As soon as snow starts to fall in Milwaukee crews at Mitchell International Airport fire up massive machines that plow and sweep runways in precise, practiced movements done between takeoffs and landings of commercial jet airliners.
The goal is to clear things down to bare pavement so jet airliners are not slipping and sliding on runways as they take off and land.
The process is complicated, so much so that it requires a Federal Aviation Administration-mandated plan that spells out the snow clearing process down to the finest detail. Mitchell’s plan is 96 pages.
Snow clearing involves — among others — airline operations folks, flight crews, air traffic controllers, airport operations safety crews and equipment operators
2 Comments
i work at an airport and have seen this exact setup and with these exact plows. its not "pretty cool" its pretty MISERABLE. they put u on 16 hour shifts most of the time and good luck getting a pee break. the plows are uncomfortable and loud as all hell and u have to keep it as a sweat box in the plow to avoid icing on the windshield. its definitely not "pretty cool"
also, do u smoke? cuz u cant smoke on the airfield. so no smoke breaks. also r u getting tired? too bad cuz u have to keep contact with the snow manager as he directs everyone around. so no radio of any kind in the truck. only constant communication and being forced to be on edge all night long while the noise of the truck deafens u.