Airport ground transportation operation is a crucial aspect of the aviation industry thus the need for effective decision-making. Aircraft tend to have far more risks when they are on the ground from the other grounded aircraft, tugs, fuel trucks, buildings catering trucks, and support vehicles. A simple act of towing an aircraft from the hangar could result in damages to other aircraft or even cause injuries to the passengers and crew. An example of an incident related to airport ground transportation operation occurred in 2017 at Prestwick UK. The ground operators found out that fuel was escaping from Boeing 747-8F once it arrived on the stand on landing at Prestwick (Skybrary, 2018). The fire service managed to contain the spill and the risk of explosion and fire. An investigation established that the spill was coming from a helicopter in the main deck cargo, which had been certified to have been drained of fuel.
Commentary
The above incident points to the need to make split-second decisions in life and death situations. Price (2019) establishes that decision-makers may need to use either logic or emotions depending on the scenario. This information is useful in guiding employees on ways of approaching safety improvements when handling the emergency. The employees would need to listen to their emotions and act fast to contain the spill before it explodes and causes significant losses. The first thing that the safety team would do is to clear the area even before determining which aircraft is spilling the fuel. The use of emotions to deal with the situation is likely to create tensions, as the employees would accuse the people who certified that the helicopter had been drained of fuel. Price (2019) suggests that calculated guesses like in the case of quarterbacks may save situations and produce effective results. The use of these guesses, however, may not help to contain situations in an airport that is dealing with spills that could explode. Instead, the safety team should use logic to establish the real source of the spill and contain it to improve airport ground safety.
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References
Price, J. (2019, December 12). You don’t have time to think up there if you think you’re dead. Leading Edge Strategies. https://leadingedgestrategies.com/dont-have-time-think-up-there-if-think-youre-dead/
SKYbrary. (2018, September 29). B748, Prestwick UK, 2017. https://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/B748,_Prestwick_UK,_2017
