Day 4
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Noa
29 April 2015 | Verenigd Koninkrijk, Slough
“We actually aren’t allowed to come here.” said Dennis as we were walking just a few metres from the airplanes at terminal 5. Dennis gave us a tour of the baggage system in terminal 5 today. We also tried to prevent ‘death by powerpoint’ today with Liz.
Today we woke up just as usual to get breakfast and hop onto the bus towards the Vanderlande office. There we first worked with Liz from the SQE team on a powerpoint of the health ad safety and quality procedures. We had to make the powerpoint more interesting in order to prevent ‘death by powerpoint’. It basically means that the presentation is ruined and not interesting anymore by a powerpoint full with boring tekst. Therefore we had to look up picture and clips to make the powerpoint more interesting. Lotte and I also had to improve the powerpoint by making texts shorter and therefore making it more readable and fun.
Then we went to terminal 5 by bus. There we first had to get a pass to get access to airside. The man who gave us those apparently had a Dutch wife and therefore could talk a little Dutch. He even showed us a picture of his grandchild. But then he said that I looked like his wife when she was younger. I laughed it away, but that couldn’t have been more awkward. Well, at least it was better than a harsh person that only does the strict business. *cough* The border security *cough* .
After getting our pass we could finally go trough the security and enter the baggage system below the ground looking all fancy wearing industrial steel-toe shoes and a yellow jacket with our pass on it. We were shown how the bag enters the system on the conveyer after being dropped off. The code on the bag is being read and sent to the right place. First it goes trough all kinds of scans to ensure that the bag is safe. If the bag contains something that isn’t allowed or if it’s too big it’s being sent to the problem bag area. The bags that are safe either go directly to the airplane or are being stored when you check in early. Then if your flight is about to depart your luggage is brought to containers that then are being put into your airplane. It looked really cool and was very interesting. It was really awesome that we could get to see what journey our luggage actually undertakes if we drop it off. Terminal 5 consists of three separate terminals called 5a, 5b and 5c. Those are connected by a sort of rollercoaster rails so that you don’t have to take your luggage all the way with you towards another terminal. It moves really fast, like 10 metres per second. We even got to see how they load the luggage into the airplanes. We actually weren’t allowed there so we had to go again quickly. To keep the suitcases straight on the track they use sensors to determine the position of the bag and then reposition it with special bands that rotated it into the correct position. Because there are so many suitcases in a day there can occur some problems like reading the code wrong or the suitcase being in the wrong position and falling off the track. These kind off problems are solved as quickly as possible to prevent that the rest of the luggage is being held up too.
But what we all want to know: has anyone ever tried to step onto the conveyer? It always seems so tempting to me to sit on it with the rest of the bags. Dennis told us that it has happened a few times with little kids, which is really dangerous. Because one child followed the whole track to the part where they load the luggage onto the conveyer and the child was almost smashed by a bag. So you should never step on it, even though it can seem really tempting. Vanderlande thinks safety is really important and makes it all as safe as possible.
Dennis thinks his job is so interesting because he gets to do different things everytime. Also the people at the airport differ every day,which makes each day interesting. Of course he has also had the chance to see some celebrities like Cameron Diaz, Tom Cruise and Rihanna. He even once had a smoke with an actor.
It was really interesting to see the whole journey of your suitcase and I was really grateful that we had the opportunity to see it. Because not even all the people who work daily at the airport get to see what we saw. This has made me understand the process of baggage in the baggage system a lot better.
After the tour we went back to the Vanderlande office and went to a pub nearby. The meal there was absolutely delicious and was a nice end to this very interesting day.
Today we woke up just as usual to get breakfast and hop onto the bus towards the Vanderlande office. There we first worked with Liz from the SQE team on a powerpoint of the health ad safety and quality procedures. We had to make the powerpoint more interesting in order to prevent ‘death by powerpoint’. It basically means that the presentation is ruined and not interesting anymore by a powerpoint full with boring tekst. Therefore we had to look up picture and clips to make the powerpoint more interesting. Lotte and I also had to improve the powerpoint by making texts shorter and therefore making it more readable and fun.
Then we went to terminal 5 by bus. There we first had to get a pass to get access to airside. The man who gave us those apparently had a Dutch wife and therefore could talk a little Dutch. He even showed us a picture of his grandchild. But then he said that I looked like his wife when she was younger. I laughed it away, but that couldn’t have been more awkward. Well, at least it was better than a harsh person that only does the strict business. *cough* The border security *cough* .
After getting our pass we could finally go trough the security and enter the baggage system below the ground looking all fancy wearing industrial steel-toe shoes and a yellow jacket with our pass on it. We were shown how the bag enters the system on the conveyer after being dropped off. The code on the bag is being read and sent to the right place. First it goes trough all kinds of scans to ensure that the bag is safe. If the bag contains something that isn’t allowed or if it’s too big it’s being sent to the problem bag area. The bags that are safe either go directly to the airplane or are being stored when you check in early. Then if your flight is about to depart your luggage is brought to containers that then are being put into your airplane. It looked really cool and was very interesting. It was really awesome that we could get to see what journey our luggage actually undertakes if we drop it off. Terminal 5 consists of three separate terminals called 5a, 5b and 5c. Those are connected by a sort of rollercoaster rails so that you don’t have to take your luggage all the way with you towards another terminal. It moves really fast, like 10 metres per second. We even got to see how they load the luggage into the airplanes. We actually weren’t allowed there so we had to go again quickly. To keep the suitcases straight on the track they use sensors to determine the position of the bag and then reposition it with special bands that rotated it into the correct position. Because there are so many suitcases in a day there can occur some problems like reading the code wrong or the suitcase being in the wrong position and falling off the track. These kind off problems are solved as quickly as possible to prevent that the rest of the luggage is being held up too.
But what we all want to know: has anyone ever tried to step onto the conveyer? It always seems so tempting to me to sit on it with the rest of the bags. Dennis told us that it has happened a few times with little kids, which is really dangerous. Because one child followed the whole track to the part where they load the luggage onto the conveyer and the child was almost smashed by a bag. So you should never step on it, even though it can seem really tempting. Vanderlande thinks safety is really important and makes it all as safe as possible.
Dennis thinks his job is so interesting because he gets to do different things everytime. Also the people at the airport differ every day,which makes each day interesting. Of course he has also had the chance to see some celebrities like Cameron Diaz, Tom Cruise and Rihanna. He even once had a smoke with an actor.
It was really interesting to see the whole journey of your suitcase and I was really grateful that we had the opportunity to see it. Because not even all the people who work daily at the airport get to see what we saw. This has made me understand the process of baggage in the baggage system a lot better.
After the tour we went back to the Vanderlande office and went to a pub nearby. The meal there was absolutely delicious and was a nice end to this very interesting day.
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
