Heathrow for the day!

Posted 8hrs ago
by Mylee Baddeley

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by Mylee Baddeley, aged 15

After a shopping trip and an overnight stay in London, I arrived at Heathrow Airport full of anticipation of the day ahead. I was going for a behind the scenes experience of the airport – How lucky am I?

When we first arrived, we were welcomed by Pippa and Neesh. Andy and Hunnie from Heathrow Airport introduced themselves and took us to a meeting room. They gave us a helmet, high vis vest and steel toe capped shoes to protect us on our tour. We then had a safety briefing and a talk about the day ahead. We then headed off to security to begin our tour.

Baggage Handling

Our first stop was in the baggage handling area where the suitcases go. It was cool to watch the boxes carry the suitcases and stack them in flight times based on their labels. We learnt that it is better to keep your suitcase as a square or rectangle, as if you have a circle case it can roll on to other areas causing blockages or go on a wrong plane. It was very loud!

Firefighters

After this we went to the fire station and had a ride in a fire engine. We learnt the differences between the fire engines and how the different adaptations on the top of the fire engines work. We also learned how they don’t use much foam and they tend to use water. They also do the job of paramedics as they are quicker at getting to the casualties as they are there sooner. I got to fire water out of the jet using the joystick, and change the direction and speed of the water.

Control Tower

Wow! What a view! The planes and the airport view was amazing! We went in a lift up the side of the control tower. The control tower is designed to sway in the wind. The centre of it is built with a clock pendulum so that when the wind sways, it sways with it to stop people from getting motion sickness. We also got to look at the cameras placed around the towers for when the days are cloudy.

Employability talk

We then had an informal discussion with Andy, Hunnie, Mo who is Security Lead at LHR and Diversity & Inclusion Specialist Jason. They asked us questions about how the airport could improve with supporting people that have Tourette syndrome with employment. They are working with Tourettes Action to hopefully produce a video with awareness for workers. They also discuss a staff passport for working on their phones – that explain about a disability/condition for awareness rather than people having to wear a lanyard.

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