Some very interesting debates on this forum, with a few strange responses from members who are not fully aware of Airport/Airline maintenance procedures but then again- I don't know everything about either, but i've heard from a few people who know more than most!
......Let's say you were out in your garden mowing the lawn, and accidentally ran over the mowers power cable and not only blew the fuse in the unit, but also the fuse in your house causing all your appliances to fail, what would you do?
I'd unplug, reset the fuse to get everything up and running in the house and then repair or replace the power lead and finish the task of mowing the lawn. I'd then sit down with a beer and re-tell the tale to the missus how i saved the day (even though i caused the problem in the first place).
Now let's say you are an airport operator in a far away place- it's snowing so you send a team out to clear, let's say a main runway. Unfortunately an operator damages some runway lighting which causes a complete failure of the runway lighting system- what do you, as the manager do?
Do you try and fix the fault and explain to members of the public what actually happened? Or would you lie to the government and the thousands of people who are now trapped/locked out- "due to unprecedented heavy snowfall and single runway operations".
The problem is once you've started the lie gets bigger and the only way out is to continually explain to anyone who cares, anything but the truth, because if you tell someone something enough times, they will eventually believe it. Ask yourself why no-one even attempted to clear the second runway until days after the event. Why all the lies? Is it because weather related incidences which cause airport closures are acts of God, therefore the company is not liable- or am i being sceptical (again).
I think MAN Airport have done an excellent job with their snow and ice clearance! They've worked non-stop all day and night for the past week or so.
I understand XXX have had the same problems with as much snowfall as XXX, but they reached a point where the snowfall became so heavy they were fighting a losing battle and so waited for an easing of conditions and then resumed the snow clearance as soon as possible.
The staff at XXX did the same but there's no point in clearing a runway with no working lights is there? so why not just concentrate on the other servicable one eh....
Well done again to all the snow clearance operators but the managment at BAA XXX and the government who MUST have been aware of what actually happened, must be held accountable for their lies to the paying public.
