Rat In Da Vat!
Assessing Your Airport’s FOD Culture
by Master Sergeant Steven Ball
Foreign Object Debris (FOD) in aircraft costs billions of dollars each year worldwide. FOD can be a nuisance when it delays a flight, can cause over a million dollars in damages when it enters an aircraft engine, or worse…
During high school I worked summers cutting grass at a wastewater treatment facility in New Jersey. Large, open concrete pools and miles of grass. Every now and then, I’d bag a rat that was too bold and got careless.
One of the Plant operators there told me a story of how he had worked in a cannery in a previous life. This cannery had a lot of food lying about and consequently, a lot of rats going after it. Rats were everywhere and the culture of the day was one of “toleration”.
“You just couldn’t kill all dem rats”, Charlie would say, “But every now and ‘den, a rat would fall into da soup. Somebody’d holler out ‘Rat in da vat!’ an folks’d come runnin’ to see him get his due. Den after he’d drown we’d fish ‘im out and go back to work”.
That story has some good points relating to our FOD mission. First, rats were acceptable in the plant. Oh sure, I suppose if they really got bad the men would grab sticks and cull the pack some but all-in-all, rats were tolerated. Second, a cannery today wouldn’t tolerate rats. At least I believe this to be so. Please don’t tell me if I’m wrong!
We may not be in the Stone Age when it comes to FOD prevention practices but we have a ways to go at our big airports. I often assess the actual state of the current FOD culture at an airport from my window on the jet during taxiing, take-offs and landings. Without leaving my seat, I can usually spot FOD, which, like the rats in my previous story, seems to be tolerated.
In February for example, I was in California sitting in my window seat. The aircraft was preparing to taxi. This airport seemed to be cleaner than some I had seen. I didn’t see any trash in the baggage area and the infields looked mowed and well kept …. but wait!
There before me is a piece of plastic that could have covered a cow, blowing along the parking ramp in front of my jet. Probably shopping around for just the right engine intake for dinner. Then I see a van rushing to the rescue. I click off the play in my mind: The plastic is trying to get away…It’s sliding and tumbling but the van is gaining… Gaining… He’s almost there… He’s right on top of it now… He’s …. He’s driving right over the FOD! He’s not going to stop. FOD Fans, the FOD’s home free! REPEAT! The eight-footer got away… Score another for the bad guys!…
I lean back in my seat and sigh. We taxi out to the runway, and I take off for home, having just ‘failed’ another airport for a poor FOD culture. Why say that? Maybe that was a food catering truck! They don’t pick up FOD. They put food into the plane and stuff. Well, I’m not asking anybody to go out of his or her way! They drove over the M.O.A.B. (Mother of All Bags) and didn’t stop.
Let’s get real on this. EVERY employee in an airport has to pick up FOD. Everyone. No one – not even the airport administrator – can shirk picking up FOD directly in his or her path. You don’t call somebody to come get it! You get out NOW and get it! It’s moving and there are planes moving and… Ok, I’ll stop.
I have observed baggage handlers driving around, over and through FOD, sipping coffee and tossing the empty cups into the back of their tugs. No effort at containment whatsoever. Last August, while in a very modern airport with great facilities I watched construction work out on the airfield. With all that work, there’s bound to be some unwrapping and eating going on. And so there was, because we had a take-off delay of about five minutes while a truck drove out onto the runway to pick up FOD. I counted 10 jets in front of us and about 13 behind ours. All for a piece of FOD! Five minutes per person times over a thousand people. What a waste! And all over the airfield bits of trash were stuck in the grass. On top of this, not a hint of a fence around the construction areas. Hmmm.
Want to make a difference? Here’s how to change your airport’s FOD culture:
Make a point of walking up to a supervisor and commenting on the housekeeping of their airfield and baggage areas, good or bad; fill out a comment card or send your carrier and the airport an email. Your comments count and will make an impact on the FOD culture there. Top-Down leadership involvement is the best way to get everyone on board with a healthy FOD culture.
Areas you can grade:
- Are the perimeter fences clean?
- Are outside trashcans covered and emptied?
- Are construction zones clean or protected by fencing?
- Are baggage handlers eating and drinking on the parking ramp?
- Are baggage areas including tugs and trailers free of trash?
- Are taxiway shoulders free of loose stones?
- Are infields free of trash?
- Do vehicles entering the ramp stop and check their tires for FOD?
- If your jet has low-slung engines, are there objects that may be too close?
- Do the maintenance personnel look sharp and neat or are they bristling with items that could come loose?
- If you see any FOD, where do you think it is coming from?
- Do you trust that your carrier has a commitment to prevent FOD?
- Are there bird attractants such as lakes nearby? Did you notice any gulls, geese or other large birds on the airfield?
- What letter grade would you give the airport?
- Will you let someone know?
Master Sergeant Steven Ball
5th Bomb Wing Foreign Object Debris Monitor
Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota
