Sparweb
Aerospace
- May 21, 2003
- 5,109
Seems every airport has them these days.
I think I just want to vent some frustration at something I witnessed / tried to intervene in recently.
After disembarking from a flight, I was walking through an airport's gate corridors when I noticed a commotion on the moving sidewalk beside me. An elderly gentleman had started to walk on to it, but once his walker was on the moving belt and his feet were still on the static ramp, I think you all can guess what happened next. Luckily for him the people right in front of him noticed his problem and tried to catch him. With the walker in the way they couldn't completely prevent him from falling. This was when I decided to try to get the thing stopped and ran over to the stop switch. Quite dismayed when the stop switch didn't work. I nearly broke the thing off the bracket pounding on the poor little button. I even tried the one on the opposite belt, to no avail.
My question isn't about the failed stop switch, really. I reported it to the airport officials and although I had to wait 1/2 hour for a public safety officer to come, it was worth the wait. It actually was a guy charged with the safety of these machines (and the escalators, elevators too). We talked at length, though we couldn't go back to the scene because it happened on the secure side, and I had to meet him on the public side of the airport.
My question is really this: Who thinks these moving sidewalks are a good idea?
Are these kinds of accidents common? Walkers, canes... what else can get people tripped on a moving sidewalk?
I rarely bother with these things. I have only ever seen one long enough to make any difference, between terminals at Heathrow, if I recall correctly. The more typical ones I see at little Canadian airports are hardly 30 meters long! What's the point?
STF
I think I just want to vent some frustration at something I witnessed / tried to intervene in recently.
After disembarking from a flight, I was walking through an airport's gate corridors when I noticed a commotion on the moving sidewalk beside me. An elderly gentleman had started to walk on to it, but once his walker was on the moving belt and his feet were still on the static ramp, I think you all can guess what happened next. Luckily for him the people right in front of him noticed his problem and tried to catch him. With the walker in the way they couldn't completely prevent him from falling. This was when I decided to try to get the thing stopped and ran over to the stop switch. Quite dismayed when the stop switch didn't work. I nearly broke the thing off the bracket pounding on the poor little button. I even tried the one on the opposite belt, to no avail.
My question isn't about the failed stop switch, really. I reported it to the airport officials and although I had to wait 1/2 hour for a public safety officer to come, it was worth the wait. It actually was a guy charged with the safety of these machines (and the escalators, elevators too). We talked at length, though we couldn't go back to the scene because it happened on the secure side, and I had to meet him on the public side of the airport.
My question is really this: Who thinks these moving sidewalks are a good idea?
Are these kinds of accidents common? Walkers, canes... what else can get people tripped on a moving sidewalk?
I rarely bother with these things. I have only ever seen one long enough to make any difference, between terminals at Heathrow, if I recall correctly. The more typical ones I see at little Canadian airports are hardly 30 meters long! What's the point?
STF
