VIP Airside tour with Stansted Airport's Fire and Rescue Service

SACC Members and guests had the privilege of joining Station Manager, Daniel Crick from the Fire and Rescue Service and his colleague Andy Wright from Airside Ops on Friday last.

Starting with a unique behind the scenes tour, Daniel and Andy went through some historic facts about the airport including the original location on the North Side of the airport which is now home to the prestigious FBOs (Fixed Base Operators) such as Harrods Aviation, Inflite The Jet Centre and Titan Airway who have the task of looking after private and corporate aircraft as well as some of the most famous people in film, music, sport and VIPs from around the world.

One of the topics covered was how something as simple as grass on the airfield has to be cut to a certain height to reduce risks.  Short grass encourages smaller birds allowing them to see approaching dangers and longer grass say over 400mm is able to fall over as it cannot support itself and has the potential to atrract birds to locate prey at or below the surface. Therefore guidelines provided by the CAA  have to be adhered to without exception.  Discouraging birds generally is a major part in reducing the risks of birdstrike, which can cause damage to aircraft engines with the potential of more serious consequences.

The tour covered the area where fire training is carried out and whilst giving some interesting facts about the fire service, a sudden blast of sirens approaching our coach from behind turned heads....  to get a feel of what we experienced check out the video here - you will be amazed!
To recover from this exciting experience we returned to the fire station where we were provided tea and cakes and a chance to chat among ourselves and members of the fire and police services before being guided around the equipment in groups.

	Essex Police joined us at this stage with their Ford Jenkel Armed Response Unit together with guns and other all important kit which is on standby should the need arise!  Some scary stuff to say the least!

Stansted Airport's Fire Service took delivery of its fifth and final state-of-the-art Rosenbauer Panther fire engine as part of a £4million upgrade to its fire-fighting fleet in 2013 and this engine became the focus of the Ice Bucket Challenge on Friday with 2 of our members, Michelle Anthony from Bird Luckin and Jo Hart from Thremhall Park both entertaining the group and getting a soaking in the process. Click this link to view the video

Well Done Ladies!!!

On behalf of all SACC Members and Guests, I would like to thank both the Fire and Rescue Services and Essex Police for taking time out of their busy schedules to show us around and special thanks in particular to Station Manager Daniel Crick, Daren Barthram Head of Fire Services, PC Fiona Clements and her colleagues and not forgetting the baker, tea maker, clearer up-er and all those who took part on the day.

It was a very information and most enjoyable afternoon - thank you.

Julie Budden

Chair, SACC