Jon Hypnar, Chief Operating Officer, Wayne County Airport Authority

Weathering the Storms,
Where to Go, What to Do
Winter and Irregular Operations Management
Contact:
Spring Operations & Technical Affairs Conference
Montréal, Québec
April 23, 2014
Jon Hypnar, AIA
Chief Operating Officer
Detroit Metro Airport
734-247-7061
[email protected]
Records Have Been Broken
 Record snowfall – 94.8”
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Coldest winter on record
Budgets destroyed
Material shortages
Three - 11”+ snowfalls within 28 Days
‘Polar vortex’ resulted in 58 days that were below
freezing in Dec/Jan. 5 year average is 28 days.
– Frequent high winds during events
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Overview
Results were way too much
snow, exhausted staff, increase
in airfield incidents, increased
diversions, additional lessons
learned.
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Airfield
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What did we do?
 Teamwork
 Snow plan – Everyone does it
 Add-ons
 Pre event internal meeting with Ops, Maintenance, Public Safety,
Facilities, Infrastructure, snow removal vendor. Reinforce this is a
team effort and to succeed we must all help one another.
 Pre event conference calls with Delta – is everyone at all levels ready?
If not, what can we do to help?
 Anything over 5” initiates a partial or full opening of emergency
command center.
 Communicate with Regional IROPS airports
 Conducted initial Regional workshop in October 2013
 Established key contacts at each airport in our region
 Working on improving communication between airlines/DTW/diversion
airports
 Add PASSUR to management
 Post event debriefing
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Why Develop an IROPS Plan?
Remember its NOT just about snow!
 Airport Authority Role Supports Airlines Response
 Improve Customer Service
 Partner with other Airports in the Region
 Stakeholder Participation
 Communication Network
 Unified Response
 Identify Strengths and Weaknesses
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Regional IROPS Area
 Airports Included
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IROPS
 DTW IROPS Response
DTW had 123 aircraft diversions from October – March. Our average
is 105.
Notifications/Communication/Coordination:
 Notify regional airports of impending bad weather that may lead to
diversions from DTW
 Airlines provide notification to Airfield Ops
 Airfield Ops subscribes to PASSUR for IROPS alert notification in the
National Airspace System
 Ops provides text messages to Administration, Police, Fire,
Maintenance and Security
 Emergency Operations Center is activated as needed
 Dispatch staff and volunteers to comfort/communicate with terminal
passengers as needed
 Ensure concessions are open
 Public Affairs notified for social media issues
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Systems in Use
 Vaisala Pavement Sensors – alerts staff via text if
pavement temperatures fall below a certain level
 PASSUR – Provides system delay arrival and departure
information and IROPS Alerting.
 ASDE-X System - FAA Radar system depicts aircraft
movement, arrivals and departures
 Camera and Monitors
 Pilot program w/Aviation Safety Technologies for direct
feed on Delta aircraft friction numbers
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Future Improvements
 Automatic Detection Surveillance Broadcast
 Exelis – Squitters or vehicle transponders for equipment operating in
the movement area
 Aerobahn - System used by Delta Airlines to manage aircraft ground
movement at DTW
 New Airport Response Center scheduled to open November 2014 with
state of the art technologies to manage emergency response
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Lessons Learned
 Enhance Regional IROPS communication
 Put Ops Specialist in ATCT or Authority presence in ATCT
cab
 Go to one pass R/W clearing
 Establish separate R/W and T/W clearing teams
 Adding transponders to equipment to track and analyze
snow operations
 Back up contracted services/seasonal workforce for
additional manpower
 Keep closer track of supplies for unexpected overnight
guests
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Thank you
&
Questions
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