“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Let me be the first to welcome you to Chicago. You have arrived at O’Hare’s International Terminal. The local time is 12:50 p.m.”
American Airlines Flight 83 has pulled up to Gate M-17 on time after a nine-hour flight from Frankfurt, Germany. Hedy Kuehn, one of American’s international airport operations agents, has stepped on board the plane from the jet bridge to make her welcoming announcement.
“Before deplaning, please check your surrounding area for personal items. Then, proceed to U.S. Immigration with your passport.”
For the 225 passengers on board Flight 83, their journey is almost over. They will exit the plane, claim their baggage and pass through Customs and Immigration.
For American Airlines, however, the arrival of Flight 83 at the International Terminal starts a race against the clock. At 4:50 p.m., this same jet is scheduled to depart for London as Flight 86.
In the next four hours, American Airlines must complete hundreds of tasks to “turn around” this one-year-old MD-11 jet, which is known as 1AK in American’s identification system. The turnaround team includes maintenance technicians, cleaning staff, catering crews, cargo and baggage handlers, pilots, flight attendants and airport operations agents. The comfort and safety of more than 200 passengers flying to London that afternoon will depend on this team’s fast-paced but painstaking work.
This is the story of how Flight 83 from Frankfurt became Flight 86 to London on July 30. The story begins several hours before 1AK lands at O’Hare.
9:10 a.m.: The international gate coordinator at O’Hare’s International Terminal notifies American Airlines that Flight 83 will be assigned Gate M-17 and Baggage Carousel 1.
9:30 a.m.: As soon as Flight 83 passes Gander, Newfoundland and enters North American airspace, its on-board computers transmit data to American’s SABRE Flight Operations System in Tulsa about the performance of its engines, hydraulic systems, pneumatic equipment and electronic systems.
Flight Operations relays this information to O’Hare, giving American’s mechanics a start on the turnaround. For example, if a piece of equipment is malfunctioning, a mechanic will get the necessary part from inventory prior to the plane’s arrival, thereby saving repair time on the ground.
11 a.m.: A Customs and Immigration officer calls the American Airlines tower to find how many passengers are aboard Flight 83 and the plane’s estimated time of arrival.
12:30 p.m.: Members of the turnaround team start gathering at Gate M-17. Inside the terminal, Kuehn is waiting on the jetbridge for the flight’s scheduled arrival at 12:50 p.m. On the pavement outside, the aircraft maintenance technicians’ truck pulls up, followed by the trucks with cargo and baggage handlers.
12:35 p.m.: The Skychefs catering trucks join the group on the pavement.
12:40 p.m.: Flight 83 begins its final descent.
12:42 p.m.: Flight 81 from Stockholm pulls into adjacent Gate M-18, and its ground crew swings into action.
12:45 p.m.: Flight 37 from Zurich parks at Gate M-16, and the ground crew surrounds the plane. Although Flight 83 from Frankfurt has landed, it has not reached Gate M-17, and several members of the ground crew have started fidgeting.
12:50 p.m.: Flight 83 pulls into Gate M-17. One member of the ground crew steps under the front of the plane and puts a large rectangular piece of wood in front and back of the forward wheel, a process known as blocking, to keep the plane from rolling away. The captain turns off the engines. Flight 83 officially has arrived at the gate.
Within moments, Kuehn moves the jet bridge to 1AK’s passenger door. Then, she knocks on the door three times and looks through the window. Inside the plane, a flight attendant at the door gives the thumbs-up sign, indicating that the emergency exit system is off. Then the flight attendant opens the door.
The first flight attendant gives the black cargo pouch to the cargo agent, who is waiting on the jetbridge and immediately takes this paperwork to Customs.
Kuehn starts her welcome announcement, but most of Flight 83’s passengers aren’t listening. They have jumped from their seats, opened the overhead bins to retrieve their baggage and jammed the aisles in the familiar rush for the exit.
1 p.m.: Ten minutes after arriving at the gate, 1AK is virtually empty. Several flight attendants are recording duty-free sales and putting away the movies. Kuehn is completing post-arrival inspections.
“I check to see that nobody is left on the plane, such as in the bathrooms,” she says, “and I make a `sniff check,’ looking for smoldering cigarettes in the armrest ashtrays of the smoking section or a coffeepot in the galley that might have been left on.
“I also try to contact passengers who have left something on board,” Kuehn continues. “On this flight, one woman forgot two bottles of duty-free liquor under her seat. So I’ve already radioed one of our agents near Immigration to find her.”
1:05 p.m.: The forward catering door swings open, and two members of the Skychefs crew step into the galley from their high-lift catering truck. Within 30 minutes, they will “strip the plane,” removing bagged garbage, hundreds of empty soda cans and wine bottles and the rolling service carts that are filled with dirty meal trays.
1:15 p.m.: Kuehn walks into the terminal.
1:30 p.m.: The Skychefs catering crew leaves the plane, closes the forward catering door, lowers the forklift mechanism of the high-lift truck and drives away.
For a moment, 1AK’s cabin is empty. Soft background music and the hum of the air conditioning break the silence.
On the pavement, members of the ground crew have been working since the plane arrived at the gate. Only rarely do the ground teams get in each other’s way during a turnaround. When they do, it’s usually because their trucks don’t have enough room to maneuver.
As soon as 1AK was blocked at 12:50 p.m., the maintenance technicians began a preliminary inspection of the plane’s exterior. Several baggage and cargo handlers unloaded all the luggage within 10 minutes, while other handlers began removing the mail and air freight, which can consist of “anything and everything,” according to one worker who was removing it. “High-priced material that can take the added expense of air shipment-machine parts, high-tech equipment, medicines, things like that,” he explains.
In the midst of this frenetic activity, another worker known as the “fueler” began pumping jet fuel into the plane’s tanks located in each wing and in the center beneath the passengers. The fueler’s truck looks far too small to contain enough jet fuel, and it is. The small truck, properly known as a fuel hydrant cart, merely pumps fuel from one of the underground lines that run from gate to gate at the International Terminal.
For the flight to London later that afternoon, this MD-11 probably will need 11,000 to 12,000 gallons of fuel, costing $9,000 to $10,000. The exact amount of fuel will depend on such variables as the number of passengers, the weight of baggage and cargo and the weather 1AK will encounter.
Flight 86’s captain and the flight dispatcher will calculate the quantity of fuel needed approximately 90 minutes before takeoff. In the meantime, the fuel hydrant cart pumps about one-third of the expected amount into the plane to minimize refueling time just before departure.
1:40 p.m.: Aircraft maintenance technicians Ken Vilcek and John Grutzmacher board the plane and take the pilot’s and copilots seats in the cockpit. American’s flights from Europe land at the open but still-incomplete International Terminal 5, but depart from the familiar Terminal 3. So Vilcek and Grutzmacher must move the plane as part of the turnaround. “Once you move a few planes to Terminal 3, it’s like driving a car, only a whole lot bigger,” Grutzmacher says.
But first they must complete the ground handling checklist to verify that all of 1AK’s systems are functioning properly for the five-minute trip.
“Engine start switches,” Grutzmacher says to Vilcek after he starts the engines but before he begins taxiing.
“In and lights out,” Vilcek replies.
“Warning lights.”
“Checked and out.”
“Engine hydraulic pumps.”
“On and checked.”
“Fuel tank boost pumps.”
“Verify on.”
1:50 p.m.: The cleaning crew comes aboard, entering from its high-lift truck at the rear door. These six people have fewer than two hours to clean up after the 225 Frankfurt-to-Chicago passengers. The Coach cabin is relatively tidy. But the spacious Business Class and First Class cabins are strewn with blankets, pillows and American and European newspapers.
This crew will remove the newspapers and other litter, sweep and vacuum the seats and blue-carpeted floors, clean the galleys and lavatories, stock seatback pockets with the inflight magazine and safety instructions and restock fresh pillows and blankets.
The crew moves quickly, with only a smattering of small talk. “The crew cleans four planes a day,” says Bernie Cuaresma, the crew chief, “and we have to be off this one by 4:10 p.m., 4:20 at the latest. We have to start work when the plane lands at the International arrival gate. If we waited until the plane gets to the departure gate, we might run out of time.”
2:10 p.m.: Grutzmacher and Vilcek complete the ground handling checklist.
2:15 p.m.: Grutzmacher and Vilcek request the control tower’s permission to move the plane from Gate M-17 (“Mike 17”) at the International Terminal to Gate K-16 (“Kilo 16”) at Terminal 3. A small truck pushes the MD-11 backward onto the taxiway. Vilcek starts the engines and slowly moves the plane forward under its own power.
Then he sees a traffic jam of several 747s clustered near one end of the International Terminal. Like drivers everywhere, he takes an alternate route (in this case, the cargo taxiway) and arrives on schedule at Gate K-16.
2:20 p.m.: This section of Terminal 3 is remarkably quiet because it serves American’s departures to Europe, the first of which still is a few hours away. However, a few passengers for Flight 86 to London already are sitting near Gate K-16, although the plane’s departure is two-and-a-half hours away. The Millers from Springfield, Ill., don`t have any alternative to waiting. Their American Eagle connecting flight had arrived at O’Hare 10 minutes earlier.
2:25 p.m.: The turnaround pace accelerates. Grutzmacher and Vilcek review the log book where the previous flight crew had noted potential problems or broken equipment, such as the faulty faucet in one of the Business Class lavatories.
