The Fire Trucks Came Running!

Had some excitement yesterday. An Alaska Airlines flight landed and was told by another aircraft that they had a smoking brake.

The Airport Fire Dept. swung into action and escorted the flight to the gate where mechanics inspected the brake in question. Turns out that a small hydraulic leak and made its way to the brake and caused the smoke. The line was repaired, the brake cleaned up and everything was fine.

Got to admire the speed in which the Airport Fire dept can respond. Those guys are fast!

Fighting traffic

When working at the airport, you tend to fight traffic of a different kind.

Rather than dodge other cars and trucks, we have to be on the alert for aircraft as they approach and leave the gates. Anything from small commuter airdraft like this PennAir flight to a 747 can cross your path as you drive around.

The last of its kind

Behold the C-133A Cargomaster. This is the last airworthy Cargomaster left in the world. It does not fly very often, but when it does, the whole airport knows about it.

With an 18 foot prop turn, this fine aircraft makes a lot of noise when it takes off and everyone stops to take a look.

This aircraft is only allowed to fly under special provision. It hauls large items for the state to remote parts of Alaska. Some of its cargo in the last couple years have been school busses, two dump trucks, a road grater and other such large and heavy items.

Here is a good site that documents the history of this lone giant. http://www.ruudleeuw.com/c-133_by_sibitzky.htm

If you are ever in Anchorage and are lucky enough to see this bird fly, you are a witness to a very rare sight indeed!

Ever wonder where your bags go?

When you check your bags for a flight, do you ever wonder where they go?

After they are placed on the conveyor belt and vanish from sight, your luggage goes into a room where the TSA x-rays it and sometimes opens it up for a visual inspection.

From there, it goes here:

Welcome to the bagwell. In the upper right of the photo, you can see where the bags come down from the TSA screening room. After that they go on the conveyor that is simply a larger version of the one you see at the baggage claim area. As the bags go around, people check the location tags and place the bags into the correct carts that are lined up (you can see them in the left of the photo.

Carts for each flight have a clipboard where the bag count is logged. When it is time for departure, a Ramper simply hooks a tug up to the carts and drives them out to the aircraft for loading.

It sounds simple, but during the tourist season and holidays, this is one of the busiest places at the airport. These photos were taken at 0330 on a Monday. Not much action this time of the morning.

Here is another shot of one of the belts in the bagwell: