EGSS/Stansted zero rate following bus fire

[zonoma]

Stansted Airport fire forces cancellation of flights (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-43598807)

[Highway1]

Seems a bit of an overreaction..

[wiggy]

Seems a bit of an overreaction..

I suppose it depends on how bad the “smoke damage” to the front of the terminal was, but with the fire extinguished at 1700 local no departures until midnight local seems it does a bit extreme...any idea on what happened to the arrival rate?

[SMT Member]

Someone, poorly educated in the task and backed by a scared management, armed himself with a risk assessment form and, well, there you have it.

It's the same reason you have signs plastered all over the place, usually stating nothing but the bleeding obvious.

[sitigeltfel]

From the BBC..

Simon Calder, travel editor for The Independent, estimates that 15,000 travellers and 100 flights - to and from Stansted - were affected by Friday's cancellations.

He told the BBC the problems stemmed from a decision to move people from the smoke-filled check-in area to the air-side zone beyond security.

"As a result of that, because they hadn't been screened - because they were taken there in a hurry - no flights could depart until everyone was re-screened and the air-side area had been swept by security services to make sure no passengers had stayed behind."

He said the whole process took so long that by 20:00 BST the airport and airlines agreed to shut down for the rest of the evening in the hope of minimising the impact on the following day's flights.

[wiggy]

Ah, thanks siti....probably no way round that in the current security climate.

[Heathrow Harry]

That sort of assumes that armed terrorists are waiting, poised, outside every airline terminal waiting for a bus fire so they can sneak inside once the doors are re-opened

pretty unlikely I'd say

[c52]

Or that the terrorists had set the bus on fire.

[WHBM]

Not a good response by the ARFFS - the bus didn't go from normal to totally destroyed in 30 seconds.

The ensuing chaos is typical of airports at a holiday weekend, when there are no or few management around who are "allowed" to take decisions, even simplistic ones like authorising overtime.

[c52]

Well, someone had the authority to make airside into landside, and knew how to get it back again.

[dixi188]

As far as I am aware ARFFS will only attend land side fires if lives are at stake, and then only until local fire services arrive.

[PAXboy]

Looking at the photos and videos that are now available, it is possible to see why the reaction of the staff was so strong. The flames and smoke are severe:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/31/stansted-airport-flights-resume-after-shuttle-bus-fire

Stansted Airport bus fire: Flights resume after cancellations - BBC News (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-43601949)

https://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/4CED/production/_100639691_badf46c4-6ea5-4b9f-8777-49a165c23161.jpg

All of that aside, it should be no surprise that one pax said:
"Announcements were telling us to leave the building, but the doors were not open - so people began pushing and panicking."another said
"It was the usual situation of very few staff on the ground and they were doing their best but they were saying they didn't work for the airlines."Stephen Fottrell, a BBC journalist, was booked on Ryanair to Shannon. He told Radio 5 Live: “We were standing outside in the wind and rain for two hours.
“It was chaos, with very few ground staff.”
Passengers who were waiting for delayed services saw them simply vanish from the screens.

[sam dilly]

Well thats a shame.
These old London ' bendibus ' machines are well known for catching fire, hence one of the reasons that they were removed from the streets of London.
Ban these buses from airports now !

[WHBM]

As far as I am aware ARFFS will only attend land side fires if lives are at stake, and then only until local fire services arrive.
I wonder how they know if lives are at stake if they don't attend ...

The airfield fire station is pretty much visual with this fire. Surely we are not saying they sit there while the Essex service come out from Bishops Stortford ?

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.8867831,0.2488285,3a,30y,318.19h,91.08t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s9zEUt8p4yJknSTU8VBu6Kw!2e0!7i13312!8i665 6

[Nil further]

ARFFS do not attend landslide incidents at any airfield .
Simple reasons they are not trained the same as regulars and the airfield firecover will be reduced or removed , resulting in the zero flow rate complained of above !

[carousel]

Stansted AFS were the first to respond however having to come from airside to landside and then get through the traffic would slow anyone down. They are trained to deal with anything from a wastepaper bin fire to a 787 and that includes bendy busses. They also deal with chemical spills and all manner of other hazards. Also have at least one paramedic on each crew. One might like to enquire what the hell a bus is made of to go up so quickly.

Fire reported at 16.20
Fire under control at 16:40
Fire extinguished at 17:00

[BluSdUp]

I am very familiar with STN, and this is the smoking area, by the way!

With that wind, on a Easter Fridayafternoon with anything from 1 to 3000 people at departure level checking in and lining up for security in the west part of the building, I can defiantly see the need to evacuate into the departure hall.
The slight inconvenience of sorting out the mess later after a happy ending is academic!
If you want to evacuate the check-in at STN your only option is out he front, if not using plan B, as executed here.

[Alsacienne]

The airfield fire station is pretty much visual with this fire. Surely we are not saying they sit there while the Essex service come out from Bishops Stortford ?

Well you'd be still waiting because Bishop's Stortford is in Hertfordshire.

[Herod]

it seems to me, as an ex Stansed-operator, that the staff did pretty well, and if the figures quoted by Carousel are correct, pretty quickly to boot

[Gertrude the Wombat]

...any idea on what happened to the arrival rate?
A relative got diverted to Birmingham and arrived home by bus at around 0300.

[Gertrude the Wombat]

Or that the terrorists had set the bus on fire.
In sane parts of the world, where interconnects are allowed between fire systems and access control systems, a fire being detected unlocks all the doors.

In airports, by contrast, a fire being detected locks all the doors, because it would otherwise be too easy for a bad guy to cause a bit of smoke and get wherever he liked.