FEATURE
Final Call
After the last plane leaves Heathrow
Written by Jasmina Matulewicz
Heathrow has some of the strictest restrictions
in Europe when it comes to operating after hours.
Flights between 11:30pm and 6:00am are highly
regulated, no air movement whatsoever allowed
before 4:30am, and a total ban on especially noisy
aircrafts. Once the last plane lands, the work
begins – teams are granted access to the runways,
the terminals, and the baggage systems, ready to
uphold the safety standards of a temporarilystagnant
global hub.
Over 80 million passengers rush through the terminals
of London Heathrow Airport each year. With an aircraft
taking off or landing every 45 seconds, fluorescent
lights and busy cafés seem to create a time warp,
yet the night transforms the UK’s busiest airport
into a soundless oasis. ‘There are two sides of every
airport – you have airside and landside, and security
in the middle. We sweep the whole area within airside
after the final movements, and it becomes a sterile
environment,’ explains Mo Taher, Engineering Graduate at
Heathrow Airport.
Apart from a couple of people in hard hats and
high-vis jackets, and hotel facilities for
passengers on overnight layovers, the terminals
are deserted. With the lights dimmed and an
eerie silence, Taher says, the atmosphere is
beyond strange.
Working from 7pm to 7am, his current project
explores how long it takes for runway lights to
become dirty to the point of non-compliance. And
that means cleaning every single light, every
night. ‘They’re in the thousands; there are so
many. We have a car that drives up and down
the runway, and at the back of it is a sensor
array. As you drive over a light, the sensors
pick up how much light there is,’ he says.
The rubber and deposit from each of the 300
daily landings takes a toll on light output and
compromises not only efficiency, but safety –
if runway lights aren’t as bright as they could
be, landings will need to be split further
apart.
Since joining the team in September 2018,
Taher has dedicated his nights to improving
the baggage system, as well as installing
technologies to speed up the process of fixing
a faulty airbridge. In essence, an engineer’s
role is making sure that by the time that
plane needs to go, it can go, saving precious
seconds here and there to make the passenger’s
experience as smooth as possible.‘Because they
don’t really want to be at the airport,’ he
laughs.
10