- 6/21/2025
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00:00We've probably got to be up five minutes so the next aircraft probably will use this taxiway.
00:09Very important to make sure we don't stand yet too long, especially with aircraft landing the
00:16whole time. Is he coming our way, Gab? Yeah.
00:30In Australia, just down the road can mean hundreds of kilometres. So to keep everyone
00:43connected, we rely on planes. And lots of them. Crucial to this highway in the sky is Melbourne
00:54Airport. Melbourne Airport, expect the unexpected. It's the busiest airport in the country that
01:04operates 24 hours a day. They might not have experienced something like this before. Seven
01:09days a week. We've had fog, we've had rain, so tonight we've got to get it done.
01:15With unprecedented access. The team are always on alert. From the control tower.
01:20First aid call. To the tarmac. It's all about speed. To the airport's 24-7 nerve centre.
01:27Even if there's an incident, we're the ones scrambling and passengers still have a smooth
01:30journey. We're going behind the scenes. We're looking at the cameras now.
01:36To places very few people get to see. What's inside that?
01:41All to keep Melbourne Airport running smoothly. Safely.
01:47Respected firearms still in the chamber. And on time. Two down, one to go.
01:52At a 24-7 airport. Every. I don't want this kangaroo jumping anywhere.
01:57Second. Counts.
01:59So it's ten to six. We're on scene. We've got a green light. We're good to go.
02:12Australia's largest all-hours airport welcomes a whopping 35 million passengers every year.
02:19Get to the right A, please come in.
02:21And today kicks off one of the busiest times of the year. School holidays.
02:30Over the next two weeks, an extra 350,000 passengers will pass through the doors.
02:39Bringing total traveller numbers to 1.7 million. That's a lot of screaming kids.
02:46I love this time of the year when Melbourne's buzzing. I mean, you can see it out there. You
02:55can feel it out there. Leading the charge is IOC manager Daniel, who's been working at the airport
03:01for 10 years. The prediction is that we'll hit about 118,000 passengers today. There's a flowing
03:06effect all the way through from the freeway all the way to the airfield. So from about now onwards,
03:11we're going to start to see some capacity issues in international. In terminal two,
03:17three international flights have landed close together. With all passengers needing to clear
03:24border force, queues are building fast. Terminal coordinator Sarah is keeping a close eye on the
03:32congestion. We are queuing up from around carousel three all the way to around carousel one,
03:40all the way here where they're met by a border force staff member. If they are declaring,
03:46they'll be directed into the red queue. If they're not, they'll be directed to the green queue,
03:51which will exit straight out. The only issue now is we've got a massive flight that just landed.
03:56That's probably going to fill up the queues.
03:58What we might do is just crowd control, move some queues around to make it safe for everyone,
04:07and allow people to walk through. Exit between carousel five and six, please.
04:13Yeah, just on the other side. Yeah, if you're not declaring anything.
04:18While Sarah wrangles the crowds in T2,
04:20there is a call to the IOC about an issue affecting passengers in T4.
04:27Does it impact their check-in?
04:30Okay, and is it having an impact on your flights as of now?
04:35Okay, and when does this issue start? Okay, no worries. Thanks. Bye.
04:40Uh, Dan, just for your info, there's a host connection issue for Jetstar,
04:48so they cannot use any self-service kiosks. So they have to do manual checking.
04:54Uh-oh. She doesn't know what's the impact as of now. Understood.
05:00I'll just give them a radar.
05:03In Terminal 4, 36 self-checking kiosks and 18 bag drops have gone down.
05:11It's an IT outage for the airline,
05:14and the provider has no idea when it will come back online.
05:19Meanwhile, Jetstar has 20 flights departing Melbourne in the next three hours.
05:24Actually, there are crews building up down there that I can see on the cameras.
05:27I'll double-check. They're about...
05:29..usually around 30, 40, 40 hours per hour on pay.
05:313,700 passengers need to check in.
05:36But with the system crawling at 10% capacity,
05:39it's less smooth sailing and more like a chaotic conga line.
05:45Yeah, yeah, well, we've got cameras on.
05:47There's probably about 200-odd passengers in the hall.
05:50All right, we'll keep you posted.
05:53All right, see you. Bye.
05:54All right, see you.
05:57Issue 124.
05:59They're still manual manual check-in.
06:02They're just a little bit nervous and it's starting to build up.
06:04Accusability.
06:05I think we've got about an hour.
06:07I think it's not good going up.
06:11Thank you, Dad. Thank you.
06:16Today's afternoon peak hits at 3pm,
06:19with a surge in passenger numbers expected.
06:22If the issue isn't fixed by then,
06:25the airline won't be able to keep up,
06:28leading to widespread delays with the ripple effects
06:31felt across the country.
06:33JQ51A through to Sydney.
06:35Once again, we do apologise for the delay on your service.
06:38Because there is school holidays,
06:40obviously the airlines would be a bit concerned.
06:42We'd be a bit concerned just to see whether we're going to have any congestion.
06:48Obviously, passengers impacted on travel.
06:51People can't check in quickly or their flights potentially are delayed
06:55and they've got connections to other cities, whichever it might be.
06:59It can spill over into passengers becoming a little bit aggressive
07:03or, you know, a little bit frustrated.
07:05But our role is then to go down there and make sure that they're informed,
07:08they know what's going on.
07:09Generally, that keeps the nerves down.
07:12If they don't know and they can just see chaos,
07:14then, yeah, we can get some bad reactions.
07:17You know, it could escalate very quickly,
07:19so we're on alert now just to be ready.
07:26You walk in and it's packed out.
07:28Oh, you get a little bit annoyed,
07:30especially if you're running a bit late on to catch a flight.
07:34So with the issue threatening to disrupt all of Jetstar's Melbourne departures,
07:40terminal coordinators Sarah and Nathan are both called in to steady the ship.
07:45In 30 to 40 minutes, it's going to get really busy.
07:48So we're just going to grab our portable check-in counters.
07:52So these counters are designed to be moved around in a moment of crisis.
07:58Melbourne Airport has mobile check-in counters that can manually check passengers in.
08:03All I need is people to be able to send their forced bags down.
08:06Oh.
08:07You guys, you were taking them in?
08:09They don't have enough staff at the moment to operate all of the bag drops,
08:12to manually bag drops, so we're going to help them out.
08:15I'm happy to hang around and force-release bags for you guys.
08:18Yeah, we are getting our hands dirty today.
08:21You've got a bag tag on there?
08:23Yeah.
08:24Do you want to come through to me?
08:25Just one at a time?
08:27You're all good. Thank you.
08:30Two domestic flights are set to depart in the next 15 minutes,
08:36but queues are growing and a lot of the passengers aren't even checked in.
08:40If we had a massive influx of passengers at the same time for flights that are departing soon,
08:46it might cause us an issue with people potentially missing flights.
08:48We checked in, we just can't drop our bag.
08:55Um, it's just our, it looks like a few of the software.
08:59This can help.
09:01Flights on time?
09:01Very disliked, but it could be a bit of flow tech on the end.
09:04Yeah.
09:05I may see that there's 30 people that still haven't checked in.
09:08Um, they might wait a little bit longer because they're likely here and just haven't been able to check in there.
09:12Our plane's ready to close off in like 10 minutes and there's a lot of other people that are going to be in the worst predicament.
09:21With the 3pm afternoon peak fast approaching...
09:24You're almost there.
09:25..concern is rising.
09:27As soon as we hear anything on our end, we'll, you know...
09:31All right, thanks. Bye.
09:33I've got the Jetstar duty manager asking if we get an update from Cedar.
09:38Cedar's the company that looks after all the kiosks and the technology around the kiosks, the self-checking kiosks.
09:44Um, so we're waiting from them for an update to see what's going on.
09:47Uh, Jetstar's obviously getting nervous.
09:50Uh, Dan.
09:51Yeah, I spoke to Cedar.
09:53Yeah.
09:54He's telling me he doesn't have any update.
09:56Yeah, no, Nathan's just saying...
09:58The progress started to fire back up at the end, though.
10:00Yeah.
10:00He gets very quiet with us.
10:08With no solution in sight, a crisis management meeting is called in the IOC.
10:13With that in mind, since it's a waiting game, we'll do the next CMT in an hour.
10:17Crisis at the airport would be anything that interrupts the passenger journey.
10:22So if you can't get on the plane, that's a crisis.
10:25Um, but from what we're hearing, it's starting to build down there.
10:29We still have flight passenger loads due to school holidays.
10:31We've got probably another three or four flights opening up in the next half an hour.
10:35That'll probably be affected.
10:36We'll probably start seeing delays from now.
10:39If this is in effect by this evening, they won't be able to keep up with demand.
10:43Both of these services will be closing at shortly.
10:46It's a crisis.
10:56With 118,000 passengers expected today, Melbourne Airport staff are being pushed to the limit.
11:04But no matter how hectic things get, the goal remains the same, keeping people safe.
11:14Up in the tower, air traffic control keeps watch over the skies.
11:19Runway 27 cleared for takeoff.
11:22Expertly managing over 700 aircraft movements a day, directing takeoffs and landings, sometimes with just seconds in between.
11:31Wind 200 degrees, 1 and 2 docks, 1 and 2 docks, 1 and 2 docks.
11:341 and 2 docks.
11:361 and 2 docks.
11:361 and 2 docks.
11:371 and 2 docks.
11:381 and 2 docks.
11:39Supporting the tower on the ground is the airside safety crew.
11:44With the eyes of the tower on the ground, we're first response to all emergencies out here.
11:51Pretty much anything that happens on the airfield comes through us.
11:55Senior Airside Safety Officer Rodney has been working at the airport for 37 years.
12:01Starting in 88 and still here now.
12:04Every day I come to work, I keep telling everyone I love this job.
12:07I love the people I work with and whenever something does happen, I mean, it gets the adrenaline running.
12:14The tower has just received an emergency call from an incoming flight.
12:19Okay.
12:19A 10-month-old baby is suffering anaphylaxis.
12:23A pan-emergency has been declared, the second highest distress call after a mayday.
12:30The tower needs to alert the Integrated Operations Centre to get help on the ground fast.
12:35G'day tower, what's up?
12:38Pan Medical.
12:38Which one?
12:39517, inbound to Golf 51.
12:42We have a 10-month-old possibly having an anaphylactic reaction and that's all I've got.
12:48Calling ambulance.
12:48Calling off.
12:49Anaphylaxis is a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction.
12:55There's no time to waste.
12:57The IOC must coordinate a full emergency response.
13:01Aviation Rescue and Firefighting.
13:02Jetstar GQ 517, they've declared a banned medical.
13:09Attention, attention.
13:10First aid call, 10 to 6, 10 out.
13:14With the flight set to land in just six minutes, it's been given priority over all other arrivals.
13:20Rod is leading the airside response.
13:27Paul, can you head straight over there please, bud, and stand by there?
13:33Yeah, all the way.
13:33It's a medical emergency.
13:38So they've called a pan, which means it's full on.
13:43I mean, we probably average, you know, three or four ambos a day out here.
13:49And it's not that you don't take every one of them serious, but when you're here at 10-month-old,
13:53most people get that bit of a rush, you know, to get there.
13:57So we'll have cars waiting because we'll have ambulances arrive.
14:00There'll be a first responder, which we'll get in as soon as we can.
14:04Our aim at the end of the day is to make sure everyone goes home, you know, healthy and safe.
14:09The flight has entered Melbourne airspace.
14:14PAN procedure requires air traffic control to carefully negotiate the safe landing of the plane
14:20ahead of all other aircraft.
14:24If Velocity A23s are the U, can you just get them to hold position?
14:26Can you hold?
14:27Yeah.
14:28Cheers, star 508.
14:29Runway 27.
14:30419.
14:31Runway 27.
14:32Clear tonight.
14:39That might even be the aircraft there.
14:51They still must rate it fairly serious because they are hiking to the bay.
15:012.40pm.
15:03Back at Terminal 4, a system outage has taken down all self-check-in kiosks
15:09leading to long queues.
15:13On top of that, it's the busy school holiday period.
15:22As the pressure builds, another 500 passengers arrive.
15:27And three afternoon flights have just opened at check-in.
15:31Just leave flight for me, please.
15:32At the Integrated Operations Centre, Terminal Coordinator Ritesh is monitoring the growing
15:40crowds on CCTV.
15:42Is that line next to WH3, has it gone out?
15:46Has it gone out onto the forecourt?
15:48If the crowd keeps growing and spills towards the passenger drop-off areas, it could quickly
16:01become a safety concern.
16:03We'll get some volunteers there also.
16:06Yeah, yeah.
16:07That'd be great.
16:07Just to get like one or two of the lines to go down towards the levels.
16:10Yeah, yeah.
16:10So that they can, you know, still keep them in the terminal though, you know?
16:14Yeah, yeah, yeah.
16:15I don't want them to go out, yeah.
16:17Okay, brilliant.
16:17Hot look.
16:18No worries.
16:18Thanks, man.
16:18Bye.
16:19Bye.
16:19Bye.
16:21Bye.
16:23Priority is now to make sure the passengers are safe and they don't spill outside.
16:29With just 10 minutes before the 3pm peak, there's still no resolution in sight.
16:41On the airfield, a flight with an ongoing medical emergency has touched down at Melbourne airport.
16:49On board, a 10-month-old baby boy is suffering a suspected anaphylactic reaction.
16:56Kathy, first responders and ambos should go straight up on board.
17:01Paramedics need urgent access to the plane.
17:04Every second matters.
17:07A flight with an ongoing medical emergency has touched down at Melbourne airport.
17:23A 10-month-old baby boy suffering a suspected anaphylactic reaction is on board.
17:28Copy.
17:31Senior airside safety officer Rod is on site overseeing the coordinated response.
17:37First responders and ambos should go straight up on board.
17:40They won't allow the passengers, other passengers off until they deal with this.
17:44The top priority now is gaining immediate access to the plane.
18:04My daughter's anaphylactic as well so
18:06anything like that always hits you, especially with kids. It does pull at the heartstrings a little bit.
18:16Thanks to a junior EpiPen administered on board, the baby boy's breathing has stabilised.
18:23But he still needs to head to hospital for further assessment.
18:26The swift coordinated response meant he received medical attention just two minutes after landing.
18:41It's not just a sole effort. It starts when they call,
18:45then the guys in the tower give them priority, then the guys on the ground.
18:49Yeah, as well as in the IOC, you know, getting everything in place.
18:58It's just a big lot of people that all do their little bit to make sure everyone goes home, you know, healthy and safe.
19:10With just five minutes until the afternoon peak,
19:14there's finally some good news in the IOC.
19:17Just checking. The systems are coming back online. Thank you. Bye.
19:24It's back. Hopefully it stays like that.
19:27Is the issue resolved?
19:29There are systems coming back, so I just want to know that as well.
19:33If you can check, yeah.
19:34OK, no worries.
19:35Thank you, mate. Bye.
19:36Bye.
19:37It looks like we're back in action and we're all good. We'll have a quick check.
19:42OK, cool.
19:43So, judging by the self-checking, it seems like everything's back up and running.
19:47As the 3pm rush hits, the tech issue is resolved, just in time.
19:54Melbourne Airport and the airline have avoided major delays,
19:58keeping flights landing and departing on schedule.
20:01Probably 30 minutes ago, as you guys would have seen, terminal was packed full of people.
20:08Since then, the numbers have gone down dramatically.
20:09Everyone's getting to their flights on time. There's no issue with any delays.
20:13It's not just school holiday travellers passing through the airport tonight.
20:32There's some seriously valuable cargo on the move.
20:42Tonight, nearly $400 million worth of elite horses are arriving for the spring racing carnival.
20:49IRT, a leader in international horse transport, is gearing up for one of the busiest nights in the year.
21:01We've got a charter of horses coming in from Europe with 68 horses on board.
21:05So, the horses coming through the warehouse tonight will probably be in excess of $300 to $400 million,
21:12probably worth more than the plane is.
21:14I wouldn't be surprised if a future Melbourne Cup winner is on this plane coming in tonight.
21:21The full process tonight from arrival of the aircraft to everyone leaving the airport is probably three hours.
21:29So, we've got to work within that time frame.
21:34Pressure's on on the team. We've probably got about 30 staff working tonight to make sure everything goes smoothly.
21:40I just need access to that because we have to move stalls.
21:44Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
21:45I'm out.
21:476.03pm and 68 VIPs, very important ponies, have just landed in style on their own private jet from Doha.
21:59While the unloading starts on the airfield, the team at IRT and First Point are preparing all their biosecurity measures.
22:08Can you please set up the matting so it's ready?
22:10Because they're going to start bringing them shortly.
22:14So, the horses come in, anyone who's wearing yellow will have to go through the showering out process.
22:19Anyone wearing orange is in the clean zone.
22:21So, if you're in the dirty zone, you complete here, you'll shower out here in our facility
22:26and then you're clean from biosecurity standards.
22:29Fence in between.
22:30Australia has some of the strictest biosecurity laws in the world,
22:35which exist to protect the $86 billion agricultural sector.
22:41The key is keeping out diseases that we could get here in Australia, which we don't have.
22:46So, we want to make sure we give Australia the best chance from a biosecurity point of view to ensure those diseases don't come in.
22:52Yeah, they're right.
22:5820 minutes after touchdown, the first of the air stools rolls into IRT.
23:04Each horse travels in its own container, like a business class suite, with a lot more leg room.
23:12So, because this was a charter flight, it would have been about 24 hours.
23:16Normally, a flight from Europe would be closer to 28 to 30.
23:20Now, the unloading dance can begin.
23:24Michelle, so, put these two in, then bring those forward and put these two behind it.
23:36From here, the yellow team begins the delicate task of unloading the horses and transferring them to waiting trucks.
23:44They're just going to wait to unload the other two and then they'll bring these in.
23:48Well, there's always pressure every time you move any horse.
23:52The most important thing with moving this many horses is making sure the process is as streamlined and fast as possible.
23:59The longer the horses are in transit, the more likely there is for them to have an issue.
24:04The loading and unloading process, that's always the most dangerous part, making sure horses can load safely.
24:12The most important thing is avoiding stress on the horses.
24:15So really for us here, it's all about speed. Come in, unload straight onto the truck.
24:23The horses couldn't care less about the ticking clock.
24:25They move at their own schedule.
24:42But the longer they take, the longer their stablemates on the airfield have to wait.
24:47At the First Point facility, 68 elite horses are being processed into the country to compete in the spring racing carnival.
25:07In the 2024 Melbourne Cup, 75% of the entries came from overseas.
25:21Time's a hard one to gauge when you're unloading horses, or any animals for that matter.
25:25You've got some horses that are a little bit trickier than others to load and that sort of thing.
25:29So what you think might take 10 minutes can take 15 or 20 or so forth, so it's always something different.
25:37With horse welfare the top priority, the goal is clear.
25:41Get them off the airfield as quickly as possible.
25:45No worries. I'll get back going and speed up the process.
25:48All right, catch up.
25:50Guys, do you want to just detach and go? We'll use our tug here, so you can go and get some more if you want.
25:56All right.
25:56We might speed up the process.
25:58Do you want to go this way?
26:01We're just going to use our own tug to move the stalls through, just to speed the process up,
26:05so these guys can go back and get some more.
26:06Three in each one, so there would have been 18 so far. 18 of the 68. 50 more to go.
26:25The last thing they need is rain.
26:29Yeah, it's getting a little bit wet out there.
26:36Horses can be sensitive to anything, really. They're flighty animals.
26:46You still want to keep them as calm as you can,
26:48so moving as fast as we can through this rain is always better.
26:54There's three in there, Paul. That's the double.
27:02Including these ones here, we've had about 36 come through the gate.
27:06The storm is already slowing down operations.
27:09If it gets worse, everything could come to a complete standstill.
27:14If there is lightning within a certain distance of the airport, they run a siren,
27:17and then once you hear that siren, you know everyone stops work and goes and seeks cover.
27:22So if they shut down the airport, then we've got to wait until that clears
27:25before anyone can go back out on the tarmac to bring the horses in.
27:29I don't want to hear it right now, that's for sure.
27:31Rain's okay, lightning not so good.
27:36Do you want to bring two more in?
27:40Do it now. Go, Michelle. We'll bring two more in.
27:48Just as the sun begins to set, a much needed break in the weather finally arrives.
27:53We're getting there. Thanks.
27:55The team moves into the final stage of the operation.
28:00The last stalls are coming through the back gate now, so everyone's here.
28:04We've just got to get them unloaded.
28:05All right. We're just going to put these ones here again, not in, not in yet.
28:13We're getting there. Unload these last six or seven and then we're, then we're done.
28:18Now the focus is solely on unloading, then transporting the horses to nearby quarantine
28:30to get checked over.
28:31All right. How's it going, Pascal? Getting there.
28:40Okay, this one's empty. Yep.
28:43The last three horses are finally unloaded.
28:51Are we all in? Yeah, yeah.
28:53For the team at IRT, it's a huge sigh of relief.
28:57Every one of their multi-million dollar passengers is safe, sound and accounted for.
29:04It's nice that the storm passed. We got through that, but I think it's gone about as smoothly
29:09as it could have gone. Yeah.
29:10There's a lot going on throughout the night. A lot of things moving around, a lot of adrenaline pumping,
29:15but at the end of the day, you sit back, you look back at it and you have the satisfaction of
29:20everything you've just achieved. You brought 68 horses in. Can't do much more than that in an afternoon.
29:253-4, to the takeoff.
29:33Midnight, and Melbourne Airport is anything but asleep.
29:39With the runways open 24-7, the early hours are prime time for freight and international flights.
29:4722. But there are fewer planes, which makes this a perfect time to complete airfield maintenance.
29:55And tonight, the lighting team will be using this window to do some runway work.
30:01I am a former South African. I've been in Australia for about 25 years.
30:07I've been with Melbourne Airport as an airfield lighting officer for about 12 and a half years now.
30:15And looking after all the lights that facilitate aircraft movement from arrival to departure.
30:25Evening grounds, car 21 and company on Victor, request to cross runway 27.
30:29Car 21 and company on ground, good evening on Victor, cross runway 27.
30:33Thank you. So we're crossing runway 2927 at the moment. It's operational.
30:40So we're not allowed to drive over it. You can get into a fair bit of strike.
30:46Air traffic control if you do stuff like that.
30:49Dashing in and out to fix lights between arriving aircraft makes this one of the most nerve-wracking
30:57jobs at the airport. Nerves of steel are required.
31:01The risk is always aircraft movement and there obviously will be international traffic coming in.
31:08The pressure is on to have it all complete before sunrise.
31:2312.10am at Australia's busiest 24-hour airport and the landings keep coming.
31:31Each aircraft guided by thousands of lights illuminating the runway.
31:36We've probably got about 6,000 odd lights, so probably more that we look after.
31:46The 6,000 lights span across the two intersecting runways and an extensive network of taxiways.
31:54At full brightness, these lights can be seen 30 kilometres away.
32:02Keeping them running is no small task.
32:06Each light is monitored through a sophisticated computer system.
32:14We're looking at our control system and have a look at what alarms we've got on there.
32:21There's only one. We'll have a look at that one.
32:25410, 018. There is the third one up.
32:28Okay, yeah, finished.
32:29Faulty lights have been identified on a taxiway.
32:33Time for the lighting team to spring into action.
32:36We're looking at a couple of these faults from the location of them.
32:40So we'll see what the numbers are.
32:42We'll reprogram them, test them and then we will go out there and replace them.
32:48Each light comes with a price tag of over $1200, so it's not your average light bulb from the hardware store.
32:59This is the new thing. Taxiway.
33:06We'll head out back onto the taxiways and we'll go and replace those couple of fittings.
33:12We go out in between aircraft to do it, so it's very, very scary the first time probably when you do it.
33:31We do it as like a Formula One team where we just replace the fitting.
33:36So we come out with a rattle gun, lift up the fitting, change the fitting out, plug it, plug the new fitting in,
33:42take the other one out, put these two nuts on, do it up, torque it up and off we go again.
33:45So, you know, it is really good to be able to do it in between the aircraft.
33:52It's really, really fast and you've got to work very fast pace.
33:55I can see there's an aircraft, probably on a tug because he's moving very slow.
34:12And at least when you sort of look down taxiways and you just see one or two aircraft,
34:17you can see a red and green beacon on the wings saying it's red and green, don't go in between,
34:22which means that aircraft is heading your way. But from the back of an aircraft,
34:26there's usually just white lights, so that's usually an indication then that the aircraft is
34:31moving away from you. Before they can replace the faulty light, they need to make sure no planes
34:38are heading in their direction. Turn the radios up just so that we can hear any communication
34:43and then we'll go for it.
34:49Qantas.
34:52Then we've got another Qantas behind it.
34:53That's a Qantas who's just said on the radio.
34:56And the Jet Stars number three. The Jet Stars is coming in now.
35:02They've got just over five minutes before a plane rolls onto the taxiway.
35:06Qantas. The team are confident they can get the job done in four.
35:14As long as nothing goes wrong, no pressure.
35:17Qantas. That's loose.
35:19Qantas. Huh?
35:20Qantas. That's loose.
35:21Qantas. We've probably got about five minutes.
35:25Qantas. So the next aircraft probably uses this taxiway.
35:29So land and run down to Juliet and vacate Juliet.
35:33So Juliet's just behind us so he's going to make sure that we're out of the nuts.
35:38You're going to grab me two new nuts please.
35:39I've got two new nuts. I've got two new nuts.
35:42Very important to make sure we don't stand here too long,
35:46especially with aircraft landing the whole time.
35:48Gav, can I grab the fitting please?
35:50The fitting. I just need to do the PIDs.
35:57Is he coming our way?
36:00Gav?
36:01Ah, yeah.
36:22Sievert and Gavin are racing to change a faulty light on an active taxiway,
36:28as an outgoing plane approaches.
36:39How's it looking?
36:41Good.
36:44So we have to hold it away for this one.
36:45It's always a good feeling when you, uh, when you know that you've done the light,
36:59the lights all work here again, um, and you're dodging the aircraft, so it's, uh, pretty good.
37:05Ah, so that's the aircraft. It's going to go over the light we've just replaced.
37:12So, uh, yeah, it's probably hitting it around right about now.
37:17So that's where we were, just to replace that light ago, about two minutes ago.
37:23Happy with their quick light fix, the pair moves on.
37:28Next up, some crucial maintenance on the north-south runway.
37:31And later on during the night, we'll be, uh, running them arms, uh, which is our mobile
37:40airfield lighting monitoring system. Um, so we measure the intensity of the lights.
37:45If they do need a clean, we'll go out and actually clean the lights.
37:49Every month, runway lights are tested and cleaned to ensure they're operating at full brightness.
37:56Without this maintenance, the runway would be unsafe to use during low visibility.
38:03We'll just go ahead and set that up and we'll see how it'll go.
38:06As the runway never sleeps, dodging aircraft is the team's main priority.
38:12It's going to be tight to complete the 90 minutes of work before sunrise.
38:21So here is our photometric array at the moment. Um, we'll set that up for runway centerline.
38:29Before they run the test, they need to check in with air traffic control.
38:33Oh, we're in the tower, Brad, it's speaking.
38:36I just want to double check movement at the moment.
38:39Yeah, we've got a, that cafe aircraft there, we just pushed back, but they've got a few issues
38:44with the touch, but hopefully they're going to depart soon.
38:48Yeah, so you've got a bit of time now, see what, if you want it.
38:50Yes, yeah, okay.
38:51So we should be able to do both our runs now.
38:54Could I request runway 34 centerline on stage six and the edge lights turned off, please?
39:01And now is about the time where sunglasses would be appropriate.
39:0634 threshold request to commence a full length continuous run northbound, crossing runway 27.
39:11Approved, cross runway 27.
39:12And car 21, thank you.
39:14It takes about four and a half minutes.
39:17So sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.
39:20It's the moment of truth.
39:23Sievert and Gavin must drive the full 3.7 kilometre runway in one go.
39:28They need to pass over all 243 lights to make sure they're up to spec.
39:37As you see, the results is loading up there at the moment.
39:41These two areas, that is quite red at the moment.
39:43That is where aircraft touch down.
39:46And that is areas then we will have to concentrate.
39:49See, there's quite a lot of red.
39:50And as soon as you have those two reds next to each other, then it just degrades
39:56that runway at that stage.
39:58So it can't be used in low visibility.
40:01So we can make a start on the cleaning.
40:05All right, good to go.
40:07Yep, good.
40:07Let's go.
40:08It's given us the right position of the lights and where we are.
40:16So I'll fly up next to it and then see if it gives it a clean, with the cleaner.
40:22I believe we will get it all, please.
40:24I believe we'll rise before sunrise.
40:31Getting the work done before sunrise is crucial.
40:35If all the lights are not cleaned in time, the runway will not be safe to use in bad weather.
40:48A call comes in about an approaching plane.
40:53Just turn his light on.
40:54You can see the red and green beacon on the wingtap.
40:58So he'll be taxiing down here now.
41:05It's the more urgent it does become and the faster we'll have to move.
41:11So we have to get it all done before the sun comes up.
41:21Okay, now that he's departed, we'll jump on.
41:274.45am.
41:29And with just 15 minutes before first light, time is running out.
41:40As Seavert approaches the last light, there is another request to vacate.
41:45Are we going to vacate?
41:51I'm good.
41:52The lights has been cleaned.
41:53We're good to go.
41:54Two minutes till we're down.
41:56So I'm just going to vacate.
41:58Now that he'll give him clearance to the land after we've vacated.
42:03Now that our car 19 and company vacated from a 3-4 to Julliard.
42:11We've maintenance wrapped up, the runway is primed for any weather Mother Nature throws her way.
42:27Just in time for Australia's busiest all-hours airport to kick off another day connecting Melbourne
42:33to the world.
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