16.for the airport to fully open at 6.00. Continue approach, 278, you
:14:16. > :14:21.are number two. With so many planes arriving, Heathrow's normal
:14:21. > :14:29.procedure of using one runway for take-offs and one for landings
:14:29. > :14:34.doesn't work. There are just too many planes. Clear to land.Between
:14:34. > :14:42.6.00 and 7.00 each day air traffic control employees special tactics to
:14:42. > :14:49.deal with this peak demand. Because there are so many arrivals, we land
:14:49. > :14:53.on both runways. Aidy is operating the a mixed mode runway.
:14:53. > :14:58.It is a runway that's used for take-offs and landings, controllers
:14:58. > :15:03.need to fill the small gaps between landing aircraft with planes taking
:15:03. > :15:06.a off. As soon as an aircraft has taken off and left the run scwep
:15:06. > :15:11.way, air traffic control give clearance for a plane it to land and
:15:11. > :15:14.as soon as that aircraft's wheels are on the ground, another one can
:15:14. > :15:18.are on the ground, another one can follow.
:15:18. > :15:28.This precise interweaving of aircraft continues for up to an hour
:15:28. > :15:30.
:15:30. > :15:35.every morning. Next to land, is a BA 777.
:15:35. > :15:39.There will be a departure between you and the next landing aircraft.
:15:39. > :15:44.Aidy has just cleared the next aircraft to land. He asked them to
:15:44. > :15:48.have minimum time in the runway because he only has a six mile gap
:15:48. > :15:52.before the next landing. As soon as the British Airways plane
:15:52. > :15:57.lands, aidy instructs a Swissair craft to start taxing towards the
:15:57. > :16:02.runway. It hasn't got long and American Airlines plane is on its
:16:02. > :16:12.final approach. The moment the BA plane exits the runway, aidy clears
:16:12. > :16:17.
:16:17. > :16:22.the Swiss plane for takeoff. You can see the landing lights out
:16:22. > :16:27.of the window and aidy cleared the Swiss to depart, telling them the
:16:27. > :16:33.landing traffic is three miles. So this is going to work nicely.
:16:33. > :16:43.With the Swiss plane airborne, Aide gives the American Airlines plane
:16:43. > :16:49.clearance to land. This meshing together of two lanes
:16:49. > :16:55.of traffic is not a job for the faint-hearted. 26 seconds after the
:16:55. > :17:02.Swissair craft left the strip, the American's wheels touch down.
:17:02. > :17:06.By 7 7 seven, the worst of the rush hour is over and things return to
:17:06. > :17:11.what the controllers call normal! You really have all got nerves of
:17:11. > :17:17.You really have all got nerves of steel, haven't you? Is it a massive
:17:17. > :17:19.adrenalin rush the hour between six and seven? No, we do that at six to
:17:19. > :17:23.seven every day so it becomes a norm.
:17:23. > :17:31.You don't have a racing heart. I mean, I do, every time I do live
:17:31. > :17:35.television? I'm more nervous doing live television! As I said at the
:17:35. > :17:39.top of the show, it has been a beautiful day. It is lovely over
:17:39. > :17:43.Windsor Castle to the west of us, but actually we can feel the weather
:17:43. > :17:47.is changing. It is getting blustery on this side of the tower and Dave,
:17:48. > :17:53.you showed me this weather map. Can you just talk me through it because
:17:53. > :17:58.this has been the source of all your troubles today, if I may put it that
:17:58. > :18:02.way? Last night and this morning, these thunderstorms over Northern
:18:02. > :18:09.France and Belgium and the Dutch coast, were forming and they haven't
:18:09. > :18:13.really moved. So this morning, the long haul traffic very punctual, it
:18:13. > :18:19.was great, but our short haul traffic was delayed and delayed
:18:19. > :18:25.inbound and if you are in your international hub, joining your hall
:18:25. > :18:30.with your short haul is vital. literally this worked like a barrier
:18:30. > :18:36.for planes coming in to Heathrow and planes going out? It did, yes. So
:18:36. > :18:42.the short haul inbounds didn't meet the long haul outbounds.
:18:42. > :18:48.Did that mean you basically ended up with an enormous number of delays of
:18:48. > :18:54.at the beginning of the day? delays didn't material materialise
:18:54. > :19:00.into much, 15 minutes to 30 minutes. At one point instead of giving
:19:00. > :19:05.southbounds every two minute, we were restricting restricting it to
:19:05. > :19:10.one every six minutes. I mean one question that's come in
:19:10. > :19:14.from George, is why planes can't just fly through the thunderstorms?
:19:14. > :19:18.Surely they are more robust than that? I mean they are robust to take
:19:18. > :19:24.lightening strikes. Going through a thunderstorm, there is down drafts
:19:24. > :19:26.and hailstones the size of tennis balls, lightening strikes and severe
:19:26. > :19:31.turbulence and it is never a great idea.
:19:31. > :19:36.The best and safest thing is to work with the pilot, re-route the planes
:19:36. > :19:41.the best wayle you can or hold them -- way you can or hold them until
:19:41. > :19:49.the weather gets better? They are not flying the predicted routes. You
:19:49. > :19:52.are sitting in the terminal on a nice day thinking "what's going on?"
:19:52. > :19:56.Passengers can cause delays too. Particularly ones that don't turn up
:19:56. > :20:06.for the flights they have checked in for and that's more common that you
:20:06. > :20:09.
:20:09. > :20:15.Turn arounds at Heathrow words like pit stops for planes.
:20:15. > :20:19.Those in charge of the process, like Graham Cornish at Virgin and Michael
:20:19. > :20:27.Joseph at BA are instrumental in making sure everything runs
:20:27. > :20:34.smoothly. The aircraft make money when they
:20:34. > :20:39.are in the air so that's where they need to be. Graham is trying to get
:20:39. > :20:43.one of Virgin's flights off to New York on time. Have you got all
:20:43. > :20:48.passengers down? Seven down. Missing passengers are one of his
:20:49. > :20:54.biggest headaches. We are down seven passengers. Some are off connection
:20:54. > :20:58.flights. Let's go and have a look. If the passengers have bags and they
:20:58. > :21:03.have been loaded, Graham must decide how long he is prepared to wait
:21:03. > :21:07.before he orders what is known as an off load, I can taing the bags off
:21:07. > :21:10.to a-- taking a the bags off to avoid delaying the flight. They have
:21:10. > :21:13.all got bags which means we might have to start looking for their bags
:21:13. > :21:18.in a minute. We the can't travel with the bags on board. We don't
:21:18. > :21:21.know where the passengers are. We have made calls and been on board
:21:21. > :21:26.and they are not in their seats and there is 15 minutes to go and they
:21:26. > :21:34.need to be here. Over at BA, Michael is faced with
:21:34. > :21:39.hwhile a similar dilemma on a short haul flight to Amsterdam.
:21:39. > :21:43.The passenger has three minutes to arrive at the gate. That's ten
:21:43. > :21:49.minutes before departure. Any later than ten minutes, his bag will be
:21:49. > :21:54.removed from the aircraft. He will be denied boarding and we'll depart
:21:54. > :21:58.as per schedule. Five of the missing Virgin
:21:58. > :22:03.passengers have shown up, but with two unaccounted for and only ten
:22:03. > :22:06.minutes to go before depa are ture, Graham resigned dst, departure,
:22:06. > :22:12.Graham has resigned himself to opening up the hold.
:22:13. > :22:18.Let's get the bags off and we can We're going to go for the bags for
:22:18. > :22:23.the last two passengers. We might have to put five or ten minutes on
:22:23. > :22:27.Michael is also faced with a tough decision - with just nine minutes
:22:27. > :22:31.until the departure, he should already have begun his off load by
:22:31. > :22:36.now. Can we start the off load, please?
:22:36. > :22:42.Bag off. On his way to the aircraft, Graham gets a call from back at the
:22:42. > :22:46.gate. Go ahead. We have got the last two. Can we
:22:46. > :22:53.accept them? Yes, you have got the last two passengers, yes, we can
:22:53. > :22:57.accept them. No such luck for Michael.
:22:57. > :23:05.The passenger has failed to show and his bags are being removed from the
:23:05. > :23:09.aircraft. So we can close up here and aim for
:23:09. > :23:13.an on time departure. Every bag is barcoded and tracked so
:23:14. > :23:21.it can be located in the containers. Fortunately, that container was
:23:21. > :23:24.loaded at the door. If it was loaded any further into the aircraft, you
:23:24. > :23:31.take the containers off, pack it back and put them back.
:23:31. > :23:35.With the offending passengers only just forward boarding, Graham is
:23:35. > :23:40.running behind schedule. We are one minute behind and we can do this
:23:40. > :23:44.still. One of the last tasks is to give the
:23:44. > :23:48.captain the final loading figures. Yes, one signed copy, thank you very
:23:48. > :23:52.much and I'll leave you to it. And it is clear to go, just one
:23:52. > :24:00.minute behind schedule. Fantastic. Nice seeing you there.
:24:00. > :24:06.Take care yourself. See you soon. Enjoy New York. OK.
:24:07. > :24:14.S With the doors closed, there is still no sign of Michael's missing
:24:14. > :24:18.passenger. I know he is a connecting passenger from Los Angeles. I know
:24:18. > :24:24.his internal flight and the system shows he arrived in Terminal 5, but
:24:24. > :24:30.he could be stuck at security. He could have gone shopping unaware of
:24:30. > :24:40.the departure time. Rather than take the risk and delay 130 others k, we
:24:40. > :24:43.
:24:43. > :24:48.I'm still with he Jeannine ---ing I'm still with Jeannine the Virgin
:24:48. > :24:52.dispatcher. We have got 34 minutes. How many of your passengers have
:24:52. > :24:57.gone walkabout? We are missing five passengers. These are mostly
:24:57. > :25:04.connecting passengers. It could be because of the thunderstorm over the
:25:04. > :25:08.channels. We have got a few of some of the transfer backs, are but those
:25:08. > :25:12.were Virgin to Virgin transfer bags and the other European connections
:25:12. > :25:16.we haven't seen those yet. Lots of people transfer through
:25:16. > :25:20.Heathrow because of the terrible weather, they might be trapped over
:25:20. > :25:23.there? They might be. You don't know yet for sure? We know
:25:23. > :25:30.we haven't got their bags. They have not checked in.
:25:30. > :25:35.How many passengers on this plane? 143. Is it full flight?The capacity
:25:35. > :25:40.is 308. We have a few spare seats. So people have space to lie down?
:25:40. > :25:44.They can move around if they want What's going on behind us? Graham is
:25:44. > :25:48.the dispatcher for this flight tonight and he is just overseeing
:25:48. > :25:52.the loading of the bags. Shall we have a look? He is conferring with
:25:52. > :25:57.Keith. What's in the containers? This has
:25:57. > :26:02.got bags. These are baggage bins so each bin is separated for a cabin
:26:02. > :26:06.class. So we could upper class bags only in that bin. Premium economy
:26:06. > :26:11.and economy. What about this conveyor-belt here? We have seen the
:26:11. > :26:16.last piece of luggage go in. What was that? These are the transfer
:26:16. > :26:22.bags. They came from the transfer area which we call the interline
:26:22. > :26:28.area so all the transfer bags will be loaded on the belt loader. We
:26:28. > :26:32.load provisions for the return so the blankets and newspapers.
:26:32. > :26:35.What if you are at the gate and they look at your bag and they say there
:26:35. > :26:38.is no way you are getting on with that bag or if you have got a
:26:38. > :26:43.pushchair, what happens to that stuff? It will be tagged at the
:26:43. > :26:48.gate. It will be a gate bag. That will be brought down by the loading
:26:48. > :26:56.supervisor or one of the loading team and they will load it in the
:26:56. > :26:59.small load area here. We load loose cargo in here and also our valuable
:26:59. > :27:04.goods that we transport. OK, we will talk more about those in
:27:04. > :27:08.detail. We have had a question from Michaela in Newcastle who says, "
:27:08. > :27:15.How are pets processed through the airport and where do they go in a
:27:15. > :27:20.plane?" Well, Michaela, you are about to see pets on a plane!
:27:20. > :27:27.While the passengers disembark, this flight from Chicago, cargo manager
:27:27. > :27:36.Ben is about to oversee the careful unloading of a shipment worth over
:27:36. > :27:46.$1 million. A, had, that is cool -- ah, that is cool.
:27:46. > :27:47.
:27:47. > :27:49.It is a C 6 R S Corvett. Where is it going? It is going to Le
:27:49. > :27:54.Mans for racing. Off it goes to France.
:27:54. > :28:02.Why would you choose to book something like on passenger flight?
:28:02. > :28:06.We have a daily departure out of Chicago to London. A ship would take
:28:06. > :28:11.three to four weeks. So it is speed? It is speed.
:28:11. > :28:19.That speed costs money. Anything from 10,000 to �20,000 to air
:28:19. > :28:23.from 10,000 to �20,000 to air freight a car.
:28:23. > :28:28.Every year, close to 1. 5 million tonnes of cargo pass through
:28:28. > :28:32.Heathrow. About a third of that, is flown on dedicated freighters, but
:28:32. > :28:42.the majority travels on passenger flights like this. You never know
:28:42. > :28:49.what straps in just a few feet below your seat. There is a concert in
:28:49. > :28:55.London tomorrow, and the drummer had drumsticks sent over from Chicago.
:28:55. > :28:58.Million dollar race cars and urgent deliveries for rock stars aren't the
:28:58. > :29:01.only cargo that need special treatment. A few hours before they
:29:01. > :29:05.fly to New York City, Hilary and Laurence are checking the rest of
:29:05. > :29:13.their family in for the it flight. Hello Fergie.
:29:13. > :29:19.She is just a love. She is a love. Whose this? This is Nessa.
:29:19. > :29:23.This is the hardest part. We know it is a short trip.
:29:23. > :29:28.Will your minds be on the dogs during the flight? Yes, nonstop.
:29:28. > :29:33.What will you be thinking about? They are not scared.
:29:33. > :29:36.Over 2500 animals fly with Virgin each year and Helen Evans is used to
:29:36. > :29:39.dealing with nervous owners. How much of your job is about the pets
:29:39. > :29:43.and how much is it about the owners because I can imagine they get
:29:43. > :29:47.anxious? 70% is dealing with the owners and the anxieties and the
:29:47. > :29:52.questions posed by them. Are you a pet person, Helen? I am. I have a
:29:52. > :29:57.dog. Can you relate to it? I can relate and I can relate when the
:29:57. > :30:05.dogs get stressed as well. You know, they are anxious and it is more of
:30:05. > :30:07.annage anxiety of are -- an ang -- anxiety of separation from their
:30:07. > :30:12.owner. Getting your dog to New York will
:30:12. > :30:15.cost up to �400. They are security checked and driven air side where
:30:15. > :30:19.the operations team loads them into a special animal section of the
:30:19. > :30:22.cargo hold. All of the hold is pressurised and while the pets don't
:30:22. > :30:32.get fed during the p flight, they get water and their section is
:30:32. > :30:34.
:30:34. > :30:38.heated to the same temperature as the main cabin upstairs. While the
:30:38. > :30:43.four-legged passengers get strapped in for take-off one of the handling
:30:43. > :30:48.agencies is unpacking fruit and veg which are arriving on flights from
:30:48. > :30:52.all over the world. The manager's job is to make sure every lobster,
:30:52. > :30:59.mango and bunch of roses reaches their destination as soon as
:30:59. > :31:04.possible. Broccoli. Peas and vegetables. Where has this come
:31:04. > :31:07.from? It's flown in this morning from Nairobi and Kenya. It would
:31:07. > :31:11.have been picked yesterday, processed in the factory and
:31:12. > :31:15.packaged ready for the supermarkets. This will be emtie by tonight?
:31:15. > :31:20.we don't keep anything here longer than 12 hours, in and out the same
:31:20. > :31:25.day. By tomorrow morning they'll be on the supermarket shelves? That's
:31:25. > :31:30.right The summer months mean fewer perishables get flown in to Britain
:31:30. > :31:35.but it's the busiest time of year for holiday-makers jetting off?
:31:35. > :31:41.Where are these going? To the Hamptons. Are they regular flyers?
:31:41. > :31:47.This is their third round trip with Virgin. To the Hamptons every
:31:47. > :31:51.summer. Not bad, fellas! Do they get air miles? They do, every pet
:31:51. > :31:54.travelling will earn 1,000 miles for each trip they do. It's a different
:31:54. > :32:04.world! All of this is happening under your feet, remember that. The
:32:04. > :32:11.
:32:11. > :32:18.same flight as you. There's dogs Johannesburg but there is something
:32:18. > :32:22.special on this one, isn't there? There sure is. We have a rally Ford
:32:22. > :32:25.Fiesta racing car that the owner is transporting to enter a rally
:32:25. > :32:28.competition in Johannesburg. Incredible. You can't see it because
:32:28. > :32:34.it's packed in there with lots of other cargo and there's more still
:32:34. > :32:40.to come on. There is a lot more to come on. This bin that we are
:32:40. > :32:46.looking at funnily enough, amazingly, has got some salmon.
:32:46. > :32:53.That's full of smoked salmon. The world loves Scottish smoked salmon.
:32:53. > :33:03.Earlier we saw those tulip bulbs going on. Flowers, bulbs, we
:33:03. > :33:07.transport as cargo, as well. We have all sorts. The vex we transport
:33:07. > :33:10.What's that? Our expensive cargo. Such as? It could be a piece of
:33:10. > :33:14.artwork. It could just be someone's telly that they really want
:33:14. > :33:20.tomorrow. If I wanted to take my kitchen sink with me I could take
:33:20. > :33:28.it? As long as you pay the price. That's the sticking point. Dallas,
:33:28. > :33:33.how are you getting on with those doodles? Thank you. For any airline
:33:33. > :33:43.the artwork on the tail is incredibly important for its
:33:43. > :33:44.
:33:44. > :33:51.identity andification. -- - and identification. I am in the graphics
:33:51. > :33:58.room. What are you up to? We have got Ryan and Harry there. They're
:33:58. > :34:03.making the next stencils for the next aircraft. They're working on
:34:04. > :34:07.panel E1 and E2 We don't use a stencil for the tail. You build it
:34:07. > :34:11.up. That's right.The thing I notice looking at the tail is that you have
:34:11. > :34:18.that kind of shading that make it is look as if the tail is actually
:34:18. > :34:23.fluttering in the wind. How do you do that? With graddiated dots. Here
:34:23. > :34:27.with small dots and goes large and small again. You are cutting circles
:34:27. > :34:32.in the stencil. These are cut by a computer. They are having to pick
:34:32. > :34:41.them out by hand. There is not a machine to do that. We have looked.
:34:41. > :34:45.We can put a man on the moon but so far we have to work on this. This is
:34:46. > :34:53.a little dentist's scraping thing. Not easy to see, you have to catch
:34:53. > :35:00.it in the light. That's it. Pull that. Don't damage the edge. Well
:35:00. > :35:07.done. How many of these dots are there? 27,652 of them.You are
:35:07. > :35:12.kidding. You have your work cut out. For one plane? Yeah.We may be here
:35:12. > :35:22.sometime. If you need some emergency dental work, I am your man! OK, let
:35:22. > :35:22.
:35:22. > :35:28.me try one more of these. What was it 27,000? 27,652.You guys carry
:35:28. > :35:33.on, I will be a while here! Yes, that's going to keep Dallas
:35:33. > :35:39.busy for quite a few minutes yet, I think. Dave, you have just been up
:35:39. > :35:44.in to the visual control room. How are things going after this tricky
:35:44. > :35:48.morning as you described it? It was a tricky morning for the airlines
:35:48. > :35:55.really. Connecting all the passengers and delays, but however,
:35:55. > :35:59.the delay was only maximum of 30 this morning. The guys...
:35:59. > :36:03.minutes? Up to 30 that time. The guys have been working really hard
:36:03. > :36:07.this morning and this afternoon and the weather stayed away from us. We
:36:07. > :36:12.have managed to more or less catch up now. There's virtually no delay
:36:12. > :36:17.and no cancellations. That's astonishing. Presumably where those
:36:17. > :36:20.thunder storms were really in a barrier against the sort of coast of
:36:20. > :36:23.northern Europe, it wasn't just air traffic control here at Heathrow
:36:23. > :36:27.that was affected, it must have been air traffic control - it must have
:36:27. > :36:31.affected all over? I suspect Paris had a bad day today because of the
:36:31. > :36:36.storms around there. For Heathrow when we have a significant weather
:36:36. > :36:41.event and because we are 99% capacity there's a real iru there.
:36:41. > :36:46.We lose two hours -- a real issue there. We lose two hours, it's
:36:46. > :36:50.really difficult to claw that back during the day. At half past when
:36:50. > :36:53.the last departure is still to go we still have a lot of planes.
:36:53. > :36:59.Obviously the weather is beginning to change, it was getting blustery
:36:59. > :37:04.out there. One of our viewers wanted to know what happens if you did have
:37:04. > :37:12.a big electrical storm and it knocked the power out? Those
:37:12. > :37:16.computers are vital. Yeah, but with have an uninterrupted power supply
:37:16. > :37:20.and we have generators and fail-safe systems there to protect the
:37:20. > :37:25.integrity of the systems. OK. I hope that anticipates your question,
:37:25. > :37:32.Andrew. If any -- answers your question, Andrew. If you have any
:37:32. > :37:37.questions to e-mail if you can do that. Now many people dream of
:37:37. > :37:45.having a go at flying a plane and the ultimate passenger plane to fly
:37:45. > :37:55.at the moment is, Dave? The A380. Guess what? Dallas did exactly that.
:37:55. > :37:57.
:37:57. > :38:01.Well, sort of. This is the Airbus A380, the world's
:38:01. > :38:04.largest passenger jet. Even the most experienced pilots have to spend
:38:04. > :38:10.months training before they fly this. They don't start that training
:38:10. > :38:15.near an actual plane. They do it somewhere like this, an simulator.
:38:15. > :38:18.It's a replica of the real flight deck from the joystick style
:38:18. > :38:25.controller, fully functioning auto pilot and even the emergency escape
:38:25. > :38:29.rope. It's used to train pilots to deal with everything from basic
:38:29. > :38:37.night landings, to emergencies they hope they never have to face in a
:38:37. > :38:42.real cockpit. Oh, some geese! Stop. Dave Thomas, BA Captain, is in
:38:42. > :38:52.charge of training, but today I am in the co-pilot's seat. Bring it
:38:52. > :38:54.
:38:54. > :38:59.nicely to a halt. British Airways don't get the real A280s until --
:38:59. > :39:03.A380s until next month. Could you fly full of passengers to Hong Kong?
:39:03. > :39:09.It's exactly what I am doing. It's in my licence and I can fly but at
:39:09. > :39:14.the moment all I have done is flown a simulator. So the first time I fly
:39:14. > :39:16.an A380 will be with one of the training Captains and with
:39:16. > :39:22.potentially with passengers on board because this simulator is so good it
:39:22. > :39:28.simulates the real thing. All the little details from vehicles driving
:39:28. > :39:32.around the tarmac to the ground crew make the experience as true to life
:39:32. > :39:39.as possible. Most of the instruments in the simulator are the ones
:39:39. > :39:43.actually installed in the flight deck of a working A380. On the line,
:39:44. > :39:48.keep turning right and that will keep us off the grass. Sorry! Really
:39:48. > :39:58.sorry I am on grass. I am still reeling about how realistic this is.
:39:58. > :39:58.
:39:58. > :40:02.My brain is well and truly tricked. Will I talk you through it? Yes.We
:40:03. > :40:08.are going to push the levers up a little bit and then we will pause
:40:08. > :40:14.and we will allow the engines and you will see them here, and as we
:40:14. > :40:16.are going down the runway use your feet this time, to keep the aire
:40:16. > :40:21.craft on the centre line of the runway. The next thing that will
:40:21. > :40:26.happen is the aircraft will shout at you, it will shout V1. It's the
:40:26. > :40:31.point of no return, if you like. At that point it is safe to continue to
:40:31. > :40:39.fly, than it is to stop the aircraft if we had a malfunction. Before we
:40:39. > :40:46.could perform some kind of emergency stop. V1, forget it. Push. Two
:40:46. > :40:53.clicks forward. That's it. Now just keep it nice and straight on the
:40:53. > :41:03.runway. Lovely. Now it's accelerating away, doing about 60
:41:03. > :41:04.
:41:04. > :41:08.knots at the moment. Coming up to about 80, about 100 100mph. V1.Take
:41:08. > :41:14.your hand off the levers and then rotate. Bring it nicely up to about
:41:14. > :41:24.12. 5 degrees. A little bit more. That's about - that's it. That's
:41:24. > :41:27.
:41:27. > :41:31.Push forward now. Something's beeping at me. It's beeping because
:41:31. > :41:35.we are supposed to level off at 6,000 and we have gone above.
:41:35. > :41:40.The air space around here is crowded so in the simulator it's not a
:41:40. > :41:45.problem but in the real world we will be departing London at 6,000
:41:45. > :41:49.feet, there will be other aircraft coming in at 7,000, there is about
:41:49. > :41:57.1,000 foot separation so it's really important that we are following the
:41:57. > :42:03.directions we have been given by air traffic control. OK. Auto pilotPush
:42:03. > :42:08.that button. There you go and auto pilot is in That's it for now. What
:42:08. > :42:13.the auto pilot is doing, it is following the instructions you have
:42:13. > :42:16.pre-programmed to the flight - the other main way of controlling the
:42:16. > :42:24.auto pilot is by the use of the instrument panel here. What we can
:42:24. > :42:29.do, for example, I could - this means we are directly controlling
:42:29. > :42:32.the heading of the aircraft. Presumably I can go up and down?
:42:32. > :42:38.That's for altitude. Give that a slide to the left or right. It's
:42:38. > :42:48.well behaved, it does what you tell it to do. If I want to go back to
:42:48. > :42:54.
:42:54. > :42:58.the original course? Push that in. ground. You might want to rest --
:42:58. > :43:04.you might want to watch the rest of that film tomorrow when I try to
:43:04. > :43:09.land it, gets more stressful. Behind me the guys are doing final checks.
:43:09. > :43:12.Engineers are doing final checks. Hopefully we will be towing this out
:43:12. > :43:22.in the next ten minutes or so. Before we do that we will catch up
:43:22. > :43:26.with a -- with Anita. I am in the best seat in the house, right by the
:43:26. > :43:30.cockpit and first-class. Why are we here, why have we ended up in this
:43:30. > :43:34.part of the plane? This is the finalisation of this flight being
:43:34. > :43:40.able to depart. We have the engineers signing off, the cargo
:43:40. > :43:43.reps signing off the paperwork. sign off with the crew? With the
:43:43. > :43:48.Captain. The Captain has to co-sign the paperwork and he takes a copy
:43:48. > :43:52.and we take a copy to the office. The Captain has final say, he has to
:43:52. > :43:57.see everything on the flight? to see everything loaded on the
:43:57. > :44:01.flight. Hello, pleased to meet you. What is Graham doing? He's gone on
:44:01. > :44:07.with the load sheet so that sheet actually has everything that's
:44:07. > :44:13.loaded on this flight. Passengers, bags, cargo, fuel, and if he had any
:44:13. > :44:19.off-loads he will also have to tell the Captain I had said there was 133
:44:19. > :44:27.passengers, unfortunately, now there is 132 and minus a bag. That
:44:27. > :44:32.last-minute change is an LMC, which he will take off. That's all
:44:32. > :44:38.happening in there. It only takes half a minute, if there's no LMC,
:44:38. > :44:46.half a minute to sign the load sheet and they should be out. Just had a
:44:46. > :44:52.handshake. Graham needs to check the fuel. We have a question for you
:44:52. > :44:58.from Matt, why do plane doors open on the left, is there a reason? If
:44:58. > :45:03.anyone knows the answer to that one? It's universally standard. All
:45:03. > :45:07.passenger board op the left, all cargo board on the right. It's
:45:07. > :45:12.easiers -- easier. The flights come in and the jet bridge is always on
:45:12. > :45:17.the left for security and safety. We know passengers are going on the
:45:17. > :45:19.left. Cargo on the right. Lots of things happening here. People are
:45:19. > :45:24.signing paperwork, engineers are milling in and out. Things are
:45:24. > :45:33.really about to happen. This flight is going to take off when? In 14
:45:33. > :45:38.minutes. So we could stay on and stow away. I don't think Kate would
:45:38. > :45:43.forgive me. Thank you very much. That's good to
:45:43. > :45:48.hear! I have heard a new phrase. It is called go around and go around
:45:48. > :45:52.means when a plane comes into land and then does not quite and
:45:52. > :45:57.literally goes around for a second attempt. Now we had a question from
:45:57. > :46:01.Dave in Dublin who said, " Who calls a go around? Is it the pilot or
:46:01. > :46:06.these guys at air traffic control?" Well, a few weeks ago, our cameras
:46:06. > :46:16.were in the visual control room when a go around happened. This is what
:46:16. > :46:20.
:46:20. > :46:26.Hello. Continue approach to seven left. Wind to 20 degrees. It is aing
:46:26. > :46:31.tricky wind -- it is tricky wind conditions today. We have occasional
:46:31. > :46:35.gusts up to 35 knots which makes it tricky for the pilots on a day like
:46:35. > :46:45.today. Clear to land. The wind 2. 7
:46:45. > :46:47.
:46:47. > :46:57.degrees. 18 knots. Gusting 35. degrees. 18 knots. Gusting 35.
:46:57. > :47:00.
:47:00. > :47:05.No. Going around. ALARM SOUNDS
:47:05. > :47:10.It was cleared to land and as he touched down, he was very unstable
:47:10. > :47:16.and so the pilot elected to go around.
:47:16. > :47:21.Verified? Roger. A go around is when an aircraft is not stable in the
:47:21. > :47:25.approach or it could be that he has an insecure cabin. Somebody is
:47:25. > :47:29.wandering around the cabin or a technical reason or the runway is
:47:29. > :47:35.blocked ahead. So we will either tell him to go around or the pilot
:47:35. > :47:41.will elect to go around. The issue for the departures controller is
:47:41. > :47:46.that there was an aircraft which was airborne and it was going to takeoff
:47:46. > :47:51.and turn towards that aircraft. So all we did was ensure that departing
:47:51. > :47:56.aircraft was high enough, ie was going through 3,000 feet and the
:47:56. > :48:04.plane was stopping off at 2,000 feet so we have 1,000 feet of separation
:48:04. > :48:08.between the two of them which is our standard.
:48:09. > :48:15.Sixth November Hotel. Cleared to land.
:48:15. > :48:18.It doesn't go back into the stack. We get them back round into the
:48:18. > :48:28.pattern as quickly as possible. It is put back into the landing system
:48:28. > :48:36.and landed safely. Heathrow for every 1350 aeroplanes, it averages
:48:37. > :48:46.out at one go aaround per day. It looked dramatic.
:48:47. > :48:47.
:48:47. > :48:50.Yeah, it was pretty interesting! You don't get express stressed about
:48:50. > :48:57.anything, do you? If you put a heart rate on me. It is a common
:48:57. > :49:00.occurrence? Yes, over a year we get one a day which out of 1350
:49:00. > :49:05.movements is not bad. I suppose, that's true. I suppose that's true.
:49:05. > :49:10.There were two today, I gather? we had two earlier. One was caused
:49:10. > :49:12.by the aircraft being unstable. So similar to the plane we saw in the
:49:12. > :49:18.clip. And that's because of the weather,
:49:18. > :49:22.is it? Or the aircraft can be fast on the approach. Having a strict set
:49:23. > :49:29.of parameters and on that occasion, it wasn't and the pilot elected to
:49:29. > :49:37.go around. The second one was an Airbus A 380. Heathrow is designated
:49:37. > :49:41.as a hero airport, not because Dave Marshall runs works here. The pilots
:49:41. > :49:47.hit safely, but as quickly as possible and in that instance, the
:49:47. > :49:50.aircraft ahead of the A 380 missed his exit and was on the runway. Our
:49:50. > :49:52.guys upstairs couldn't give it a safe landing clearance and they sent
:49:52. > :49:57.it around. That must be tricky with a plane as
:49:57. > :50:02.big as that? To be honest, it is the same no matter what the size of the
:50:02. > :50:05.aircraft. It goes around and then through co-ordination with the guys
:50:05. > :50:09.at Heathrow, it is brought back into the pattern. It is not delayed
:50:09. > :50:11.further, but rejoins the system and lands about five or six minutes
:50:11. > :50:15.later. I'm going to see if I can get your
:50:15. > :50:23.heart rate up more and ask you tricky viewer questions. Cameron
:50:23. > :50:27.Stewart in Scotland wants to ask "how does the change over work
:50:28. > :50:31.between shifts?" You can't walk off and have a cup of tea a couple of
:50:31. > :50:35.minutes early? We try not to. You can be sitting there thinking, " I'm
:50:35. > :50:40.in control of this. I know what's going on." But unless you can
:50:40. > :50:45.transfer that stuff over to the next guy or girl, it will fall apart. We
:50:45. > :50:50.have a strict check list and the final thing is the traffic pattern
:50:50. > :50:54.and we call it the mental map and it is only when your colleague says I
:50:54. > :50:58.have got it, you flick the switch and unplug your head set.
:50:58. > :51:02.So you will stay with them. You have an overlap period? There is a
:51:02. > :51:06.handover and take-over and it is only when you are both happy that I
:51:06. > :51:11.will unplug and go and watch Springwatch!
:51:11. > :51:16.I'm delighted to hear it! Let's go back to Dallas and see how he is
:51:16. > :51:19.getting on with his finishing Well, we are on the final finishing
:51:19. > :51:23.touch. This is the nose landing gear door. We have an important stencil
:51:23. > :51:28.to put on. We have got to put on the last two letters of the aircraft's
:51:28. > :51:33.registration mark. So is it the same drill as before? Do I dab it over
:51:33. > :51:36.the letters? Well, this is a larger area so it is better to roll it on
:51:36. > :51:39.just like at home. This is like if I was doing around
:51:39. > :51:44.my light switch at home. Of how much paint do I want to the put on?
:51:44. > :51:49.so the blue is covered. That's about From we go.
:51:49. > :51:57.This is the most stressfuling thing I have ever done! How does that
:51:57. > :52:01.look? There is a bit of colour on the end there.
:52:01. > :52:06.I don't want it to smudge. Do you trust me to pull off the stencil
:52:06. > :52:10.now? I trust you! I will take my glove off. What's the
:52:10. > :52:13.drill? What's the technique? Pull it off nice and slowly and take your
:52:13. > :52:19.time and hopefully everything will be fine.
:52:19. > :52:28.That's it. So there we go. This is the registration markings of this
:52:28. > :52:31.particular plane. Pull this bit off here. You need two hands.
:52:31. > :52:38.I will take this bit. If you can take that bit.
:52:38. > :52:45.OK. There we go. There we go. Beautiful.It's coming.
:52:45. > :52:49.It's coming. Whoops. Uniform Mike. There it is. Ready to
:52:49. > :52:56.go. I'm going to leave you this. If I give you this bit to pull this
:52:56. > :53:00.last bit off, Sophie, if that's OK. Oh, Dallas... I have got a smudge on
:53:00. > :53:04.it. I will have to touch that up really quickly. Dave, I'm really
:53:04. > :53:08.sorry, I smudged your plane. I'm sure we can put that right,
:53:09. > :53:13.Dallas! You have got to get this touched up.
:53:13. > :53:16.Take it away Gordon. What's the drill for taking a that
:53:16. > :53:21.out? We will put tissue paper on that.
:53:21. > :53:25.I'm sorry, I'm mortified. Gordon told the head set man to tell
:53:25. > :53:29.the flight deck man, and the brake man.
:53:29. > :53:32.We have a guy up there with his feet on the brakes? He told him to take
:53:32. > :53:34.the brakes off. We have tooted the horn twice which tells everybody
:53:34. > :53:38.that we're going to move the aircraft.
:53:38. > :53:42.We'll come with you. We have a couple of guys on the wing. We have
:53:42. > :53:45.a guy on that wing and that wing. Are they just making sure everything
:53:45. > :53:49.Are they just making sure everything is clear? If you see the arm
:53:49. > :53:52.gesture, it means we are clear. There is a lot of people in this
:53:52. > :53:57.room. There is not always this amount of people, the people in the
:53:57. > :54:03.Finning jackets are the BBC people -- pink jackets are the BBC people!
:54:03. > :54:07.When will this plane be going into service? It is back in service at 6.
:54:07. > :54:11.30, it is a stand-by, it is like a reserve. . That's quick though.
:54:11. > :54:14.There is no sitting around? No. No, we have got to make these earn the
:54:14. > :54:20.money. How long before the next plane comes
:54:20. > :54:25.in? Midnight tonight. There is a bit we need to do at the hangar before
:54:25. > :54:29.that arrives. The Boeing is the next one. We need
:54:29. > :54:33.to change the strip and the processes, we need to change before
:54:33. > :54:37.the aircraft comes in. So you never go to sleep? We never
:54:37. > :54:43.go to sleep. It is a continuing conveyor-belt
:54:43. > :54:49.like everything at Heathrow, over to Thank you, Dallas. We are waiting
:54:49. > :54:54.for Bubbles waiting to depart. There was an issue for waiting for the
:54:54. > :54:59.fueler... The fueler has to bring his final fuel paperwork for the
:54:59. > :55:03.captain to sign off so he has agreed this is the amount of fuel. Has that
:55:03. > :55:07.happened? The fueler signed off and he departed.
:55:07. > :55:13.What's next? Graham has now handed over to the tug driver who is
:55:13. > :55:17.talking to the captain. The captain is bait waiting for permission from
:55:17. > :55:21.the tower to depart. Once he gets permission, the guys behind the
:55:21. > :55:27.wheel, they will remove the chocks from behind the wheels and just
:55:27. > :55:32.waiting for the fou we are to give us a -- tower to give us the
:55:32. > :55:39.pushback (. When you have a departure time is
:55:39. > :55:46.the time of the pushback or the time of departure? For most airlines and
:55:47. > :55:52.Virgin, it is the pushback. 9pm is our pushback time. By the time we
:55:52. > :55:57.pushback, we are on the taxi way, taxing, queuing up on the runway
:55:57. > :56:01.could take another 15 minutes. I'm fascinated by the tugs. They are
:56:01. > :56:04.so short and kind of mean looking, aren't they? To be able to push an
:56:04. > :56:09.aeroplane backwards to help them reverse, how much does one of those
:56:09. > :56:13.weigh? 25 to 40 tonnes. So they are very heavy machinery. And they can
:56:13. > :56:16.do the job. Aircraft can't reverse, so the tug
:56:17. > :56:21.has to push it out. How are we doing for time? We have
:56:21. > :56:26.got three minutes before pushback! Things are actually happening.
:56:27. > :56:30.flashing. What does that mean?That means everyone should move away from
:56:30. > :56:34.the aircraft. The aircraft is going to depart. Everybody is talking.
:56:34. > :56:44.We're waving at the captain. The captain is waving at the tug driver.
:56:44. > :56:48.
:56:48. > :56:51.The people with the pou power now We can see you beginning to
:56:51. > :56:56.pushback. The most important thing we need to know is what the weather
:56:56. > :56:59.forecast is going to bring for us tomorrow. It is our final show and
:56:59. > :57:05.you have all been working hard to catch up. Is that all that work
:57:05. > :57:11.going to have been in vain? It might be spectacular by this time tomorrow
:57:11. > :57:15.night. The trusty Met man told us there is a 30% chance of
:57:15. > :57:19.thunderstorms over Heathrow which will give heavy downpours, but with
:57:20. > :57:24.within the airspace, there is a 70% chance so it could be a really,
:57:24. > :57:30.tricky day for our radar colleagues avoiding the therms.
:57:30. > :57:39.Presumably for you, because the knock on effect will be obvious?
:57:39. > :57:42.of today, we will be able -- we will not be able to land as many
:57:42. > :57:47.aircraft. I hope the weather isn't as bad as
:57:47. > :57:52.predicted. It is our final show tomorrow, but you still have time to
:57:52. > :57:57.get your questions in. And you can e-mail us at:
:57:57. > :58:00.We have got plenty of excitement tomorrow. Dan Snow is going to be
:58:00. > :58:05.joining my new friends at air traffic control to see how good he
:58:05. > :58:10.is at it T I'm going to find out from you in a bit, Dave. Anita joins
:58:10. > :58:14.the Heathrow fire crew on a training drill that I have to say was scarily
:58:14. > :58:22.realistic. Now, if you want to find out more about the airport and how
:58:22. > :58:26.it works, you can do that through the Open University. Go to: