Czech Technical University in PragueFaculty of Transportation SciencesDepartment of Air Transport

Magazine of Aviation Development5(3):13-17, 2017, ISSN: 1805-7578

DOI: 10.14311/MAD.2017.03.02

Safety of Cargo AircraftHandling ProcedureDaniel Hlavaty1, Jakub Kraus1*

1Department of Air Transport, Faculty of Transportation Sciences, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague,Czech Republic*Corresponding author: Czech Technical University in Prague, Faculty of Transportation Sciences, Department of AirTransport, Horska 3, 128 00 Prague, Czech Republic, Email: kraus@fd.cvut.cz

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to get acquainted with the ways how to improve the safety management system duringcargo aircraft handling. The first chapter is dedicated to general information about air cargo transportation.This includes the history or types of cargo aircraft handling, but also the means of handling. The second part isfocused on detailed description of cargo aircraft handling, including a description of activities that are performedbefore and after handling. The following part of this paper covers a theoretical interpretation of safety, safetyindicators and legislative provisions related to the safety of cargo aircraft handling. The fourth part of this paperanalyzes the fault trees of events which might occur during handling. The factors found by this analysis arecompared with safety reports of FedEx. Based on the comparison, there is a proposal on how to improve thesafety management in this transportation company.

KeywordsAir cargo transportation — FedEx — FTA — Handling — Predictive Analysis — Safety — Safety factors

1. IntroductionPeople were trying to find ways how to fly from the begin-ning of 20th century. In 1912, the brothers Wrights finallysucceeded. Since then the aviation has gone through a largedevelopment. As people started travelling by planes, the needfor transportation of freight has consequently increased andfirst cargo transport companies were found. In the secondhalf of the 20th century, Federal Express (now FedEx) wasfounded. This company was focused solely on air freight ex-press, not for the transport of people.

One of the most important parts of air transport operationis safety. The level of safety in air traffic companies is in-dicated by a number of air traffic incidents and accidents [1].This number of incidents and accident is currently so low thatthe air traffic companies have to analyse smaller events or mi-nor indicators instead of real accidents, which happen rarely

[2]. These events are monitored and analysed on a daily ba-sis. This paper evaluates current quality of safety during thecargo handling of FedEx aircrafts and search for additionalways how to improve the safety procedures and safety perfor-mance [3, 4].

2. Specifics of air cargo transportationTransportation of freight is different from transportation ofpassengers, especially the procedures of handling are differ-ent. Actions which have to be performed during technicalhandling of passengers aircraft are, inter alia, boarding ofpassengers, loading and unloading of baggage, loading andunloading of cargo, catering supplies and cleaning of aircraft.On the other hand, activities performed during business han-dling of cargo aircrafts can include only crew boarding andloading and unloading of cargo.

D. Hlavaty and J. Kraus Safety of Cargo Aircraft Handling Procedure

In cargo transportation business there are three ways oftransporting cargo. The first method of cargo transporta-tion is bulk. Bulk aircrafts are divided into several segmentswhich are loaded with packages. These packages have to beloaded one after another and secured by correct ways of load-ing. The correct procedure for loading packages at FedEx iscalled T-stacking. T-stacking prevents packages from crashand ensures uniform weight distribution in each segment ofaircraft. A pattern of T-stacking loading is displayed on fig-ure 1 below.

Freight loaded into the unit load devices (ULD) repre-sents the second way how to transport freight by air. Thereare two types of unit load devises. One of them is a container.A metallic container can have many shapes. Smaller contain-ers are used for loading on the main deck of narrow-body air-crafts or loading on the lower deck of these aircrafts. Largercontainers are used for loading on main and lower decks ofwide-body aircrafts. Some containers are specially modifiedto transport vehicles or cattle.

The second type of unit load devices is a pallet. Freightis loaded into pallets, but individual packages have to be se-cured against crash by safety nets. Pallets do not have wallslike containers so freight cannot lean on. The function ofwalls is provided by safety nets.

All of ULDs (containers, pallets and nets) have to be cer-tificated according to the IATA rules. IATA has publishedULD Regulations, which contain all rules for construction,transportation and using of unit load devices. ULD Regula-tions also define the method of marking. Every ULD has itsown unique designation. It is composed of prefix (type ofcontainer), unique number and suffix (code of airline) [5].

The last way how to transport freight by air is the use ofspecial aircrafts to transport oversized and extremely heavyfreight. An example of that aircraft can be Antonov An-225Mrija.

Figure 1. Bulk loading

3. Procedures of HandlingAircrafts that are used for distribution of shipments to areaslike the Czech Republic are called Feeders in FedEx termi-nology. Aircrafts used for this distribution are mostly ATRtypes.

The FedEx operation at Vaclav Havel Airport Prague canbe divided into the AM operation (arrivals) and PM opera-tion (departures). FedEx ATR aircraft arrives on Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Departures are on Mon-day, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. During the day oron non-flying days is the plane parked on apron E1A. Han-dling is provided by Menzies Aviation Company.

3.1 UnloadingThe unloading process usually starts few minutes after theaircraft arrives. Several types of ground support equipment(GSE) are used for unloading. When the propeller is stoppedand anti-collision beacon is switched off, the loading leadercan connect a ground power unit (GPU). Loading belts areused for unloading shipments from aircraft. Shipments fromloading belts are moved to trolleys (the same trolleys, whichare used to transfer baggage). These trolleys are moved to awarehouse where the sorting is performed. It is very impor-tant to follow few safety rules during unloading and duringapproaching of GSE to aircraft. The most important rule isusing a guide person. The guide person is a person who nav-igates GSEs driver and shows by hand signals the distancebetween the GSE and the aircraft. The minimum distancebetween the loading belt and the edge of cargo doors mustbe longer than 5 feet. The second important rule is testingof potential defects of each ground support equipment beforefinal approach of the aircraft. Other safety rules can includee.g. correct positioning of cones, chocking wheels or walk-ing around wings and propeller. All the safety rules are su-pervised by a Ramp Agent of FedEx.

FedExs Ramp Agents is determined to ensure complianceof all safety rules. His further responsibility is preventingthe delays of handling. Every small delay has to be notifiedto the FedEx operation centre in Paris. The Ramp Agentshave to fill a special safety report during every morning andevening operation. This report includes fields to fill in exacttime when each handling activity was executed.

3.2 LodingEvery shipment has to be prepared before loading into air-craft. This preparation includes x-ray and weighting of everyshipment. After that, shipments are loaded to vans and trans-ferred to airports warehouse. After that, the shipments are putover from vans to trolleys. Trolleys are weighted by fork-liftweight and the weight of shipments is calculated by differ-ence of gross weight and weight of empty trolley. A tablewith these weights is sent to the Load Control office, where aLoad Plan is drawn up.

Before any loading is started, it is important to check thattail stand is fixed on the aircrafts tail. A tail stand secures

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D. Hlavaty and J. Kraus Safety of Cargo Aircraft Handling Procedure

the construction of an aircraft in case of overturning to tail.It is also important to make sure that cones are in a correctposition and that aircraft is fully choked.

Any loading can be started only in accordance to the LoadPlan which is created by the Load Control office. Loadingusually takes one hour. All the loading activities are checkedby FedExs Ramp Agent. Every safety deviation is writtendown to a form report. After a departure, all deviations arereported to the Head office of handling company. This report-ing ensures appropriate quality of handling services.

4. Identification and rating of risksEuropean Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) publishes all thesafety regulations in civil aviation in all European air space.Regulations are also set for handling procedures. The twomost important ones are Regulation (EU) No 376/2014 [6]and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1018[7], where the second one defines risky events that canhappen during all activities related to air civic aviation.These events are classified into logical groups. Regulation2015/1018 defines events, which are used in safety reportingsystems like SMS (Safety Management System) for easierclassification of reported events.

Potential high-level events that can happen during a han-dling procedure of FedExs aircraft, or any other cargo air-craft, have been selected from EASA classification (selectedfrom [7]):

• A collision or a near collision on the ground or in theair, with another aircraft, terrain or obstacle.

• Leakage of any fluid which resulted in a fire hazard orpossible hazardous contamination of aircraft structure,systems or equipment, or which has or could have en-dangered the aircraft, its occupants or any other person.

• Push-back, power-back or taxi interference by vehicle,equipment or person.

• Foreign object on the aerodrome movement area whichhas or could have endangered the aircraft, its occupantsor any other person.

• Passengers or unauthorized person left unsupervisedon apron.

• Aerodrome security related occurrences (for example:unlawful entry, sabotage, bomb threat).

• Incorrect handling or loading of passengers, baggage,mail or cargo, likely to have a significant effect on air-craft mass and/or balance (including significant errorsin loadsheet calculations).

• Incorrect stowage or securing of baggage, mail orcargo likely in any way to endanger the aircraft, itsequipment or occupants or to impede emergency evac-uation.

• Transport, attempted transport or handling of danger-ous goods which resulted or could have resulted in thesafety of the operation being endangered or led to anunsafe condition (for example: dangerous goods inci-

dent or accident as defined in the ICAO Technical In-structions).

• Non-compliance with required aircraft ground han-dling and servicing procedures, especially in de-icing,refuelling or loading procedures, including incorrectpositioning or removal of equipment.

• Failure, malfunction or defect of ground equipmentused for ground handling, resulting into damage or po-tential damage to the aircraft (for example: tow bar orGPU (Ground Power Unit)).

• Missing, incorrect or inadequate de-icing/anti-icingtreatment.

• Damage to aircraft by ground handling equipment orvehicles including previously unreported damage.

• Any occurrence where the human performance has di-rectly contributed to or could have contributed to anaccident or a serious incident.

A Fault tree analysis (FTA) has been selected to findsafety factors. For the application of FTA, events specifiedin [7] had to be detailed because the FTA requires well-described top events [8, 9]. As stated, there can be high num-bers of detailed events, i.e. many events can be classifiedunder the points from [7].

4.1 Fault Tree AnalysisFault tree analysis (FTA) was invented with the aim of search-ing for original reasons of accident in civil aviation and nu-clear power engineering. It is based on quality definition oftop events, which means that the top events have to be asdetailed as possible. Also, an important part of the FTA isdetermination of the circuit of investigation. Results of theFTA are represented by factors that could be the first in a se-quence of events, which lead into an accident. FTA is basedon a graphical representation. Such graphical representationhelps finding the real factors [7].

FTA is shown on one specific detailed event Damage ofpropeller due to collision of propeller and trolley, which canbe classified under Damage to aircraft by ground handlingequipment or vehicles including previously unreported dam-age [7].

4.2 Damage of Propeller due to Collision of Pro-peller and Trolley

Any collision occurring during handling means high financialexpenses. A collision between trolleys and propeller is veryprobable, because trolleys are being manipulated in a closeproximity to propeller. Too close approaching of trolleys topropeller is prevented by positioning cones. Cones have tobe located one meter from the planes nose, ends of wingsand tail. Cones have to be located also before front and rearloading doors and in front of propeller.

FedEx focuses on two main rules walking around pro-peller and wings and using a guide person. Prohibition ofwalking or riding with GSE under wings is not a standardrule in other airlines. It causes that loaders with experience

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D. Hlavaty and J. Kraus Safety of Cargo Aircraft Handling Procedure

Figure 2. FTA - Collision of propeller and trolley

from other airlines can forget about the prohibition of walk-ing under wings during FedEx operation. The Team leader ofloading should therefore notify the loaders of every specificFedEx rule before loading or unloading gets started. The firstfactor found by FTA is the absence of briefing before opera-tion. The second factor could be training of loaders, whichshould know all FedExs rules from the trainings they have topass.

All leaders should also know where to place cones aroundaircraft. If they did not pass training on the handling proce-dures of FedExs aircraft and would not perform proper brief-ing, then the cones could end up in wrong position, whichmight have a negative impact on safety distance between trol-leys and propeller.

Another important rule during FedEx operation is usingof guide person. If a guide person is not used or if it usesincorrect hand signals, the safety distance might not be keptand collision can happen. Without a proper training and brief-ing before loading, a loader would not know the right handsignals or procedures that every guide person has to use dur-ing each approach of GSE to the aircraft.

The last factor which has been found by the FTA is badGSE condition. However, such factor like a bad condition ofGSE, are beyond the influence of FedEx. FedEx assumes thatthe condition of GSE is good, because all GSE are owned byhandling company Menzies Aviation.

Figure 2 shows a preview of FTA tree, which considersfactors like training, absence of briefing or bad GSE condi-tion.

5. Determination of factorsFTA has been applied on all defined top events chosen fromEASA classification list that are specific for FedEx opera-

tion. Results of this analysis are presented on a list of fac-tors, which are found to be the original causes of accidentsor incidents. The way how to find out if a current collec-tion of safety data in FedEx is focused on collection of realfactors is comparison. FedEx has a wide database of morn-ing and evening reports in which all safety deviations thathappened since 2011 can be found. The List 1 below showsseveral kinds of safety deviations and its quantity. All data inthe List 1 have been gathered by analysing each report since2011. The List 2 below shows all factors, which have beenfound by the FTA. A comparison of these two lists enablesus to assess if the surveillance of FedExs Ramp Agents is re-ally focused on the original factors or if it focuses only onsmaller events. Effective prevention against accidents duringhandling can occur only if both surveillance and safety datacollection are focused on correct original factors.

List 1: Quantity of safety deviations from 2011 to 2016

• Wrong weight written on trolleys• Walking under wings• Wrong positioning of cones• Issues with warehouse messages• Chocking• Missing of guide person

List 1: Factors found by the FTA

• Training• Briefing before the start of handling• FOD check

After comparing the List 1 and 2, we can conclude thatthe factors found by the FTA do not match with the events inFedEx reports. It means that the reports have to be changed

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D. Hlavaty and J. Kraus Safety of Cargo Aircraft Handling Procedure

in order to increase the quality and usability of safety datacollection.

6. ConclusionSafety management is an important part of every airline. Theaim of safety management is prevention from accidents andincidents in operations. Primary objective of the safety man-agement work is a research of official reports of incidents andaccidents. Nevertheless, this is currently not enough [10]. To-day, it is important to perform a surveillance of events andfactors and thoroughly collect this data.

Two types of analysis and their following comparison hasenabled us to found out that current safety data collectionsupplemented by the reports filled by a Ramp Agent are notsufficient enough. It is necessary to change these reports.

The first problem with the current reports is a lack of theirfocus. The reports are not focused on real problems, whichcan lead to accidents. It is necessary to add some fields intocurrent reports. These new fields would focus on safety fac-tors. Then, after some time, a good database of factors devi-ations will be created. A thorough analysis of this databasewill help us finding which factors are repeated most often.Consequently, FedEx will be able to improve its handlingprocedures to prevent the occurrence of undesirable factorsduring operations. As a result, the overall safety will be in-creased.

The second problem with the current reports is the wayhow data is currently collected. For example, the reportsmiss checkbox fields. Based on FedExs reports analysis itwas found that several important reported events in reportsdo not have its own field. These events are currently filledinto a remarks field so the recording of important events hap-pens only if the Ramp Agent does not forget to fill this fieldand/or if he has enough time for that during handling. Exis-tence of checkboxes on reports could have a positive impacton quantity of collected safety data.

Only a focus on the real causes of accidents or incidentsand ways how the data about such incidents is collected canimprove the risk management in FedEx Czech Republic.

AcknowledgmentsThis paper was supported by the Grant Agency ofthe Czech Technical University in Prague, grants No.SGS17/154/OHK2/2T/16 and SGS17/152/OHK2/2T/16.

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