Airport Ground Crew
Most airports have groundcrew handling the loading and unloading of passengers, crew, baggage and other services. Some groundcrew are linked to specific airlines operating at the airport.
Many groundcrew at the airport work at the airplanes. A tow tractor pulls the aircraft to one of the airbridges. The ground power unit is plugged in. It keeps the electricity running in the plane when it stands at the terminal. The engines are not working, therefore they do not generate the electricity, as they do in flight. The passengers disembark using the airbridge. Mobile stairs can give the ground crew more access to the aircraft's cabin. There is a cleaning service to clean the aircraft after the aircraft lands. Flight catering provides the food and drinks that we enjoy on flights. A toilet waste truck removes the human waste from the tank which holds the waste from the toilets in the aircraft. A water truck fills the water tanks of the aircraft. A fuel transfer vehicle transfers aviation fuel from fuel tanks underground, to the aircraft tanks. A tractor and its dollies bring in luggage from the terminal to the aircraft. They also carry luggage to the terminal if the aircraft has landed, and is being unloaded. Hi-loaders lift the heavy luggage containers to the gate of the cargo hold. The ground crew push the luggage containers into the hold. If it has landed, they rise, the ground crew push the luggage container on the hi-loader, which carries it down. The luggage container is then pushed on one of the tractors dollies. The conveyor, which is a conveyor belt on a truck, brings in the awkwardly shaped, or late luggage. The airbridge is used again by the new passengers to embark the aircraft. The tow tractor pushes the aircraft away from the terminal to a taxi area. The aircraft should be off of the airport and in the air in 90 minutes. The airport charges the airline for the time the aircraft spends at the airport.
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Famous quotes containing the words airport, ground and/or crew:
“Airplanes are invariably scheduled to depart at such times as 7:54, 9:21 or 11:37. This extreme specificity has the effect on the novice of instilling in him the twin beliefs that he will be arriving at 10:08, 1:43 or 4:22, and that he should get to the airport on time. These beliefs are not only erroneous but actually unhealthy.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)
“When the ground was partially bare of snow, and a few warm days had dried its surface somewhat, it was pleasant to compare the first tender signs of the infant year just peeping forth with the stately beauty of the withered vegetation which had withstood the winter ... decent weeds, at least, which widowed Nature wears.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The crew was complete: it included a Boots—
A maker of Bonnets and Hoods—
A Barrister, brought to arrange their disputes—
And a Broker, to value their goods.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)