TMR's all new "Tales from the Underworld" thread

[The Moan Ranger]

2 days, 2 nights. Problems both halves. Day shifts (0600-1800) are primarily focussed on outbound baggage issues. Which I like. With the big Orange airline cancelling flights at late notice, mainly due to lack of flight deck or cabin crew, we find ourselves in possession of lots of bags for flights no longer operating. Obviously, these all have to be returned to the fuming passengers, once they've been escorted back through passport control to baggage reclaim. Rather than bother my boys who were clearing the outbound baggage for flights that were actually going, I took it upon myself to take all the cancelled flights bags back to the reclaim belts. I didn't stop for 4 hours and it was glorious. A proper workout - chucking over 1,000 bags on the reclaim belts before the passengers reached them. Cold comfort for them, for sure, but hopefully eased the pain slightly. Repeat for Sunday.

Monday night and Tuesday night primarily focussed on aircraft cleaning. The usual issues of staff not turning up, aircraft not connected to a power supply (try cleaning/hoovering a plane with no electricity...) and being aircraft being towed to another stand without us being notified were all dealt with, but the biggest - by far - problem was the amount of aircraft coming home really late, up to 3 hours. This causes a huge knock-on effect in that sod-all is landing before midnight, so sometimes the teams are waiting over an hour for their next clean, then a huge swathe arrive and they are left with 5 hours to clean 8 more.

All of this stems from very early the previous morning - yesterday over 20 flights were delayed by over an hour while they waited for standby crews to arrive. This delay rolls over and exacerbates as the day goes on. The last job on a daily flying schedule is cleaning it and my boys/girls are suffering most because of it.

But all in all, not a bad shift. Next 2 shifts are all nights 

You're doing a brilliant job! 

Thank you. But we all take a lot of pride in getting people off on time, every time, with their bags and a clean aircraft and quite frankly it is impossible with the staffing levels currently at Gatwick across the board. The big O needs to cut 50-60 flights per day to provide a reliable service.

That won't happen - a lot of the passengers lucky enought to actually go are using vouchers/credits from stupid Covid induced lockdowns - so that actual cash coming in is insufficient. They want *new" money coming in from the public.

They have, however, seemingly ignored the reputational damage being done - day by day - as the news reports it. It will take years before they are taken as a reliable service again. Typical accountant fools. Wankers.

[Steve]

2 days, 2 nights. Problems both halves. Day shifts (0600-1800) are primarily focussed on outbound baggage issues. Which I like. With the big Orange airline cancelling flights at late notice, mainly due to lack of flight deck or cabin crew, we find ourselves in possession of lots of bags for flights no longer operating. Obviously, these all have to be returned to the fuming passengers, once they've been escorted back through passport control to baggage reclaim. Rather than bother my boys who were clearing the outbound baggage for flights that were actually going, I took it upon myself to take all the cancelled flights bags back to the reclaim belts. I didn't stop for 4 hours and it was glorious. A proper workout - chucking over 1,000 bags on the reclaim belts before the passengers reached them. Cold comfort for them, for sure, but hopefully eased the pain slightly. Repeat for Sunday.

Monday night and Tuesday night primarily focussed on aircraft cleaning. The usual issues of staff not turning up, aircraft not connected to a power supply (try cleaning/hoovering a plane with no electricity...) and being aircraft being towed to another stand without us being notified were all dealt with, but the biggest - by far - problem was the amount of aircraft coming home really late, up to 3 hours. This causes a huge knock-on effect in that sod-all is landing before midnight, so sometimes the teams are waiting over an hour for their next clean, then a huge swathe arrive and they are left with 5 hours to clean 8 more.

All of this stems from very early the previous morning - yesterday over 20 flights were delayed by over an hour while they waited for standby crews to arrive. This delay rolls over and exacerbates as the day goes on. The last job on a daily flying schedule is cleaning it and my boys/girls are suffering most because of it.

But all in all, not a bad shift. Next 2 shifts are all nights 

You're doing a brilliant job! 

Thank you. But we all take a lot of pride in getting people off on time, every time, with their bags and a clean aircraft and quite frankly it is impossible with the staffing levels currently at Gatwick across the board. The big O needs to cut 50-60 flights per day to provide a reliable service.

That won't happen - a lot of the passengers lucky enought to actually go are using vouchers/credits from stupid Covid induced lockdowns - so that actual cash coming in is insufficient. They want *new" money coming in from the public.

They have, however, seemingly ignored the reputational damage being done - day by day - as the news reports it. It will take years before they are taken as a reliable service again. Typical accountant fools. Wankers.

Jeez what a farce

And what BM said, great work.

[The Moan Ranger]

4 nights straight just completed.

Not much to report apart from a passenger dying, a ramp worker with a severely dislocated knee, screaming in pain, waiting 7 hours at the top of some steps for an ambulance and an aircraft cleaner collapsing on their first night.

And cancellations. Lots of last minute cancellations.

[Steve]

4 nights straight just completed.

Not much to report apart from a passenger dying, a ramp worker with a severely dislocated knee, screaming in pain, waiting 7 hours at the top of some steps for an ambulance and an aircraft cleaner collapsing on their first night.

And cancellations. Lots of last minute cancellations.

  and 

[Barman]

4 nights straight just completed.

Not much to report apart from a passenger dying, a ramp worker with a severely dislocated knee, screaming in pain, waiting 7 hours at the top of some steps for an ambulance and an aircraft cleaner collapsing on their first night.

And cancellations. Lots of last minute cancellations.

Shame you couldn't fuck up the SiL's flight to Turkey today... 

[Steve]

Oh shit, why do I get the impression it's ground staff that will get the blame for this Darwinesque stupidity by an impatient disabled passenger?
 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-61837369

[Barman]

Oh shit, why do I get the impression it's ground staff that will get the blame for this Darwinesque stupidity by an impatient disabled passenger?
 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-61837369

I know... 

[The Moan Ranger]

Oh shit, why do I get the impression it's ground staff that will get the blame for this Darwinesque stupidity by an impatient disabled passenger?
 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-61837369

Yes, there are too few staff at Wilson James to effectively move all the PRMs speedily. But also yes, this older, typically male chap made sure his wife was sorted and decided to go it alone. He would have been collected approximately 15 minutes later.

The escalator joining the main terminal to pier 6 is long and high. He was half way up it when he collapsed and bounced off all the steps on his way down. Massive head injuries. A flight dispatcher rushed to help and took her hi-viz off to wrap round his head to try to stop his smashed skull disintegrating. She's off now for a bit, totally traumatised.

They are still picking bis of skull out of the escalator.

Another passenger took a tumble on the same escalator the day after.  A few stitches aside, he'll be OK.

Aviation - such a glamorous job 

[Barman]

Oh shit, why do I get the impression it's ground staff that will get the blame for this Darwinesque stupidity by an impatient disabled passenger?
 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-61837369

Yes, there are too few staff at Wilson James to effectively move all the PRMs speedily. But also yes, this older, typically male chap made sure his wife was sorted and decided to go it alone. He would have been collected approximately 15 minutes later.

The escalator joining the main terminal to pier 6 is long and high. He was half way up it when he collapsed and bounced off all the steps on his way down. Massive head injuries. A flight dispatcher rushed to help and took her hi-viz off to wrap round his head to try to stop his smashed skull disintegrating. She's off now for a bit, totally traumatised.

They are still picking bis of skull out of the escalator.

Another passenger took a tumble on the same escalator the day after.  A few stitches aside, he'll be OK.

Aviation - such a glamorous job 

Horrible for everybody concerned... 

[Steve]

Oh shit, why do I get the impression it's ground staff that will get the blame for this Darwinesque stupidity by an impatient disabled passenger?
 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-61837369

Yes, there are too few staff at Wilson James to effectively move all the PRMs speedily. But also yes, this older, typically male chap made sure his wife was sorted and decided to go it alone. He would have been collected approximately 15 minutes later.

The escalator joining the main terminal to pier 6 is long and high. He was half way up it when he collapsed and bounced off all the steps on his way down. Massive head injuries. A flight dispatcher rushed to help and took her hi-viz off to wrap round his head to try to stop his smashed skull disintegrating. She's off now for a bit, totally traumatised.

They are still picking bis of skull out of the escalator.

Another passenger took a tumble on the same escalator the day after.  A few stitches aside, he'll be OK.

Aviation - such a glamorous job 

Horrible for everybody concerned... 

Absolutely 

[The Moan Ranger]

It will regrettably, happen again.

Regardless of the insignificant and theatrical cut in flights today, it's too little, too late.

I'm hearing that a Ramp worker has collapsed today, after cooking in the sun trying to get things out on time. All for £12.80 per hour. He's probably been out since 05:00 with only a 30 minute break.

[Steve]

It will regrettably, happen again.

Regardless of the insignificant and theatrical cut in flights today, it's too little, too late.

I'm hearing that a Ramp worker has collapsed today, after cooking in the sun trying to get things out on time. All for £12.80 per hour. He's probably been out since 05:00 with only a 30 minute break.

[Barman]

It will regrettably, happen again.

Regardless of the insignificant and theatrical cut in flights today, it's too little, too late.

I'm hearing that a Ramp worker has collapsed today, after cooking in the sun trying to get things out on time. All for £12.80 per hour. He's probably been out since 05:00 with only a 30 minute break.

Look after yourself TMR!

[The Moan Ranger]

Thanks, but no need to worry - I'm inside most of the time - either the air conditioned office, or the baggage sorting area with the speedoors open to give some ventilation, as the air conditioning can't cope with a huge, tin roofed building.

Most nights I spend 1800-2000 in the office sorting stuff out and getting the aircraft cleaners off and busy, then I take my 2000 finish bag pullers to the South Terminal (where their car park is) ciggie with big Z on the way back, more admin shite, take the 2100 finishers back to the South, more admin shite, take the 2200 finishers back to the South, more admin shite until about 2315 then another ciggie with big Z before I start auditing how clean some of the completed aircraft are. Will finish that about 0215, brief my 0300 bag pulling bunch and may end up helping there (depending on staff numbers) until 0530, utterly knackered. Within the baggage sorting area, there are 6 lines where 49 different flight bags come down during a day.  We were very short of staff Wednesday morning, so I shifted all the bags on one line, to stop things getting behind. First 3 flights were Funchal, some place called Paphos, Kefalonia and then 6 "little" flights - Charles de Gaulle, Basel, Lyson, Edinburgh, Belfast and Geneva. I probably pulled 400 bags in an hour and a half and by god, it felt good.

Didn't feel so good when I crawled out of bed at 1500, later that day. Body was hurty. Sucks this getting old shit, dunnit?

[Nick]

I suspect a deficiency of Guinness and Youngs