Most people understand why safety is crucial for air travel, but not as many understand how deicing plays a role in keeping passengers safe. Since airplanes must have clean surfaces to fly safely, any type of contaminant such as ice or snow has the potential to interfere with a safe take-off due to the disruption of airflow. That’s why, during the colder months of the year, deicing is a crucial part for safe departure.
Other than the safety of passengers, Aeromag also has to ensure the health and safety of its own people. That’s why Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is so important for the deicing technicians who brave the elements every day. Items such as gloves, warm jackets, reflective safety vests, overalls and boots – alongside hearing and sight protection – are all necessary to ensure our crew’s safety.
Training is key to protecting employees in most work environments, but it’s especially true when working around aircraft all day. We start training in the summertime, which might sound a bit crazy for a deicing company. Yet, we need to make sure we have a certain number of employees ready to go by September 15th, which is when the deicing season at Denver International Airport (DEN) starts.
Also, it doesn’t matter if you’re new to the company, or if you’ve been coming back year after year, everyone is getting trained before the deicing season. Not only must we complete Aeromag’s training, but we also need to go through the customer training manual from airline companies. For example, here in Denver, our main customer is United so we must meet their standards of quality as well. Even if there are two types of training, the same Head Trainer – there’s one in each station – is able to lead both.
