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I want to know about - The Crew - Ground Crew

In so many ways the ground crew are the unsung heroes of commercial flying. Their responsibilities go beyond checking in and tagging your luggage. Behind the scenes of any airline operation are the 'office staff'. Operationally the back room people are responsible for flight planning, crew rostering, aircraft allocation, aircraft support, transport co-ordination, engineering support, passenger handling, gate allocation and countless other duties.

In many of those jobs extensive training is required before the job can be done to the standards required by the Aviation Authorities. The flight planning, performance and meteorological knowledge required of a flight planner is way beyond that needed by a pilot. For international airlines a 24.7 service for aircraft performance is needed to ensure that an aircraft operating from an airport or runway which is not 'in the book' can be used safely.

	Busy airports are kept efficient and safe by the work of professional ground crew		Ground crew working to unload an aircraft soon afterr arrivaly		A ground crew member helping an aircraft load in preparation for a safe take off		With thousands of workers behind the scenes airports safely handle millions of passengers a day

Flight briefing information comes from many sources and is sifted co-ordinated and then has to be presented to the crew for easy reading and use when they endorse and accept the flight plan. They will bring to the attention of the crew any areas of significant weather and areas where the air temperature may be lower than the freezing point of the fuel so that the captain can make adjustments to the cruising altitude.

	The ground crew help organise the preparations of all aircraft for safe travel		Ground crew working on the runway to keep the airport running smoothly		Incredible accuracy when taxiing! This shows just how well the crew and ground crew work together		From caterring to baggage to passenger loading - the ground crew arre there to help

At the departure point the check in staff will be responsible to the aircraft dispatcher who co-ordinates the payload requirements with the take off performance available. In the UK the weather conditions are rarely extreme and all the airports are lower than 2000 above sea level. But in countries where the airport may be several thousands of feet above sea level the reduced air pressure is sufficient to affect the performance of the aircraft. Therefore it is vital to know the exact take off weight so that the pilots can set the exact amount of power required for take off from that particular airfield and runway. (But don't worry.there's always a big reserve of power available even at the maximum take off weight.) Remember too that the performance requirements are factored as well so maximum weight doesn't really mean maximum.there's a big 'just in case' factor built in.

The dispatcher prepares the ships papers which record all this information for acceptance and approval by the aircraft captain. Then the flight crew becomes involved with more ground crew teams, the push back engineer, the departure engineer, airline departure control and then air traffic control, and the plane hasn't moved yet.

Be confident that everyone on the ground is working towards an on time departure for your flight but with this one overriding thought - YOUR SAFETY.

Ground crew in action