Page 100 - Mariners Cricket Club (Singapore) - Souvenir Magazine 2020

Thousands of aeroplanes grounded
by COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic crisis grounded thousands of planes. What happened to them? From
closing thousands of window shades to keeping out tiny insects, work didn’t stop for aircraft
engineers just because planes were out of work.
t airports globally, the bustle of
travellers and constant sound of planes
Ataking off was replaced by silence. While
these planes were grounded, engineers kept an
eye on them and made sure they remained in
good shape.
Let’s have a closer look how grounded planes
were protected, serviced and utilised during
the lockdowns.
Parking
Airlines had run out of the (usual) space to store
them. “Airports are designed to keep planes
in constant motion rather than stationary,”
aviation industry expert Simin Ngai from travel
data and analytics company Cirium said.
AirAsia’s aircraft maintenance engineer Yap
Sheng Lin, informed that some planes were
parked at Kuala Lumpur’s cargo terminal.
“In Bangkok, they were even parked in the
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taxiways, and some of them sent to Phuket and
Pattaya International airports,” he added.
Taxiways, which connect runways to terminals,
were used in Singapore too. “In the history of
Changi, the only other time we parked planes
on the taxiway was during SARS in 2003,” said
Singapore Airlines engineering division quality
manager Abel Li. “But it was only for a short
while and for a few aircrafts, unlike 2020, when
more than 90% of our fleet was grounded.”
Finding the space is one challenge, but
positioning the planes can be another. Extra
precautions must be taken when parking them
on the taxiways, said Li, because there is no
clearly demarcated location to put the aircraft.
They also need to be kept 25 metres apart so that
when the engines are started, dust or exhaust is
not blown onto the aircraft behind.
A lot of team effort and coordination on the
ground is required, particularly when the