- 6/19/2025
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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 journey.
01:31We'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.
01:46Respected firearms still in the chamber. And on time. Two down, one to go. At a 24-7 airport,
01:55every. I don't want this kangaroo jumping anyway. Second counts.
02:00See, it's 10 to 6. 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.
02:22And today kicks off one of the busiest times of the year.
02:25School holidays. Over 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 can
02:55feel 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're hitting 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.
03:16In Terminal 2, three international flights have landed close together.
03:22With all passengers needing to clear border force, queues are building fast.
03:29Terminal coordinator Sarah is keeping a close eye on the congestion.
03:34We 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're 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, there is a call to the IOC about an issue affecting
04:25passengers in T4. Does it impact their check-in? Okay. And is it having an impact on your flights
04:33as of now? Okay. And when does this issue start? Okay, no worries. Thanks. Bye.
04:41Uh, Dan, just for your info, there's a post 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.
05:09It's an IT outage for the airline. And the provider has no idea when it will come back online.
05:19Meanwhile, Jetstar has 20 flights departing Melbourne in the next three hours.
05:23Actually, there are things building up down there. I can see on the cameras.
05:27I'll double-check. Usually around 3, 4.5pm pay.
05:313,700 passengers need to check in. But 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. There's probably about 200-odd passengers in the hall.
05:50All right. We'll get you past it. All right. See you. Bye.
05:54Issue 3, 2, 4. There's still manual check-in. They're just a little bit nervous.
06:03It's starting to build up. Accusability. I think we've got about an hour.
06:07I think it's not because it's going up. Thank you, Dan. Thank you.
06:16Today's afternoon peak hits at 3pm, with a surge in passenger numbers expected.
06:22If the issue isn't fixed by then, the airline won't be able to keep up,
06:28leading to widespread delays with the ripple effects felt across the country.
06:33JQ518 through to Sydney. Once again, we do apologise for the delay on your service.
06:38Because there are school holidays, obviously 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, the passage is impacted on travel.
06:50People can't check in quickly or their flights potentially are delayed and they've got connections
06:56to other cities, whichever it might be. It can spill over into passengers becoming
07:02a little bit aggressive or a little bit frustrated. But our role is then to go down there and make sure
07:08that they're informed, they know what's going on. Generally, that keeps the nerves down.
07:11If they don't know and they can just see chaos, then yeah, they can get some bad reactions.
07:17You know, it could have to play very quickly, so we're on alert now just to be ready.
07:21Please make your way to gate 49 as the flight is closing.
07:26You walk in and it's packed out.
07:28You get a little bit annoyed, especially if you're running a bit late on to catch a flight.
07:34So...
07:34With 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. So we're just going to grab our portable
07:51check-in counters. So these counters are designed to be moved around in a moment of crisis.
07:57Melbourne 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 checking them in?
08:09They don't have enough staff at the moment to operate all of the bag drops,
08:12the 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.
08:22You've got a bag tag on there?
08:23Yeah.
08:24Do you want to come through to me?
08:25OK. Just one at a time.
08:29You're all good. Thank you.
08:30You're all good. Thank you.
08:31Two domestic flights are set to depart in the next 15 minutes.
08:35But 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've checked in. We just can't drop our bag.
08:55Um, it's just our, it looks like a few of software.
08:59Is this going to help?
09:01Flights on time?
09:01Very disliked.
09:02Like, there 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.
09:07Um, they might wait a little bit longer because they're likely here and just haven't been able
09:11to check in there.
09:13Our plane's ready to close off in like 10 minutes and there's a lot of other people
09:17that are going to be in the worst predicament.
09:19Yeah.
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 let you know.
09:31All right, thanks. Bye.
09:33We've got the Jetstar duty manager asking if we get an update from Cedar.
09:38So Cedar's the company that looks after all the kiosks and the technology around the kiosks,
09:42the self-checking kiosks.
09:44So we're waiting from them for an update to see what's going on.
09:46Uh, Jetstar's obviously getting nervous.
09:50Uh, Dan.
09:51Yeah, I spoke to Cedar.
09:52Yeah.
09:54He's telling me he doesn't have any update.
09:56Yeah, no, Nathan's just saying that.
09:58The progress started to fire back up, but then no.
10:00Yeah.
10:00He gets through a pipe we've got to hang on.
10:08With no solution in sight, a crisis management meeting is called in the IOC.
10:13With that in mind, since this is a waiting game, we'll do the next CMT in
10:16an 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 pipe 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 isn't fixed by this evening, they won't be able to keep up with demand.
10:43Both of these services will be closing shortly.
10:45It's a crisis.
10:46It's a crisis.
10:54So, with 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.
11:12Up 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.
11:26Directing takeoffs and landings, sometimes with just seconds in between.
11:32Wind 2, 0, 0 degrees, 1, 2, 0, 1, 2, 0.
11:40Supporting the tower on the ground is the airside safety crew.
11:46We're the eyes of the tower on the ground.
11:48We'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.
12:09And whenever something does happen, I mean, it gets the adrenaline running.
12:14The tower has just received an emergency call from an incoming flight.
12:19OK.
12:20A 10-month-old baby is suffering anaphylaxis.
12:23A pan-emergency has been declared, the second highest distress call after a mayday.
12:29The tower needs to alert the Integrated Operations Centre to get help on the ground fast.
12:35G'day tower, what's up?
12:37Pan Medical.
12:38Which one?
12:39517 inbound to Golf 51.
12:42We have a 10-month-old possibly having an anaphylactic reaction.
12:46That's all I've got.
12:47Calling 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.
13:02Jets call GQ 517.
13:04They've declared a banned medical.
13:09Attention, attention.
13:10First aid call, 10 to 6, 10 out.
13:12With the flight set to land in just six minutes, it's been given priority over all other arrivals.
13:25Rod 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.
14:11The 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?
14:26Runway, hold.
14:27Good, good, good, good.
14:28Chesda 508, runway 274 and ops runway 27, cleared to land.
14:48That might even be the aircraft there.
14:50They still must rate it fairly serious because they are hiking to the bay.
15:012.40pm. Back at Terminal 4, a system outage has taken down all self-check-in kiosks,
15:09leading to long queues.
15:11We will have a system outage.
15:13On top of that, it's the busy school holiday period.
15:22As the pressure builds, another 500 passengers arrive and three afternoon flights have just
15:30opened at check-in.
15:31Just lay it flat for me, please.
15:34At the Integrated Operations Centre, Terminal Coordinator Ritesh is monitoring the growing
15:40crowds on CCTV.
15:42If the crowd keeps growing and spills towards the passenger drop-off areas, it could quickly become
16:02a safety concern.
16:04We'll get some volunteers there also.
16:06Yeah, yeah, that'd be great.
16:07Just to get like one or two of the lines to go down towards the locals.
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.
16:17No worries.
16:18Thanks, man.
16:18Bye.
16:19Bye.
16:19Bye.
16:22Priority 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.
18:06So anything like that always hits you, especially with kids, that 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.
18:44It starts when they call, then the guys in the tower give them priority, then the guys on the ground.
18:51You know, as well as in the IOC, you know, getting everything in place.
18:56It'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, there's finally some good news in the IOC.
19:17Just checking if the systems are coming back online.
19:21Thank you. Bye.
19:24It's back.
19:24Hopefully it stays like that.
19:28Is the issue resolved?
19:30There 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.
19:39We'll have a quick check.
19:42OK, cool.
19:43So, judging by the self-checking, it seems like everything's back up and running.
19:46As the 3pm rush hits, the tech issue is resolved, just in time.
19:54Melbourne Airport and the airline have avoided major delays, keeping 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.
20:11There's no issue with any delays.
20:24It'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.
20:52IRT, a leader in international horse transport, is gearing up for one of the busiest nights in the year.
21:00We've got a charter of horses coming in from Europe with 68 horses on board.
21:07So, the horses coming through the warehouse tonight will probably be in excess of $300 or $400 million.
21:12Probably worth more than the plane is.
21:15I 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.
21:28So, we've got to work within that time frame.
21:34Pressure's on on the team.
21:36We'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 out.
21:456.03pm 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? Because 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.
22:31Australia 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
22:50to ensure those diseases don't come in.
22:55Yep, they're right.
22:5620 minutes after touchdown, the first of the air stools rolls into IRT.
23:06Each horse travels in its own container, like a business class suite, with a lot more leg room.
23:13So, because this was a charter flight, it would have been about 24 hours.
23:17Normally, a flight from Europe would be closer to 28 to 30.
23:22Now, 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
23:41and 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
23:57and 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,
24:09making sure horses can load safely.
24:10The most important thing is avoiding stress on the horses.
24:16So, really for us here, it's all about speed.
24:18Come in, unload straight onto the truck.
24:22The 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.
24:55At the First Point facility, 68 elite horses are being processed into the country
25:05to compete in the spring racing carnival.
25:10In 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.
25:35So, 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 to speed up the process.
25:48All right, catch up.
25:50Guys, do you want to just detach and go?
25:53We'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,
26:03just to speed the process up so these guys can go back and get some more.
26:06I've never seen nothing like this.
26:10I've never seen this many in here, man.
26:12It's a banana.
26:14Three in each one, so there would have been 18 so far.
26:1918 of the 68.
26:2150 more to go.
26:22The last thing they need is rain.
26:27Yeah, it's getting a little bit wet out there.
26:39Horses can be sensitive to anything, really.
26:44They're flighty animals.
26:45You 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.
26:56That'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.
27:13If there is lightning within a certain distance of the airport,
27:16they run a siren.
27:17And then once you hear that siren, you know everyone stops work
27:20and goes and seeks cover.
27:22So if they shut down the airport, then we've got to wait till 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.
27:30That's for sure.
27:31Rain's okay.
27:32Lightning not so good.
27:37Do you want to bring two more in?
27:40Do it now.
27:41Go, Michelle.
27:42We'll bring two more in.
27:48Just as the sun begins to set,
27:50a much-needed break in the weather finally arrives.
27:54We're getting there.
27:54Thanks.
27:55The team moves into the final stage of the operation.
28:00The last stalls are coming through the back gate now,
28:02so everyone's here.
28:04We've just got to get them unloaded.
28:05All right.
28:07All right.
28:08We're just going to put these ones here again, not in, not in yet.
28:13We're getting there.
28:14Unload 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.
28:31The last three horses are finally unloaded.
28:47Are we all in?
28:52Yeah, yeah, yeah.
28:54For the team at IRT, it's a huge sigh of relief.
28:58Every one of their multi-million dollar passengers is safe, sound and accounted for.
29:04Yeah, it's nice that the storm passed.
29:06We got through that, but I think it's gone about as smoothly as it could have gone.
29:10Yeah.
29:11There's a lot going on throughout the night, a lot of things moving around,
29:14a lot of adrenaline pumping.
29:15But at the end of the day, you sit back, you look back at it,
29:18and you have the satisfaction of everything you've just achieved.
29:21You've brought 68 horses in.
29:23Can't do much more than that in an afternoon.
29:26Three, four, take off.
29:33Midnight, and Melbourne Airport is anything but asleep.
29:37With the runways open 24-7, the early hours are prime time for freight and international flights.
29:4722.
29:48But 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.
30:04I've been in Australia for a bit over 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 moving from arrival to departure.
30:23Evening 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.
30:34So we're crossing runway 0927 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 or air 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 jobs at the airport.
30:59Nerves of steel are required.
31:01The risk is always aircraft movement.
31:04And there obviously will be international traffic coming in.
31:08The pressure is on to have it all complete before sunrise.
31:1212.10am 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.
32:22We'll have a look at that one.
32:244, 10, 0, 18.
32:26There 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.
32:51Each light comes with a price tag of over $1,200.
32:55So it's not your average light bulb from the hardware store.
33:02This is their new thing. Taxiway.
33:05And then we will head out back onto the taxiways and we'll go and replace those couple of fittings.
33:11We go out in between aircraft to do it.
33:25So it's very, very scary the first time probably when you do it.
33:31We do it as like a Formula 1 team where we just replace the fitting.
33:35So we come out with a rattle gun, lift up the fitting, change the fitting out, plug it, plug
33:40and plug the new fitting in, take the other one out, put these two nuts on, do it up, torque it up
33:44and off we go again. So, 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.
34:03Remote one six is peg one departure.
34:05I can see there's an aircraft. It's probably on a tug because it'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,
34:21don't go in between, which means that aircraft is heading your way.
34:24But from the back of an aircraft, there's usually just white light.
34:27So that's usually an indication then that the aircraft is moving away from you.
34:33Before they can replace the faulty light,
34:35they need to make sure no planes are heading in their direction.
34:40Turn the radios up just so that we can hear any communication and then we'll go for it.
34:44We've got a Qantas on front of it. Yep.
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.
34:58Yeah, Jet Stars and he's coming in now.
35:02They've got just over five minutes before a plane rolls onto the taxiway.
35:06The team are confident they can get the job done in four.
35:14As long as nothing goes wrong, no pressure.
35:17That's loose.
35:19Huh?
35:20That's loose.
35:21Uh, we've probably got about, about five minutes.
35:25Uh, till the next aircraft probably uses this taxiway.
35:29So, land, land and run down to Juliet, um, and vacate Juliet.
35:33So, Juliet's just behind us.
35:34So, he's gonna make sure that it's, uh, we're out of the, out of the nuts.
35:38Gonna grab me two new nuts, please.
35:39I've got two new nuts.
35:40I've got two new nuts.
35:42Very important to make sure we don't, uh, stand here too long,
35:46especially with aircraft landing the whole time.
35:48Gav, can I grab the fitting, please?
35:50The fitting?
35:51I just need to do the PIDs.
35:53Is he coming our way?
36:00Gav?
36:01Ah, yeah.
36:02Gav and Gavin are racing to change a faulty light on an active taxiway as an outgoing
36:29plane approaches.
36:39How's it looking?
36:41Good.
36:44So, we have to hold it away from this one.
36:55It's always a good feeling when you, uh, when you know that you've done the
36:59light, the lights all work here again, um, and you're dodging the aircraft.
37:03So, it's, uh, pretty good.
37:08Ah, so that's the aircraft.
37:09It's gonna 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.
37:21Happy with their quick light fix, the pair moves on.
37:28Next up, some crucial maintenance on the north-south runway.
37:35And later on during the night, we'll be, uh, running the MAMS, uh, which is our mobile
37:40airfield lighting monitoring system.
37:42Um, so we measure the, uh, intensity of the lights.
37:45If they do need a clean, we'll go out and actually clean the lights.
37:48Every 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.
38:15It's going to be tight to complete the 90 minutes of work before sunrise.
38:21So, here is our photometric array at the moment.
38:25We'll set that up for runway centreline.
38:29Before they run the test, they need to check in with air traffic control.
38:33I just want to double check movement at the moment.
38:39Yeah, we've got a, that cafe aircraft there, which is pushed back.
38:43But they've got a few issues with the tone, but hopefully they're going to depart soon.
38:48Yeah, so you've got a bit of time now.
38:49See what if you wanted it right?
38:50Yeah, okay.
38:51So we should be able to do both our runs now.
38:54Could I request runway 34 centreline on stage six and the edge lights turned off, please?
39:00And 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.
39:10Approved cross runway 27.
39:12Car 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.
39:22Sievert and Gavin must drive the full 3.7 kilometre runway in one go.
39:29They 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 and that is areas that 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,
39:54then it just degrades that 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.
40:06Yep, good.
40:07Let's go.
40:08Ground, can't sleep, mission lift, good.
40:13It's giving us the right position of the lot to where we are.
40:16So I'll pull up next to it and then see if it gives it a clean.
40:19Get the cleaner.
40:22I believe we will get it all clean.
40:24And we run before sunrise.
40:31Getting the work done before sunrise is crucial.
40:35If all the lights are not cleaned in time,
40:37the runway will not be safe to use in bad weather.
40:48A call comes in about an approaching plane.
40:51Just 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.
41:00It'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.
41:234.45am and 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.
41:55So I'm just going to vacate.
41:58Now that Neil giving clearance to the land after we've vacated.
42:03Now that our car 19 and company vacated runway 34 to Juliet.
42:15With 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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