Attn: State Aviation Safety Officer
We recently manned the Air Tanker Association Conference for the US Air Force. Los Alamitos Army Airfield was the portal for all arrivals. We had all the large cargo/refueling type aircraft in the inventory (except C-5) land here. In all we had around 50 landings in just a couple of days and put through about 2000 passengers to the Convention.
On one particular day we had a FOD problem. A KC-10 was out on taxiway 4 and refused to move because of the heavy FOD that had been blown out on the taxiway by another aircraft. (This particular taxiway needs to be widened for this reason so I expected it.) I got in the truck and drove out to inspect the area. It was bad. Dirt, rocks and weeds laying all over the taxiway. We could have filled wheelbarrows with this stuff. The KC-10 waiting was joined by a C-17. The tower called me on the radio and said two more were on final landing approach and these first aircraft needed to move now. In the past, we had done FOD removal such as this with brooms. An area this large would have taken hours to clean and in this specific case would have shut down our runways to all incoming convention aircraft.
I called in for the new FOD BOSS sweeper product to be put to work on this. Within 5 minutes we had the taxiway clean enough for the KC-10 to pass. Within another 5 minutes we had the ramp behind him clean so the C-17 could pass. In staring at the large aircraft waiting to taxi, it was the longest 10 to 15 minutes of my short career at Los Alamitos.
In short - This product saved the day! Without this taxiway the Air Force taxi plan was shot. The remaining aircraft would have been diverted to another airport, further unraveling their transportation plans to hotels. Thanks to the FOD Boss the VIP's on these aircraft were never aware of the problem, no aircraft engines or tires were damaged by FOD, and the ATA exercise went off without a hitch. Something tells me this product will have a long successful life here, both for normal sweeping operations and when emergency situations present themselves.
Thanks again to State Aviation for getting us this piece of equipment. It really made us look like professionals on that day.
Operations Department
Los Alamitos Army Airfield
California
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