Assess and plan the water salute

A new route launches. Two fire appliances park either side of the taxiway, but not always at a safe distance from the arriving aircraft! Then they arch water over the aircraft. Everybody photographs it. The airline puts it on social media. It is genuinely a spectacle.

It also does not improve safety, and it may cost some.

What it actually costs

• Your rescue and fire fighting appliances are committed and out of position, with their water partially expended, for the duration.
• Your declared RFFS category assumes those vehicles are available to meet a response time. During the salute, they are not.
• You have put water — sometimes a considerable volume of it — onto a manoeuvring area and over an aircraft that then taxis through it.

The usual answer is that it only lasts a couple of minutes and nothing has ever happened. History tells us that is also the usual answer about a great many things, right up until the day that it is not.

This is not a campaign to ban water salutes. If you are going to do it, then it should appear in your risk assessment with the RFFS availability question answered, a second crew or appliance held, and a decision recorded by somebody accountable — the same as any other planned reduction in your emergency cover. Other risks must also be assessed, including separation between aircraft and fire vehicle, and the possibility of damage to the aircraft, both have failed in the past. If that feels like a lot of paperwork for a photograph, then that is the point.