final feb cover - Indian Airforce

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SAFE GROUND RUNS AND SAFETY NORMS WO Kishore Kumar S It was a hot summer of north and in the scorching heat we left the safety bay to attend the ground run in tech flight. Usually, as per the policy, three safety operators and one SVO attends the ground run in CFT. One crew takes position near the aircraft during start ups with the BCF hose and applicator laid out to react in case of any eventuality. On reaching, we found the aircraft ready; however, the crew was clearing the ground equipment which were not required at the site. One Appa (start up vehicle) was parked near the aircraft and the gang leader asked the MTD to remove the vehicle from the ground run site to start the ground run. The moment MTD switched on the ignition of the vehicle, a big ball of fire came out of the vehicle engine and the vehicle was on fire with close proximity to the aircraft. Alarm bells rang and panic buttons were pressed. We were just positioning the CFT near the aircraft for ground run. Suddenly, one crew took out the BCF hose reel and the other crew on top of the CFT operated the cylinder to extinguish the fire. However, in panic, nobody knew which lever was to be opened, whether applicator valve by the operator or the pipe line valve near the cylinder junction by the IC. With a bang, the Halon gas compressed by nitrogen in the cylinder came out blasting the hose and emptying the costly gas from the BCF cylinders just by wasting in the air. Thank God, the vehicle fire was extinguished with the help of CO2 trolley parked nearby thus ensuring the safety of aircraft. Ground run environment in any tech flight is quite demanding and stress full. Most of the time with resource crunches and other ops 26 Aerospace Safety F e b r u a r y 2 0 12 INDIAN AIR FORCE
and admin limitations, often a compromise on safety tends to happen. With the present policy of multi-skilling the tech crew to assist the CFT crew during ground run, a need to create safety awareness among the technicians involved in the ground run is vital. Most of the time, non availability of adequate designated properly paved parking bays for CFTs with adequate run out distance near the ground run point pose a problem in providing a conducive atmosphere near the AB point. With everybody sticking on to their own constraints and SOPs, the safety takes a back seat. Often CFTv vehicles are compelled to reverse near the parked aircraft which is highly irregular. The positioning of CFT becomes a formality at such places. Although the SOPs on positioning of CFTs and responsibilities as per AFO 126/98 have been laid out in SSOs of all the flying stations, it is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that a compromise on safety in a hurry to complete the ground run doesn’t happen. Identifying SNCOs of different trades and streams as independent Safety Inspectors within the units to report directly and confidentially with UFS&IOs or on the lines of QAS sections in BRDs can directly contribute in enhancing the safety environment of any workplace without compromising on discipline a n d service ethos in the best i n t e r e s t of aerospace safety. Tech flights should ensure more and more technicians are multi-skilled in fire safety operations to support the CFT crew and also should explore the feasibility of introducing rapid i n t e r v e n t i o n vehicles with extinguishing media which can be used to ensure safety during ground runs and can be manned independently and self sufficiently by the multiskilled technicians themselves. Thus the criticality in manning additional CFTs during flying hours and repositioning the CFTs from tech flight to tech flight and sqn to sqn can be avoided. The growing incidents of MT accidents in flying environments is a matter of concern and one reason is surely lack of safety consciousness and supervisory control among each and every individual. I have learnt one thing from the situation that I have faced from the above incident - the need to polish the skills and keeping in touch with the operating procedures as per the requirement of work place, balanced with a cool, composed, mind can only help us to react situationally in emergencies and to ensure safety. The need to create a safe environment at every work place is each and every air warriors responsibility. With lot of stress on our training policies based on modular patterns and restructuring, if the desired result needs to be borne, then I feel we need to redefine our HR recruitment by including the psychological testing like the one followed in SSBs which can help in identifying the right people for the right job with a positive attitude. The work culture inculcated in the young stage based on procedures and policies will go a long way in developing a sound and disciplined professional in the future. “Supervision means Superior Vision”. -WO Kishore Kumar S INDIAN AIR FORCE 2 0 1 2 F e b r u a r y Aerospace Safety 27
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final feb cover - Indian Airforce

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