Safety and emergency management: a man-machine collaboration

Whether addressing safety incidents involving runway incursions or difficulties concerning operating in low visibility conditions, or an emergency situation requiring the intervention of the Aviation Rescue and Fire Fighting Service (ARFF), well-trained personnel supported by modernised technology is essential.

Airservices Australia is supporting safety and emergency management through recently announced projects to equip major airports with cutting edge technologies. Aiming to provide greater situational awareness for all airside operators including air traffic controllers, in late 2009 Airservices commissioned Australia’s first advanced surface movement radar system at Melbourne Airport. Earlier in 2009 Airservices also announced extensive plans to modernise the technology and equipment employed by the ARFF. While such investments in technology are testament to Airservices’ commitment to enhancing safety and emergency management, it remains equally important that airport operators continue to invest in training.

National Chairman of the Australian Airports Association (AAA), Adelaide Airport’s John McArdle, says the challenge for airports is to keep abreast of their obligations in the event of an incident and be prepared to respond in a manner that would minimise any additional impact on the community, passengers, and their families. McArdle believes effective airside safety and emergency management necessitates the embracing of technology.

“From an airport operators point of view, it’s really what technology your emergency services can bring to your airfield,” he says. “The principal one that starts it all is a sound, reliable communications system – something that can activate the callout of those agencies that are required for the control and coordination of an incident.

“We’re finding that as a result of the bushfires in Victoria and other incidents of a major nature that reliable and timely commmunication remains a weak link in the chain. Consequently, we as airport operators are looking to States, Territories and Federal governments to ensure that the latest communication equipment is reliable and available.”

Brisbane Airport’s Airside Operations Manager Peter Dunlop says that meeting the challenges of safety and emergency management requires keeping abreast of new technologies as they become available while engaging the relevant stakeholders.

“We’re always looking at technologies and better ways of doing things with the resources we have,” Dunlop says. “It’s the constant challenge of making sure you can anticipate all the things that can go wrong and planning and practising for it. It’s the engagement of the tenants on the airport so that everybody is versed in what needs to happen when things go wrong. Everybody has a part to play.”

Airservices Australia General Manager Air Traffic Control Jason Harfield agrees, saying that the challenge lies in being coordinated and ensuring that everybody is aware of what everybody else is doing.

“There’s a lot of movement and activity airside by numerous operators all having differing requirements and objectives,” he explains. “As a result, that all needs to be coordinated in some way to ensure that everyone is working off the same picture. If we’re not then there is the potential for some form of incident.”

The human element in the safety and emergency management equation isn’t necessarily negated through the introduction of new technology. Comprehensive training of all personnel operating on the airfield coupled with the implementation of emerging technologies is essential to minimise incidents, and control them, when they do arise.

“Training, awareness and education as a whole is essential to it all,” Harfield stresses. “Regardless of what we put into place from a technical perspective or even a procedural element, unless everybody is aware of what the dangers are and of what’s going on around them then we will always have the potential for a problem. It can all break down fairly quickly and as a result there can be high consequences.”

With aircraft movements set to increase dramatically in line with the significant growth forecast over the coming decades, ensuring that the situational awareness of all personnel operating airside remains a principal focus of airport operators is paramount.

However, Australia’s busiest airports are in a good position to handle the increased operational safety risks and the forecast growth won’t necessitate an overhaul of the current systems, says McArdle. The AAA Chairman believes airports are investing sufficient resources into safety and emergency management and are liaising with CASA to ensure appropriate risk assessments are undertaken.

“In the practising and reviewing of their plans on a regular basis airports are keeping abreast of the growth that’s occuring on their airfield and with the stakeholders are identifying what additional resources would be required as the business grows,” McArdle says.

Following the completion of a major ground lighting upgrade in 2009, Sydney Airport expects to complete its current runway safety project this April. While Sydney’s Master Plan predicts passenger aircraft movements to grow two per cent annually through to 2029, Operations Manager Grant Woods says Sydney has sufficient scope to manage airside safety accordingly.

“One of the key roles is to make sure the airport itself remains in a compliant and safe condition, and irrespective of how the traffic grows we’ll continue to ensure that that’s the case,” Woods explains. “We’re constantly looking at the way the airport is being used and what we can do from a safety point of view to be more efficient.”

Brisbane Airport also expects to see major growth over the coming decades, with physical work on its second runway to begin in the coming years. Leading up to the commencement of this major infrastructure project, preparations are under way to minimise any potential safety risks the project could pose.

“We have risk management workshops, due diligence etc occuring prior to works actually being undertaken, which helps us manage those risks that come along with the works that occur airside,” Brisbane’s Airside Safety Systems Coordinator Aaron Pond says. “There’s also extensive communication with the rest of the stakeholders on the airport to make sure that they are aware of any changes that do occur airside, whether it be extra truck movements, nightworks or other changes.”

Brisbane is also considering relocating its ARFF station to ensure officers can meet their response times when the new runway becomes active.

 

Surface movement radar

to bolster safety

Airservices Australia signalled its intent to utilise technology to enhance airside safety management with the commissioning of Australia’s first advanced surface movement radar system at Melbourne Airport in late 2009.

Originally conceived in 2005, the $35 million Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control System (A-SMGCS) project aims to improve airport safety by providing air traffic controllers with a complete picture of all aircraft and vehicles on the runways and tarmac areas, even in low visibility conditions. A-SMGCS aggregates surveillance data from multiple sources including primary radar, ADS-B, and multilateration to provide users with an electronic picture of what’s happening on the ground at any time. Airservices’ General Manager Air Traffic Control Jason Harfield says the A-SMGCS project represents a major step forward in airport safety and maintaining Australia’s respectable runway incursion record.

“There’s a number of initiatives we’re doing to prevent runway incursions and minimise the risk, but the A-SMGCS is a major engineering defence for runway incursions,” Harfield says. “We’ve been seeing for a while an increasing trend in runway incursions, and the particular aerodromes where the system is being implemented are high capacity and obviously the potential consequences of runway incursions are quite catastrophic.”

A-SMGCS will aid ATC by predicting conflicts between ground service vehicles and aircraft before they actually occur, with visual and aural alarms alerting controllers to potential problems and allowing them to take early corrective action.

“This means you’ve got something looking across the whole airfield 100 per cent of the time rather than being, for example, a controller looking in the right spot at the right time,” Harfield explains.

While increasing safety, A-SMGCS also boasts additional capabilities that will aid reliable, safe and efficient airside operations during low visibility conditions.

Brisbane Airside Operations Manager Peter Dunlop says one of the most exciting aspects of the A-SMGCS project for Brisbane lies in the potential for the electronic reporting and recording systems in airside operations vehicles to synch with A-SMGCS. Dunlop says this will allow safety officers to see aircraft in low visibility conditions on their in-car screens, thereby providing a safe ‘follow me’ service to pilots to enhance safety when it’s needed most.

This synchronisation will allow safety officers in ground-based vehicles to benefit from the same ADS-B technology used in airborne aircraft to provide them with the same picture that ATC sees. Harfield says this will increase situational awareness for both ground vehicles and aircraft and help minimise runway incursions and increase operational efficiency without comprimising on safety.

“With the right equipment individual aircraft or vehicles can get the situational awareness of everybody moving around them, rather than necessarily having to rely on the controller to tell them,” he says. “With this system, and with improved situational awareness of aircraft and vehicles, you get an environment where low visibility isn’t the issue it was previously and you can get more movement around the aerodrome.”

For Sydney Airport’s Operations Manager Grant Woods, the A-SMGCS rollout represents the opportunity to apply analytics to better understand movement of aircraft as well as ground service vehicles around the airport. The A-SMGCS surveillance technology records and tags all movement on the airfield, and that data can then be analysed to determine where and when safety incidents could arise due to occurences such as bottlenecks. And the ongoing accumulation of airside movement data the system collects can also be used at a later date to help better inform future strategic planning.

“We haven’t had that capability in the past,” Woods says. “We’ve basically just applied standards across the board to meet our compliance requirements, but never been able to really look analytically at the way we’ve used the airfield. It allows us to then sit back and look at the design of taxiways, holding points, and all those sorts of things. So that’ll be a really positive program for us.”

Airservices plans to install A-SMGCS at Sydney, Brisbane and Perth later this year. Further risk assessments may also lead to the system later being introduced at other airports including Cairns and Adelaide.

“This has been a step change in technology but it was all really based around implementing another system defence for runway safety at our busiest major ports,” Harfield concludes.

 

Modernising the ARFF

Airservices Australia confirmed its commitment to modernising the ARFF in early 2009 when it outlined a proposal to purchase 38 new fire tenders over the next five years. The wide-ranging, $70 million investment will allow the ARFF to bolster the technology and equipment it employs in its provision of aviation rescue and fire fighting services at 21 airports nationwide. The investment will provide the ARFF with new gear, fire trucks, training facilities, and fire stations at selected sites.

As part of this modernisation, the ARFF unveiled its first digitally upgraded fire control centre (FCC), at Gold Coast Airport, in December 2009. Originally proposed in the late 1990s, the FCC upgrade project formally commenced in November 2008 and involved the replacement of the existing patchwork of stand-alone systems with one standardised, fully integrated digital system to eradicate redundancies. The digital integration of the ARFF’s communications systems will shorten response times to emergency incidents.

“It brings together communications, fire alarm management, incident management, and recording of data and it provides a touchscreen graphic display which rapidly allows us to access information,” says ARFF Regional Manager West, Steve Davies, who was heavily involved in the design and the operational content of the new FCC.

“Where we have a significant event or multiple agencies responding, this gives us the capability to provide that information to all agencies and give them a graphic display as well so they’re aware of what the situation is. It just makes for a more rapid intervention for incidents.”

With the new FCC the ARFF will have the capability to remotely manage incidents, thereby allowing for better collaboration between sites and improving efficiency. This remote monitoring capability will also reduce training and maintenance costs.

Working closely with Melbourne-based supplier C4i, Airservices focused on tailoring the new FCC system to the specific needs of the ARFF. For Davies this meant ensuring that C4i understood the heightened response required in an emergency by the ARFF.

“ARFF officers are a lot different to other fire fighters,” Davies stresses. “It would depend on what agency you’re looking at, but a metropolitan brigade for a building response is looking at a six to eight minute response time, whereas we’re looking at a two to three minute response time.

“For C4i to understand the urgency for an aircraft response they had to understand what pressures our operators are under and how to give them the best steps to effectively manage the situation and get a response.”

One of the major issues the ARFF is currently combatting is difficulties in training stemming from the lack of continuity across its sites. But project manager Tracy Wilcox says the standardisation provided by the new FCC will address that issue.

“Previously when we moved ARFF officers from Sydney to Perth we had to train them again, so they didn’t necessarily lose rank but they lost a certain amount of qualifications because the systems were different,” Wilcox explains. “Training capabilities across all sites are now identical, so we could easily set up these systems at various different sites and transfer staff across from other sites.”

Following Gold Coast, Rockhampton and Maroochydoore airports have also received the digital FCC upgrade. Airservices expects to complete the FCC upgrade nationally by 2011.

 

ARFF officers suit up

Further to the FCC digital upgrade, in December 2009 Airservices Australia also introduced new personal protective equipment (PPE) for ARFF officers.

The result of a $2.4 million national upgrade that involved two years of research and consultation, the new Ergotech Action ‘smart’ suits replace gear that ARFF officers have been using for in excess of 15 years in some cases.

The new suits were also introduced to coincide with the imminent introduction of a new single Australian standard, currently being tabled by the Australian Firefighters Council, which the old suits wouldn’t have met.

Sourced from British company Bristol Uniforms through local distributor PAC Fire Australia, the Ergotech Action suits feature GORE-TEX Airlock technology, which combines thermal protection with a moisture barrier to provide a high level of protection without a bulky and restrictive insulation layer.

Prior to selection, the suits were trialled at select airports to gauge their suitability in the various climates in which ARFF officers are deployed. During the trial process, ARFF Standards and Preparedness Advisor Paul McBride says ARFF officers gave positive feedback regarding the comfortability and ease of use of the Ergotech Action suits.

“What we’re trying to do is make it as safe and easy as we possibly can and minimise the heat stress on the guys,” McBride explains. “If you can protect them while also keeping it as lightweight and as breathable as you can, then that’s the best you can do.”

The new PPE is just one example of how the ARFF is looking to modern advances in technology to better facilitate the role its officers play in safety and emergency management.McBride believes going forward the key for the ARFF in fulfilling its role lies in the greatest utilisation possible of new and emerging technologies.

“From 20 years ago where people were wearing old wool jackets and their ordinary trousers, technology has moved on massively,” he says.

“We are very aware of the fact that we need to keep our minds open to what is available and not just think, ‘we’ve always done it this way, we’ll just continue to do it that way’. That’s why we really try to assess and appraise new technology and see what is available. The next step will be to look at new helmets, new boots, and to always be looking to update what we do.”

 

Looking ahead

As forecast growth is realised, the challenges for airport operators lie in maintaining current safety and emergency management standards through their commitment to investing in training. And the challenge for Airservices Australia is to constantly keep its finger on the pulse of developments in technology so it can equip airports with the latest innovations to manage incidents.

As has been accurately pointed out, the two-pronged approach of implementing new technology coupled with comprehensive training is pivotal in ensuring thorough management of safety and emergency incidents.

The AAA encourages airport operators to liaise with its National Airport Emergency Planning Advisory Group (NAEPAG) on emergency planning. While the Federal Government currently provides the Chair for the NAEPAG through CASA, there is a risk that the regulator may decide to relinquish its involvement with the group. The AAA is hopeful that through its consultative process this won’t occur and that the Federal Government will continue to support this emergency planning advisory group.

As the regulator, CASA must use its full capacity to minimise the occurrence of incidents through maintaining vigilance in ensuring that airports remain compliant with safety and emergency management regulations.

While little direct evidence points to an increase in incidents at Australian airports due to the global financial crisis, the onus remains on all stakeholders to ensure that safety and emergency management standards remain uncompromised when cost-cutting is required.