Airline passenger news and views

Accidents at UK airports are, thankfully, very rare but when they happen they are likely to involve people and fire. Aviation fuel burns rapidly and hot so any action to save lives has to be quick and efficient.

BAA maintain fire responses services at each of their UK airports and recently published results from their training and simulation exercises showed an average response time of just two minutes and 20 seconds. This is both better than the statutory requirements and, if you think about the logistics of this work, very impressive.

It must be very difficult to maintain alertness and efficiency in an organisation that hardly ever gets used for real. BAA say that each firefighter receives 300 hours of formal training each year, which equates to about 20% of working time.

Obviously, the firefighters have the latest equipment and are supported by the latest communications and monitoring systems but just how do you keep up a state of readiness? There must be staff who go through their whole working lives without receiving a ‘shout’.

A friend of mine installed an expensive electrical generator at home following a series of power outages. EDF improved their overhead cables and the power cuts became much less frequent. When, eventually, another one did occur, the expensive generator failed to start. It simply was not being maintained, checked and tested frequently enough.

I hope I never have to see a fire response team in action but I take my hat off to them for what must be an extraordinarily difficult job of maintaining readiness of equipment, mind and men for that one incident when their efficiency can makes the difference between success and disaster.