I think the snow team was voted best in the world if I'm not mistaken, many times. I work at Arlanda (Cargo side) and I watch these guys almost every day in the winter. It's almost more fun than the planes at this point.
nah like every country has that one airport they claim is the best in the world or best in Europe so hard to say who is the best. but like elementalgolem said Norway probably gives them a run for their money. also don't forget it's just fucking stockholm there is no such thing as harsh winters there. just average winters that the city cunts think is extreme because they never ben outside the city a day in their lives and they are all snowflakes.
I work in one of the terminals at Arlanda as a barista and during the calm hours its always fun to watch the plow-train go around outside. And they also give a bit of light as well during the dark hours of the day as they do as well which brings a bit of joy. Great video!
Arlanda and Helsinki also have three runways just in case of this. No matter how bad the conditions are, there is always one runway open while two might be out of operations while being cleaned.
Yes and Arlanda may get 1-2 more runways so they will have around 4-5 runways because Bromma Airport is closing and all the flights from there is moving to Arlanda Airport. But first Arlanda Airport has to expand and make room for all the flights that belongs to Bromma Airport can be moved to Arlanda Airport.
@@tseyksuli4541That won't happen until 2038 at the earliest, that's when Bromma airports contract runs out, if it is not renewed. Though while the red-greens wants to shut down the airport after 2038, the current government does not.
these types of videos is why I love youtube. I end up watching so much random cool stuff I would not even think of without youtube. Also very well made video :D
This was actually a bit emotional for me to watch. My dad used to work as a mechanic on Arlanda. The snow machines was one of the things he worked with. So to see how they look and work. Now he’s gone and I can’t show him and ask about them and it was really sad for me. But it’s a really nice video to see.
9 หลายเดือนก่อน +17
Remember times at, for example, Brussels Airport. Last flight home to CPH. About 2 cm of snow, light snow falling. We were all waiting on the plane to fly home. The pilot said we possibly were the last plane that evening. They had closed Frankfurt, and others were to be closed as well. We shook our heads. Never seen snow? They should go and look how it is at Kallax, Luleå.
And all of this equipment are made in Norway by Øveråsen. Thay are specialists on this kind of equipment and deliver to many airports. Thanks for the video.
Great video and an impressive operation. I'm always impressed to see how quickly and diligently Swedavia ops sweep in to clean up the de-icing fluid as soon as a plane leaves the gate at ARN.
De-icing is done by Ground crew which are other private companies, main 3 are SGH, Aviator and Menzies. Swedavia maintains runways, taxiways, ATC, landside maintenance and ground equipment that is shared between ground crew such as stairs, chocks, ground power.
30 years ago I remember returning from Tenerife South in a TWE MD83 with minimum fuel and holding Turku as an alternate. We broke visual at the minima just as the runway sweeper squadron was exiting the far end of the runway, providing us perfectly clean bitumen to land on. Great feeling. Great work Arlanda. Top video - look forward to more
My home airport ❤ I've seen these enormous machines doing their coordinated dance around the runway - thanks for this video on what is going on behind the scenes! And kudos to all personnel working so diligently in snow removal.
We went thru Arlanda in January (on our way from London to Auckland and back!) . Highly efficient, and so comforting to know that it has never been closed by snow....unlike Heathrow.
that day in the news in Sweden the word usedwas that it was closed - it made my return trip a nightmare@@frazzefraz I remember this very vividly as the same moment i turned on my phone after landning m Holland, my friend called to deliver that information.
Wow, that equipment was state of the art! Gabriel gets to sit in the “flight deck” so to speak again! I see the pilots really earn their pay too coming in and out of this airport with the weather right down to minimums. The airport must have quite the budget. I fly to Hawaii quite a bit, which is basically the polar opposite. Thanks for the insiders look - Jim
Incredible video! It brought back memories from when I worked at Dulles (KIAD), in the US. I used to work in airline ops at the weather and snow desk. A well run winter op is an impressive thing to behold.
These people definitely know what they are doing and have the proper equipment to do it. You should go to Heathrow when there's an inch or two of snow... 😉
Another great video. I really enjoy the behind the scenes look. I only wish the video was longer! Any extra footage from the day there??? Regardless, impressive operations. Really appreciate how every piece of the puzzle fits to make this airport function
Really nice vid. I have some friends that work at Oslo airport, they apparantly use snow plows that are controlled autonomously, they basically set up a plan for where to drive and a fleet of snow plows can drive the route on their own.
Helsinki in Finland and Arlanda in Swedern are always open all year round airports. Our winters in Nordic countries can be very harsh. Actually the Finns and Swedes are giving knowhow to varoius countries 🙂
The name Øveråsen that you see on much of the equipment is a Norwegian company that specialises in snow removal equipment for airports. You find them all over Europe and in the USA as well. But the people operating the equipment are just as important!
Impressive how they've never had to close due to weather. But about ten or so years ago they did close Arlanda airport due to a total blackout of power. I was on a 737 heading for Arlanda from Barcelona and halfway the pilot came on the radio informing us that Arlanda was shut down due to a blackout. We circled for what felt like a couple hours, many planes did this and just circled, waiting for the possibility and eventuality of them opening the airport again, and the pilot informed us as the fuel was getting low that if they didn't open up Arlanda soon we would have to go to Copenhagen instead and buses would wait for us there to take us to Stockholm. Luckily we got clearance to land at Arlanda as they got the power back on eventually.
With about one domestic flight per month I think I can call myself a frequent flyer. Normally snow removal works nicely on Swedish airports. I don’t use Arlanda so often because Bromma is more conventient for me, not even there I had a cancelled flight because of snow and ice. However i once was stuck at Malmö Sturup once for three hours in the plane, waiting for decent runway conditions in a bad snowstorm. Then the crew gave up, they had reached their maximum work time. So I needed to spend a night in Malmö snd came home almost 24h late.
Sweden only had THREE land based casinos (all government operated) in the country and still didn’t manage to turn a profit. That’s how useless our politicians are.
@@peterryan8472 most of the airport is 50 years old, most gates dont have aircon for the aircraft, the different terminals baggage systems are seperate, no gates have fixed 28v Ground power for small aircraft so we have to use diesel powered ones or movable electric powered ones, The gates are very small so often there is almost no space to move around with vehicles and most gates dont have heating in the ground which means they get covered in snow and ice and where they cant get to with machines snow stays and gets turned into ice
@@peterryan8472 Inefficient and non-integrated terminal layout (long walks, terrible for connections); Poor parking area utilization; Very high penalty fee for using the train station. The gov. lets Arlanda Express suck money from the Swedes and sends the profits to Luxemburg. 01R/19L is far away from anything important. Even so, no independent parallel approaches, which means departure delays during rushhour.
8:46 that is a two stearing one driving truck, with a tank and a 5th wheel, and then a boom trailer after that. That is heck of a uncommon configuration
This is a great post! Interesting subject matter, well presented. I would like more - what each vehicle does specifically and how. And what order they take in the removal. It's involved!
I wish we Norwegians were so ambitious as the Swedish. F me I am sure if we had never won the lottery in form of an insane oil storage tank under our country than we would be the least developed country in western Europe. Actually... Even with the oil money we are still roughly the least developed country of north-west Europe. Only we like to think we are the top of the world. It is a master piece of an example of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
If only they had this for the rest of Sweden... I wouldn't have to walk 4 km cuz SL can't get there busses to go anywhere with the tiniest amount of snow
I once arrived to Landvetter airport in the morning and it was like they had realized in the morning it had snowed during the night. Runway wasn’t cleared when my flight was supposed to take off.
It's great that Arlanda never closes but let me tell you, you don't want to be a passenger during one of these snow storms. Usually, only one runway is open. That means that everything is massively delayed on takeoff (which might mean sitting in the plane by the gate for quite a while). And if you're landing, expect your plane to join a long queue at the taxiway, waiting for the snow removal team to come and pick your plane (and about five more) up. The planes will then line up behind the ploughs and taxi to the gates. The wait can easily take 30 minutes. So yes, I admire that they never close but do hope that you don't encounter a snow storm there. :D
Very exciting. But I would have liked more information on how exactly the missions are coordinated, how exactly the machines work, how the tower is involved, etc. The video could have been a few minutes longer.
-The routes for the vehicles are pre-planned, with some flexibility for changing conditions. These routes and vehicle coordination are practiced during the off-season to gain experience. -You have one guy, the Snow Chief (supervisor) in charge per shift. He monitors weather conditions from national services, as well as from monitoring equipment on the airfield, as well as embedded in the surfaces (taxiways and runways). This aids the Snow Chief in decision making regarding when to start treating with chemicals or physical removal, as well as which surfaces to treat. -At larger airports, different sections of the airfield have different priority. Usually, the fire stations, the largest runway(s), the high-speed exits, the terminal area, the aircraft de-icing pad, and the taxiways between these locations forming first priority. With outfield runways or smaller runways and connecting taxiways being second priority, and less used areas like cargo or private access (corporate jet) ramps getting third priority. -The core machines are: solid spreaders (sand or pellet de-icer chems), liquid spreaders (giant crop sprayers, essentially) for liquid anti-ice chems, tow-behind or multi-function vehicles (called PSB in the video), high-speed brooms for smaller areas, snow blowers for bulk snow pile, loaders or dozers for snow disposal, and snow melters (giant boilers). -Every action on a movement surface (taxiway or runway) is coordinated by the tower. That can be an airplane, winter weather equipment, or a pickup truck. Every vehicle out there has the same radios as a plane, and can be required to talk to the tower. -Typically, you have a very experienced airfield driver (or an operations person) that leads a pack of vehicles. That person has the job of speaking with the tower and coordinating closures of the runways for cleaning, or monitoring aircraft movements and routes to guide their group around active taxiways safely. -I must impress upon you that there is so much to operating on an airfield. Its like learning how to drive all over again, and all the rules are different and often un-intuitive. That is on a normal day! -During winter weather, that is amplified by low visibility, fatigue, cluttered communication between so many vehicles, and the complexities of operating equipment with 5 radios, 3 control sticks, 4 wheel steering, 2 engines, 4 screens, and bigger than an oversize 18-wheeler truck. -Sincerely, an airfield operator and 'snow fighter' at a large international airport.
not sure if it would cost more or be cheaper in the long run but would heated runways work? like just a long heated driveway feel like if would make it alot easier but i could be wrong maybe someone knows more then me lol
The heat would not be enough to handle Nordic winters. For example in January of this year even the southern parts of Finland had -37C during the day and in the north temperatures were below -40C. The snow might melt with heating but it would immediately turn in to solid ice in those temperatures.
Hi Gabe! Thanks for the great video as usual! On the big truck snow ploughs - there's the truck in front of the plow, then the brush - but what is the trailing equipment for? It looks like an engine on a stick and wheels! :)
What's unique about an environment like this for a heavy equipment operator is that you are expected to be able to operate many different types of equipment, from different manufacturers and different era's in a high stress area often with zero visibility. This was not such a big deal before computers when all equipment had clearly labelled leavers, buttons, dials etc. but now everything keeps changing so fast. Every new piece of equipment has different software and screens and nothing is labelled with words it's all symbols so manufacturers can save a couple bucks per unit and sell to a global market without changing anything. Most of this won't apply to normal equipment operators as they will probably only have a couple pieces of equipment to learn.
I bet it is the same throughout many industries. I work at a small furniture factory. We have five or six modern carpentry machines, all with a completely unique OS and interface. They all use different symbols, different menu structures, different boot up procedures, different calibration procedures and CAD languages... Two years in, I'm tearing my hair out every day. Of course we also operate a bunch of old manually operated machines. With them, I could walk in the first day on the job and start production without any introduction whatsoever.
They could have used these machines when the E4 highway was clogged due to snow xD People where stuck for 12h+ and they had to call in the military to evacuate them with bandwagons lol
It was the E22 and not the E4 that’s way down south from Arlanda. We can thank the politicians that privatized the road maintenance and sold of old the equipment to the Baltic states and Russia. Just like everything else nothing is allowed to cost anything as taxes been cut to make the rich richer and us out of basic service!
The incident was partly caused by foreign freight trucks with worn out tires getting stuck and clogging up traffic. These trucks would never pass a Swedish mandatory inspection, but foreign veichles are not obliged to go through that inspection.
That's all nice and dandy, but waiting 24 hours, at a minimum, for the road where I live really sucks. But it's really good to know that Arlanda makes sure that the runways are always clear. Making sure that people can catch their flights! Yay! How the fuck did they get to the airport then? Their roads were plowed. There are lots of jobs up north in Sweden, but you can't get to work. Work that one out, and then I'll be impressed.
I love the way you pronounced "Snötippen". Surprisingly accurate, I might add.
😃
I think the snow team was voted best in the world if I'm not mistaken, many times.
I work at Arlanda (Cargo side) and I watch these guys almost every day in the winter. It's almost more fun than the planes at this point.
Hej
not sure if theres any offcial rankings, but they sure are some of the best. but the Norwegian teams definitely give them a run for their money ;P
nah like every country has that one airport they claim is the best in the world or best in Europe so hard to say who is the best. but like elementalgolem said Norway probably gives them a run for their money. also don't forget it's just fucking stockholm there is no such thing as harsh winters there. just average winters that the city cunts think is extreme because they never ben outside the city a day in their lives and they are all snowflakes.
Grymt jobbat grabbar och tjejer!
@Grodstark Fint att du ger cred till dina kollegor.
I'd easily watch a 45 minute, no commentary video similar to your others of just snow plowing at Arlanda in a snow storm
I work in one of the terminals at Arlanda as a barista and during the calm hours its always fun to watch the plow-train go around outside. And they also give a bit of light as well during the dark hours of the day as they do as well which brings a bit of joy. Great video!
Wish you a great day at work. Hope some customer will make you smile.
It's true! Thanks for the comment.
Arlanda and Helsinki also have three runways just in case of this. No matter how bad the conditions are, there is always one runway open while two might be out of operations while being cleaned.
Yes and Arlanda may get 1-2 more runways so they will have around 4-5 runways because Bromma Airport is closing and all the flights from there is moving to Arlanda Airport. But first Arlanda Airport has to expand and make room for all the flights that belongs to Bromma Airport can be moved to Arlanda Airport.
Helsinki shut down once in a while, been there, it is not fun.
@@tseyksuli4541That won't happen until 2038 at the earliest, that's when Bromma airports contract runs out, if it is not renewed. Though while the red-greens wants to shut down the airport after 2038, the current government does not.
Talk about quality video production! Amazing
How can a freaking flightradar channel put out such an incredible and emotional video.
these types of videos is why I love youtube. I end up watching so much random cool stuff I would not even think of without youtube. Also very well made video :D
This was actually a bit emotional for me to watch. My dad used to work as a mechanic on Arlanda. The snow machines was one of the things he worked with. So to see how they look and work. Now he’s gone and I can’t show him and ask about them and it was really sad for me. But it’s a really nice video to see.
Remember times at, for example, Brussels Airport. Last flight home to CPH. About 2 cm of snow, light snow falling. We were all waiting on the plane to fly home. The pilot said we possibly were the last plane that evening. They had closed Frankfurt, and others were to be closed as well. We shook our heads. Never seen snow? They should go and look how it is at Kallax, Luleå.
And all of this equipment are made in Norway by Øveråsen. Thay are specialists on this kind of equipment and deliver to many airports. Thanks for the video.
Great video and an impressive operation. I'm always impressed to see how quickly and diligently Swedavia ops sweep in to clean up the de-icing fluid as soon as a plane leaves the gate at ARN.
De-icing is done by Ground crew which are other private companies, main 3 are SGH, Aviator and Menzies. Swedavia maintains runways, taxiways, ATC, landside maintenance and ground equipment that is shared between ground crew such as stairs, chocks, ground power.
30 years ago I remember returning from Tenerife South in a TWE MD83 with minimum fuel and holding Turku as an alternate. We broke visual at the minima just as the runway sweeper squadron was exiting the far end of the runway, providing us perfectly clean bitumen to land on. Great feeling. Great work Arlanda. Top video - look forward to more
My home airport ❤ I've seen these enormous machines doing their coordinated dance around the runway - thanks for this video on what is going on behind the scenes! And kudos to all personnel working so diligently in snow removal.
Flightradar doing a special about our airport, sweet!
7:33 Ahh so cute, they waiting on the plane to clear the runway before going out. Must look special for the pilots landing.
We went thru Arlanda in January (on our way from London to Auckland and back!) . Highly efficient, and so comforting to know that it has never been closed by snow....unlike Heathrow.
It was closed when I returnera due to snowfall dec 5, 2012
let's pretend it didn't happen.
:^)
@@cykeldoktorn4241 Ok. It was closed one time :)
@@cykeldoktorn4241 There was less landings and take offs because of the weather but they didn't closed.
that day in the news in Sweden the word usedwas that it was closed - it made my return trip a nightmare@@frazzefraz I remember this very vividly as the same moment i turned on my phone after landning m Holland, my friend called to deliver that information.
Wow, that equipment was state of the art! Gabriel gets to sit in the “flight deck” so to speak again! I see the pilots really earn their pay too coming in and out of this airport with the weather right down to minimums. The airport must have quite the budget. I fly to Hawaii quite a bit, which is basically the polar opposite. Thanks for the insiders look - Jim
Excellent. So much work goes into keeping our airports safe.
Incredible video! It brought back memories from when I worked at Dulles (KIAD), in the US. I used to work in airline ops at the weather and snow desk. A well run winter op is an impressive thing to behold.
6:38 - great choice of background music 🎹 🎼
Windshield "til you show up"
This is the video I didn't know I wanted but really needed! WOW!
ive seen these working their magic many times, good ol arlanda
Hands down best video I’ve seen in a while, unreal to what goes into it when it snows. You’ve honestly never seen it from the ground! 👌
So cool (no pun intended) and amazing to hear ESSA never had to close due to weather 👍
Beautiful synchronization 💪🏾
Great video! I fly out of Arlanda atleast 10 times a year and it's always cool seeing new sides of it!
These people definitely know what they are doing and have the proper equipment to do it. You should go to Heathrow when there's an inch or two of snow... 😉
Another great video. I really enjoy the behind the scenes look. I only wish the video was longer! Any extra footage from the day there??? Regardless, impressive operations. Really appreciate how every piece of the puzzle fits to make this airport function
Basically the airports around Sweden are the only places where the snow removal actually works
Kinda true, i can’t say about every airport, but here in Stockholm (Arlanda) it works pretty good
I never have problem with the snow removal, only if its a snowstorm during rushhour, then the snowplows might get stuck in traffic.
Great job. Great video production.
Truly awesome! Saluting the team!
Yeah, snow you know ... (Greetings from Sweden).
Really nice vid. I have some friends that work at Oslo airport, they apparantly use snow plows that are controlled autonomously, they basically set up a plan for where to drive and a fleet of snow plows can drive the route on their own.
I usually hate background music, but this sets the appropriate mood.
Amazing video. Thanks FR24!
Didn't expect this video to be so soothing and beautiful
Similar to the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, it has not closed because of snow storms either. :)
I works on Arlanda 2000 to 2003 on inside it was verry intressant jobb!
What did you do during that period?
Really nice photography and editing here. Good work fellas and felines.
Fun to watch, thank you for sharing!
Impressive, the swedes knows how to organise well 👍🏻
amazing!
I've always heard about this being the case - awesome to see a short documentary about it!
that is insane
they need to teach a few places the same thing
Helsinki in Finland and Arlanda in Swedern are always open all year round airports. Our winters in Nordic countries can be very harsh. Actually the Finns and Swedes are giving knowhow to varoius countries 🙂
@@mathias61 need to teach the usa airports a bunch of things
The name Øveråsen that you see on much of the equipment is a Norwegian company that specialises in snow removal equipment for airports. You find them all over Europe and in the USA as well. But the people operating the equipment are just as important!
Impressive how they've never had to close due to weather. But about ten or so years ago they did close Arlanda airport due to a total blackout of power. I was on a 737 heading for Arlanda from Barcelona and halfway the pilot came on the radio informing us that Arlanda was shut down due to a blackout. We circled for what felt like a couple hours, many planes did this and just circled, waiting for the possibility and eventuality of them opening the airport again, and the pilot informed us as the fuel was getting low that if they didn't open up Arlanda soon we would have to go to Copenhagen instead and buses would wait for us there to take us to Stockholm.
Luckily we got clearance to land at Arlanda as they got the power back on eventually.
Great look into airport operations!
With about one domestic flight per month I think I can call myself a frequent flyer. Normally snow removal works nicely on Swedish airports. I don’t use Arlanda so often because Bromma is more conventient for me, not even there I had a cancelled flight because of snow and ice. However i once was stuck at Malmö Sturup once for three hours in the plane, waiting for decent runway conditions in a bad snowstorm. Then the crew gave up, they had reached their maximum work time. So I needed to spend a night in Malmö snd came home almost 24h late.
Pretty cool to see my airport this way!
Hi Gabe, very impressive! RogerC 2/3/24
I love planes and that type of cordanation it give me shivers like the skill you need to do that. Love your website and the channel!
So interesting, thank you for such a great insight to this vital operation.
Thank you for this great video. 👍✈️
Super cool vid!
Very cool insight
I live quite near Arlanda. I use FR24 to look for plane paths to understand where me and my GF can move to avoid as much air traffic as possible.
In my town of Umeå about 650 km north of Stockholm we have a snow mountain wich never melts away .
Nicely done folks. Great channel!
Arlanda has a lot of issues (mainly caused by idiotic politicians), but the snow removal team is great!
What are those issues?
Sweden only had THREE land based casinos (all government operated) in the country and still didn’t manage to turn a profit. That’s how useless our politicians are.
@@peterryan8472 most of the airport is 50 years old, most gates dont have aircon for the aircraft, the different terminals baggage systems are seperate, no gates have fixed 28v Ground power for small aircraft so we have to use diesel powered ones or movable electric powered ones, The gates are very small so often there is almost no space to move around with vehicles and most gates dont have heating in the ground which means they get covered in snow and ice and where they cant get to with machines snow stays and gets turned into ice
@@peterryan8472 Inefficient and non-integrated terminal layout (long walks, terrible for connections); Poor parking area utilization; Very high penalty fee for using the train station. The gov. lets Arlanda Express suck money from the Swedes and sends the profits to Luxemburg. 01R/19L is far away from anything important. Even so, no independent parallel approaches, which means departure delays during rushhour.
@@einar8019 thanks Einar. Does not sound great but perhaps the fault of the design engineers than the politicians?
Wonderful!
Would love to see a similar video from Oslo Airport next winter!
The one that reguarly shuts down due to heavy snowfall?
Granted, it snow much more there than in stockholm
Thats a very interesting video man! Liked!
This was fascinating! I would love to see more detail.
I do all of this for a living (including AMSCR reports). I personally prefer to be in the equipment moving snow over calling the field conditions.
Yeah it’s cold here in Stockholm😪
wow.
😢now I think of my dad ....
I remember when there was only one psb and many other stories ...
And Arlanda in summer nights.
7:20 8:20 Are we going to talk about the DHL A300 just casually waiting on a taxiway
NICE
8:46 that is a two stearing one driving truck, with a tank and a 5th wheel, and then a boom trailer after that. That is heck of a uncommon configuration
very nice👍
Thanks..
The snow dump is used to cool the facilities during summer
Good use.
This is a great post! Interesting subject matter, well presented. I would like more - what each vehicle does specifically and how. And what order they take in the removal. It's involved!
Arlanda
I wish we Norwegians were so ambitious as the Swedish. F me I am sure if we had never won the lottery in form of an insane oil storage tank under our country than we would be the least developed country in western Europe. Actually... Even with the oil money we are still roughly the least developed country of north-west Europe. Only we like to think we are the top of the world. It is a master piece of an example of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
All that equipment showed in this video is made by the Norwegian company Overaasen, no 1 in the world when it comes to snow removal on airports
there is no competition between scandinavian family! except skiing
Sweden 🇸🇪 is used to snow and cold winters, well-prepared. ☺️
At this airport, yes. But public transport in the cities, no.
@@RIUUI007Where are you talking about. Where I travel it is maintained.
If only they had this for the rest of Sweden... I wouldn't have to walk 4 km cuz SL can't get there busses to go anywhere with the tiniest amount of snow
Check out ESPA instead, sure Arlanda have way more traffic, but Kallax team handling way worse conditions 😉
I once arrived to Landvetter airport in the morning and it was like they had realized in the morning it had snowed during the night. Runway wasn’t cleared when my flight was supposed to take off.
it's not as inportant airport as this one sadly. And kinda why it gets less clearing ect
5:50 ❤
Funny, they are using lots of Norwegian equipment :)
Cool video
Long time since I have been in and out of ARN :)
The equipment is actually Swedish (Volvo) , the warning texts just happened to be in Norwegian.
They are using Øveraasen mowers, which is Norwegian!@@roslilja
@@roslilja Trucks are, plows are made in NO :)
It's great that Arlanda never closes but let me tell you, you don't want to be a passenger during one of these snow storms. Usually, only one runway is open. That means that everything is massively delayed on takeoff (which might mean sitting in the plane by the gate for quite a while). And if you're landing, expect your plane to join a long queue at the taxiway, waiting for the snow removal team to come and pick your plane (and about five more) up. The planes will then line up behind the ploughs and taxi to the gates. The wait can easily take 30 minutes. So yes, I admire that they never close but do hope that you don't encounter a snow storm there. :D
Really cool video. Thanks from Sweden. Can you try to go on a long flight with a cargo flight? Would be really cool!
The military airports have similar equipment.
ahhhh arlanda the airport you can walk with a knife through the metal detector without a beep
the should use those on the roads here in sweden cause the realy suck at plowing the roads here
Very exciting. But I would have liked more information on how exactly the missions are coordinated, how exactly the machines work, how the tower is involved, etc. The video could have been a few minutes longer.
-The routes for the vehicles are pre-planned, with some flexibility for changing conditions. These routes and vehicle coordination are practiced during the off-season to gain experience.
-You have one guy, the Snow Chief (supervisor) in charge per shift. He monitors weather conditions from national services, as well as from monitoring equipment on the airfield, as well as embedded in the surfaces (taxiways and runways). This aids the Snow Chief in decision making regarding when to start treating with chemicals or physical removal, as well as which surfaces to treat.
-At larger airports, different sections of the airfield have different priority. Usually, the fire stations, the largest runway(s), the high-speed exits, the terminal area, the aircraft de-icing pad, and the taxiways between these locations forming first priority. With outfield runways or smaller runways and connecting taxiways being second priority, and less used areas like cargo or private access (corporate jet) ramps getting third priority.
-The core machines are: solid spreaders (sand or pellet de-icer chems), liquid spreaders (giant crop sprayers, essentially) for liquid anti-ice chems, tow-behind or multi-function vehicles (called PSB in the video), high-speed brooms for smaller areas, snow blowers for bulk snow pile, loaders or dozers for snow disposal, and snow melters (giant boilers).
-Every action on a movement surface (taxiway or runway) is coordinated by the tower. That can be an airplane, winter weather equipment, or a pickup truck. Every vehicle out there has the same radios as a plane, and can be required to talk to the tower.
-Typically, you have a very experienced airfield driver (or an operations person) that leads a pack of vehicles. That person has the job of speaking with the tower and coordinating closures of the runways for cleaning, or monitoring aircraft movements and routes to guide their group around active taxiways safely.
-I must impress upon you that there is so much to operating on an airfield. Its like learning how to drive all over again, and all the rules are different and often un-intuitive. That is on a normal day!
-During winter weather, that is amplified by low visibility, fatigue, cluttered communication between so many vehicles, and the complexities of operating equipment with 5 radios, 3 control sticks, 4 wheel steering, 2 engines, 4 screens, and bigger than an oversize 18-wheeler truck.
-Sincerely, an airfield operator and 'snow fighter' at a large international airport.
What happens when it doesn't snow? Do they just fika?
😂
not sure if it would cost more or be cheaper in the long run but would heated runways work? like just a long heated driveway feel like if would make it alot easier but i could be wrong maybe someone knows more then me lol
The heat would not be enough to handle Nordic winters. For example in January of this year even the southern parts of Finland had -37C during the day and in the north temperatures were below -40C. The snow might melt with heating but it would immediately turn in to solid ice in those temperatures.
Hi Gabe!
Thanks for the great video as usual!
On the big truck snow ploughs - there's the truck in front of the plow, then the brush - but what is the trailing equipment for? It looks like an engine on a stick and wheels! :)
I think they said it was a blower at 2:42
What's unique about an environment like this for a heavy equipment operator is that you are expected to be able to operate many different types of equipment, from different manufacturers and different era's in a high stress area often with zero visibility. This was not such a big deal before computers when all equipment had clearly labelled leavers, buttons, dials etc. but now everything keeps changing so fast. Every new piece of equipment has different software and screens and nothing is labelled with words it's all symbols so manufacturers can save a couple bucks per unit and sell to a global market without changing anything. Most of this won't apply to normal equipment operators as they will probably only have a couple pieces of equipment to learn.
I bet it is the same throughout many industries.
I work at a small furniture factory. We have five or six modern carpentry machines, all with a completely unique OS and interface. They all use different symbols, different menu structures, different boot up procedures, different calibration procedures and CAD languages... Two years in, I'm tearing my hair out every day.
Of course we also operate a bunch of old manually operated machines. With them, I could walk in the first day on the job and start production without any introduction whatsoever.
Where does Arlanda name come from? 😮
Its located in the old parish "Arland" north of Stockholm. I have seen the airport grow and its impressive. Cheers.
@@andersfant4997 thank you!
Also (att) landa means (to) land, so it's a bit clever.
Never Never??? I remeber when they cut the internet to The Flight Radar... No Plans at all :(
1/4 of that amount of snow in Spain and everything collapses! 😅😅
They could have used these machines when the E4 highway was clogged due to snow xD People where stuck for 12h+ and they had to call in the military to evacuate them with bandwagons lol
It was the E22 and not the E4 that’s way down south from Arlanda. We can thank the politicians that privatized the road maintenance and sold of old the equipment to the Baltic states and Russia. Just like everything else nothing is allowed to cost anything as taxes been cut to make the rich richer and us out of basic service!
@@HiznogoodIt’s more complicated then taxes.
The incident was partly caused by foreign freight trucks with worn out tires getting stuck and clogging up traffic.
These trucks would never pass a Swedish mandatory inspection, but foreign veichles are not obliged to go through that inspection.
@@HiznogoodLot of nonsense from your mouth at the moment.
@@JH-lo9ut That was also proven bs.
funny, since it takes days for them to city roads from little snow..
I've worked with marketing, law, banking and design in Stockholm, but now I want, no I need this job.
That's all nice and dandy, but waiting 24 hours, at a minimum, for the road where I live really sucks. But it's really good to know that Arlanda makes sure that the runways are always clear. Making sure that people can catch their flights! Yay! How the fuck did they get to the airport then? Their roads were plowed.
There are lots of jobs up north in Sweden, but you can't get to work. Work that one out, and then I'll be impressed.
6:10 EDDIE MEDUSA confirmed.. drivi g to his fish restaurant LUFTKAFFE