Foreign object damage - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Foreign Object Debris is a substance, debris or article alien to a vehicle or system which would potentially cause damage.

Foreign Object Damage (also abbreviated FOD) is any damage attributed to a foreign object that can be expressed in physical or economic terms that may or may not degrade the product's required safety and/or performance characteristics. Typically, FOD is an aviation term used to describe debris on or around an aircraft or damage done to an aircraft. Foreign Object Damage is any damage attributed to a foreign object (i.e. any object that is not part of the vehicle) that can be expressed in physical or economic terms and may or may not degrade the product's required safety or performance characteristics. FOD is an abbreviation often used in aviation to describe both the damage done to aircraft by foreign objects, and the foreign objects themselves.

"Internal FOD" is used to refer to damage or hazards caused by foreign objects inside the aircraft. For example, "Cockpit FOD" might be used to describe a situation where an item gets loose in the cockpit and jams or restricts the operation of the controls. "Tool FOD" is a serious hazard caused by tools left inside the aircraft after manufacturing or servicing. Tools or other items can get tangled in control cables, jam moving parts

Moving parts

The moving parts of a machine are those parts of it that move. Machines comprise both moving and fixed parts. The moving parts have controlled and constrained motions....

, short out electrical connections, or otherwise interfere with safe flight. Aircraft maintenance teams usually have strict tool control procedures including toolbox inventories to make sure all tools have been removed from an aircraft before it is released for flight. Tools used during manufacturing are tagged with a serial number so if they are found they can be traced.

The "Damage" term was prevalent in military circles, but has since been pre-empted by a definition of FOD that looks at the "debris". This shift was made "official" in the latest FAA Advisory Circulars FAA A/C 150/5220-24 'Airport Foreign Object Debris (FOD) Detection Equipment' (2009) and FAA A/C 150/5210-24 'Airport Foreign Object Debris (FOD) Management'. Eurocontrol, ECAC, and the ICAO have all rallied behind this new definition. As Iain McCreary of Insight SRI put it in a presentation to NAPFI (August 2010), "You can have debris present without damage, but never damage without debris." Likewise, FOD prevention systems work by sensing and detecting not the damage but the actual debris. Thus FOD is now taken to mean the debris itself, and the resulting damage is referred to as "FOD damage".

Internationally, FOD costs the aviation industry US$

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

13 billion per year in direct plus indirect costs. The indirect costs are as much as ten times the indirect cost value, representing delays, aircraft changes, incurred fuel costs, unscheduled maintenance, and the like for a total of $13 billion per year and causes expensive, significant damage to aircraft and parts and death and injury to workers, pilots and passengers.

It is estimated that FOD costs major airlines in the United States $26 per flight in aircraft repairs, plus $312 in such additional indirect costs as flight delays, plane changes and fuel inefficiencies.

"There are other costs that are not as easy to calculate but are equally disturbing," according to UK Royal Air Force Wing Commander and FOD researcher Richard Friend. "From accidents such as the Air France Concorde, Flight AF 4590, there is the loss of life, suffering and effect on the families of those who died, the suspicion of malpractice, guilt, and blame that could last for lifetimes. This harrowing torment is incalculable but should not be forgotten, ever. If everyone kept this in mind, we would remain vigilant and forever prevent foreign object debris from causing a problem. In fact, many factors combine to cause a chain of events that can lead to a failure."

In the United States, the most prominent gathering of FOD experts has been the annual National Aerospace FOD Prevention Conference. It is hosted in a different city each year by National Aerospace FOD Prevention, Inc. (NAFPI), a nonprofit association that focuses on FOD education, awareness and prevention. Conference information, including presentations from past conferences, is available at the NAFPI Web site. However, NAFPI has come under some critique as being focussed on tool control and manufacturing processes, and other members of the industry have stepped forward to fill the gaps. BAA hosted the world's first airport-led conference on the subject in November 2010 .

Examples

Examples of FOD include:

Aircraft parts, rocks, broken pavement, ramp equipment, and vehicle parts: Damage usually occurs when the aircraft is taking off or landing. The intake suction from a jet engine
Jet engine
A jet engine is a reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet to generate thrust by jet propulsion and in accordance with Newton's laws of motion. This broad definition of jet engines includes turbojets, turbofans, rockets, ramjets, pulse jets...

is powerful enough to suck up loose material lying on the runway, and the winds created by a helicopter or prop-driven aircraft's rotors or by a jet blast can send such objects airborne, creating hazards to nearby personnel. One way to counter this is to install a gravelkit
Gravelkit
Gravelkit is a term for a modification which is used on some airplanes to avoid foreign object damage , while operating on unpaved surfaces...

, which exist for certain planes like the early Boeing 737
Boeing 737
The Boeing 737 is a short- to medium-range, twin-engine narrow-body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has developed into a family of nine passenger models with a capacity of 85 to 215 passengers...

.
Parts from ground vehicles
Garbage, maintenance tools, etc. mistakenly or purposely deposited on tarmac and/or runway surfaces.
Hail
Hail
Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is referred to as a hail stone. Hail stones on Earth consist mostly of water ice and measure between and in diameter, with the larger stones coming from severe thunderstorms...

: can break windshields and damage or stop engines.
Ice on the wings, propellers, or engine intakes
Dust or ash clogging the air intakes (as in sandstorms
Dust storm
A dust / sand storm is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. Dust storms arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface. Particles are transported by saltation and suspension, causing soil to move from one place and deposition...

in desert operating conditions or ash clouds in volcanic eruptions
Volcanic Eruptions
Volcanic Eruptions is a company owned by Crispin Glover. The company produces and issues Glover's work: It has released two films to date, What Is It? and its sequel, It is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE . Its current plans include releasing the final film in the trilogy titled It Is Mine...

). For helicopters, this is also a major problem during a brownout
Brownout (aviation)
In aviation, a brownout is an in-flight visibility restriction due to dust or sand in the air.In a brownout, the pilot cannot see nearby objects which provide the outside visual references necessary to control the aircraft near the ground. This can cause spatial disorientation and loss of...

.
Tools, bolts, metal shavings, lockwire
Safety wire
Safety wire or lockwire is common in the aircraft and racing industries as an extra precaution to keep vital fasteners from unintentionally loosening and parts from falling off due to vibration or other forces. The use of safety wire is a type of positive locking device. It also allows rapid and...

, etc. mistakenly left behind inside aircraft during the manufacturing process or maintenance.

Generally speaking, bird strikes (when an aeroplane flies into a bird, the impact can cause severe damage from a bird striking the fuselage

Fuselage

The fuselage is an aircraft's main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. In single-engine aircraft it will usually contain an engine, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage which in turn is used as a floating hull...

, engine, etc.) are not considered to be FOD strikes, unless the bird or wildlife was already dead and lying on the operating surface when the strike occurred. Bird strikes are treated separately.

All aircraft occasionally lose small metal or carbon parts during takeoff and landing. These parts remain on the runway and can cause damage to tires of other aircraft, hit the fuselage or windshield/canopy, or get sucked up into an engine. Although airport ground crews regularly clean up runways, the crash of Air France Flight 4590

Air France Flight 4590

Air France Flight 4590 was a Concorde flight operated by Air France which was scheduled to run from Charles de Gaulle International Airport near Paris, to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. On 2000, it crashed in Gonesse, France. All one hundred passengers and nine crew...

demonstrated that accidents can still occur: in that case, the crash was said to have been caused by debris left by a flight that had departed only four minutes earlier.
On aircraft carriers, as well as military and some civilian airfields, sweeps are conducted before flight operations begin. A line of crewmen walk shoulder to shoulder along the flight operations surfaces, searching for and removing any foreign objects. The objects removed are often also referred to as "FOD" although they have not caused any damage. In this context a more appropriate translation of the acronym would be "foreign objects and debris".

Jet engine design and FOD

Modern jet engines suffer major damage due to even small birds being sucked into the engine. The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration

Federal Aviation Administration

The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...

) requires that all engine types pass a test which includes firing a fresh chicken (dead, but not frozen) into a running jet engine from a small cannon. The engine does not have to remain functional after the test, but it must not cause significant damage to the rest of the aircraft. Thus, if the bird strike causes it to "throw a blade" (break apart in a way where parts fly off at high speed), doing so must not cause loss of the aircraft. A chicken gun

NASA Chicken Gun

A chicken gun is a large diameter compressed air cannon used to test the strength of aircraft windshields and the safety of jet engines. A common danger to aircraft is that they collide with birds in flight. Most parts of an aircraft are strong enough to resist such a bird strike...

is used to perform experiments on bird strikes.

Engine and airframe designs which avoid FOD

Some military aircraft have a unique design to prevent FOD from damaging the engine. The design consisted of an S-shaped bend in the airflow, so that air entered the inlet, was bent back towards the front of the plane, and bent back again towards the back before entering the engine. At the back of the first bend a strong spring held a door shut. Any foreign object flying in the intake flew in, hit the door, opened it, flew through, and then exited the aircraft. Thus, only small objects swept up by the air could enter the engine. This design did indeed prevent FOD problems, but the constriction and drag induced by the bending of the airflow reduced the engine's effective power, and thus the design was not repeated. However, many consider it an innovative solution to a challenging engineering problem.

The Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n MiG-29 fighter has a special engine design to prevent ingestion of FOD during take-off from rough airfields. The front air intakes could be closed and special inlets on the top of the plane temporarily opened. This would allow enough airflow to the engine for take-off but reduced the chances of the engine sucking up objects from the ground.

Another interesting design to minimize the risk of FOD is the Antonov An-74 which has a very high placement of the engines.

Boeing

Boeing

The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...

offered a gravel runway kit for early 737

Boeing 737

The Boeing 737 is a short- to medium-range, twin-engine narrow-body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has developed into a family of nine passenger models with a capacity of 85 to 215 passengers...

s that allows the plane to be used from unimproved and gravel runways. This kit included gravel deflectors on the landing gear; foldaway lights on the bottom of the plane; and screens that prevented gravel, entering the open wheelwells when the gear was extended, from hitting critical components. It also included vortex dissipators, devices that would reduce the airflow into the engine from the bottom so as to reduce the likelihood of ingesting gravel.

Airbus are investigating a novel approach to reducing FOD. By developing, in conjunction with Ricardo plc

Ricardo plc

Ricardo plc is a British publicly listed company named after its founder, Sir Harry Ricardo and founded on 30 June 1927 in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex. The company is a leading global multi-industry engineering provider of technology, product innovation and strategic consulting...

, the "Taxibot", a tractor controlled by the pilot, aircraft will not need to use jet engines while taxiing, so will not be vulnerable to FOD on aprons or taxiways.

Runway debris

The crash of a Concorde

Concorde

Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport . It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation...

, Air France Flight 4590

Air France Flight 4590

, at Charles de Gaulle International Airport

Charles de Gaulle International Airport

Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport , also known as Roissy Airport , in the Paris area, is one of the world's principal aviation centres, as well as France's largest airport. It is named after Charles de Gaulle , leader of the Free French Forces and founder of the French Fifth Republic...

near Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

on 25 July 2000 was caused by FOD; in this case a piece of titanium

Titanium

Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. It has a low density and is a strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant transition metal with a silver color....

debris on the runway which had been part of a thrust reverser which fell from a Continental Airlines

Continental Airlines

Continental Airlines was a major American airline now merged with United Airlines. On May 3, 2010, Continental Airlines, Inc. and UAL, Inc. announced a merger via a stock swap, and on October 1, 2010, the merger closed and UAL changed its name to United Continental Holdings, Inc...

McDonnell Douglas DC-10

The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is a three-engine widebody jet airliner manufactured by McDonnell Douglas. The DC-10 has range for medium- to long-haul flights, capable of carrying a maximum 380 passengers. Its most distinguishing feature is the two turbofan engines mounted on underwing pylons and a...

that had taken off about four minutes earlier. All 100 passengers and nine crew on board the flight, as well as four people on the ground, were killed.

A Bombardier

Bombardier Aerospace

Bombardier Aerospace is a division of Bombardier Inc. and is the third-largest airplane manufacturer in the world. It is headquartered in Dorval, Quebec, Canada.- History :...

Learjet 36A, was taking off from Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport Va., on March 26, 2007, when the crew heard a loud “pop”. Aborting the takeoff, the crew tried to control the “fishtailing” and activate the drag chute. The chute did not work and the Learjet ran off the runway, its tires blown. Airport personnel reported seeing rocks and pieces of metal on the runway

Runway

According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...

, after the accident. The NTSB said that the Learjet accident was caused by Foreign Object Debris (FOD) on the runway. Failure of the drag chute contributed to the accident.

Volcanic ash

On 24 June 1982, British Airways Flight 9

British Airways Flight 9

British Airways Flight 9, sometimes referred to by its callsign Speedbird 9 or Jakarta incident, was a scheduled British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Auckland, with stops in Bombay, Madras, Kuala Lumpur, Perth, and Melbourne....

on route to Perth

Perth, Western Australia

Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, flew into a volcanic ash cloud over the Indian Ocean. The Boeing 747-200B

Boeing 747

The Boeing 747 is a wide-body commercial airliner and cargo transport, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. It is among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and was the first wide-body ever produced...

suffered engine surges in all four engines until they all failed

Flameout

A flameout refers to the failure of a jet engine caused by the extinction of the flame in the combustion chamber. It can be caused by a number of factors, including fuel exhaustion; compressor stall; insufficient oxygen supply; foreign object damage ; severe inclement weather; and mechanical...

. The passengers and crew could see a phenomenon known as St. Elmo's fire

St. Elmo's fire

St. Elmo's fire is a weather phenomenon in which luminous plasma is created by a coronal discharge from a grounded object in an electric field in the atmosphere St. Elmo's fire is named after St. Erasmus of Formiae St. Elmo's fire (also St. Elmo's light) is a weather phenomenon in which luminous...

around the plane. Flight 9 dived down until it exited the cloud allowing the airborne ash to clear the engines, which were then restarted. The cockpit windshield was badly pitted by the ash particles but the aircraft landed safely.

Item jettisoned from aircraft

An unusual case of FOD occurred on 28 September 1981 over Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...

. During flight testing of an F/A-18 Hornet

F/A-18 Hornet

The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is a supersonic, all-weather carrier-capable multirole fighter jet, designed to dogfight and attack ground targets . Designed by McDonnell Douglas and Northrop, the F/A-18 was derived from the latter's YF-17 in the 1970s for use by the United States Navy and...

, the Naval Air Test Center of the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

was using a Douglas TA-4J Skyhawk

A-4 Skyhawk

The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a carrier-capable ground-attack aircraft designed for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. The delta winged, single-engined Skyhawk was designed and produced by Douglas Aircraft Company, and later McDonnell Douglas. It was originally designated the A4D...

as a chase plane

Chase plane

A chase plane is an aircraft that "chases" another aircraft, a spacecraft or a rocket during flight. Safety can be one function of a chase plane; others are to photo or video the target vehicle, or to collect engineering data from it...

to film a jettison test of a bomb rack from the Hornet. The bomb rack struck the right wing of the Skyhawk, shearing off almost half the wing. The Skyhawk caught fire within seconds of being struck; the two persons on board ejected.

Bird strikes

On 20 November 1975 a Hawker Siddeley HS.125

British Aerospace BAe 125

The British Aerospace 125 is a twin-engined mid-size corporate jet, with newer variants now marketed as the Hawker 800. It was known as the Hawker Siddeley HS.125 until 1977...

taking off at Dunsfold Aerodrome

Dunsfold Aerodrome

Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey, England, near the village of Cranleigh, was built by the Canadian Army and civilian contractors as a Class A Bomber Airfield for Army Co-operation Command...

flew through a flock of Northern Lapwing

Northern Lapwing

The Northern Lapwing , also known as the Peewit, Green Plover or just Lapwing, is a bird in the plover family. It is common through temperate Eurasia....

s immediately after lifting off the runway and lost power in both engines. The crew landed the aircraft back on the runway but it overran the end and crossed a road. The aircraft struck a car on the road, killing its six occupants. Although the aircraft was destroyed in the ensuing fire, the nine occupants of the aircraft survived the crash.

On 17 November 1980 a Hawker Siddeley Nimrod of the Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

crashed shortly after taking off from RAF Kinloss

RAF Kinloss

RAF Kinloss is a Royal Air Force station near Kinloss, on the Moray Firth in the north of Scotland. It opened on 1 April 1939 and served as an RAF training establishment during the Second World War. After the war it was handed over to Coastal Command to watch over Russian ships and submarines in...

. It flew through a flock of Canada geese

Canada Goose

The Canada Goose is a wild goose belonging to the genus Branta, which is native to arctic and temperate regions of North America, having a black head and neck, white patches on the face, and a brownish-gray body....

, causing three of its four engines to fail. The pilot and copilot were killed; the pilot was subsequently posthumously awarded an Air Force Cross

Air Force Cross (United Kingdom)

The Air Force Cross is a military decoration awarded to personnel of the United Kingdom Armed Forces, and formerly also to officers of the other Commonwealth countries, for "an act or acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst flying, though not in active operations against the enemy"...

for his actions in maintaining control of the aircraft and saving the lives of the 18 crew. The remains of 77 birds were found on or near the runway.

On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 flew into a flock of Canada geese and suffered a double engine failure. The pilot ditch

Water landing

A water landing is, in the broadest sense, any landing on a body of water. All waterfowl, those seabirds capable of flight, and some human-built vehicles are capable of landing in water as a matter of course....

ed the aircraft in the Hudson River, saving the lives of all on board.

Wildlife and wetlands near airports

Significant problems occur with airports where the grounds were or have become nesting areas for birds. While fences can prevent a moose

Moose

The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...

or deer

Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

from wandering onto a runway, birds are more difficult to control. Often airports employ a type of bird scarer

Bird scarer

A bird scarer is any one of a number devices designed to scare birds, usually employed by farmers to dissuade birds from eating recently planted arable crops....

that operates on propane to cause a noise loud enough to scare away any birds that might be in the vicinity. Airport managers use any means available (including trained falcons

Falconry

Falconry is "the taking of wild quarry in its natural state and habitat by means of a trained raptor". There are two traditional terms used to describe a person involved in falconry: a falconer flies a falcon; an austringer flies a hawk or an eagle...

) to reduce bird populations. Another solution under investigation is the use of artificial turf

Artificial turf

Artificial turf is a surface manufactured from synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commercial applications as well...

near runways, since it does not offer food, shelter, or water to wildlife.

Awareness

The FOD "bible" was written by Gary Chaplin, Founder and President of The F.O.D. Control Corporation

The F.O.D. Control Corporation

The F.O.D. Control Corporation is the first private company dedicated entirely to serving the aviation industry's need for specialized equipment and information to address FOD issues at military and civilian airfields....

, “Promoting a FOD Program is essentially a public relations campaign. Even if other elements of effective FOD Prevention are not in place, a good Promotion and Awareness Program can significantly help reduce FOD by engaging a workforce with information, feedback and involvement.”

According to Chaplin’s handbook on the topic, Make It FOD Free: The Ultimate FOD Prevention Program Manual., the basic elements of a comprehensive campaign include:

FOD-themed posters, signs and large banners and other visual aids displayed in critical work areas and places where employees are likely to gather;
Jackets, caps, coffee mugs, water bottles and other usable items with [FOD] logos affixed, which can be given away as “prizes” for good FOD-prevention performance;
FOD Walks, in which personnel walk down a flightline shoulder-to-shoulder, working together to pick up FOD.
“FOD Awareness Week”, a week-long schedule of events – such as training sessions and FOD control equipment displays – targeted to get the workforce involved and increase their knowledge of the FOD Program.

The United States Air Force, for instance, is always looking for creative ways to encourage FOD awareness. The 407th Air Expeditionary Group

407th Air Expeditionary Group

The 407th Air Expeditionary Group is a provisional United States Air Force unit assigned to the United States Air Forces Central 321st Air Expeditionary Wing. It is stationed at Ali Air Base, Iraq...

at Ali Air Base

Ali Air Base

Ali Air Base is a military airbase located near Nasiriyah, Iraq. It is also known as Tallil Air Base. At present, the base is being used by United States Armed Forces. It is called Camp Adder by the U.S. Army; the name "Ali Air Base" is used chiefly by the U.S...

in Iraq brings the fun of treasure hunting into its FOD Walks, by hiding a prized “Golden Bolt” somewhere along the flightline. The Aircraft Maintenance Group at Tinker Air Force Base

Tinker Air Force Base

Tinker Air Force Base is a major U.S. Air Force base, with tenant U.S. Navy and other Department of Defense missions, located in the southeast Oklahoma City, Oklahoma area, directly south of the suburb of Midwest City, Oklahoma.-Overview:...

posts signs that say “get your five today” or “what were your five”, to encourage personnel to pick up at least five pieces of FOD every day.

Training

Training is a tremendous awareness tool that is not always given the priority and forethought it deserves. It is an opportunity to highlight areas needing improvement, reinforce some of the rules that are not always being adhered to, introduce new initiatives, and applaud accomplishments. For instance, elements of new employee training should include:

The definition of FOD. Don’t assume everyone knows what Foreign Object Damage is. Show photos of FOD and pass around samples of debris found at your facility.
Identify the FOD SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) and provide a copy of the FOD procedure to each new employee.
Emphasize the importance of “Clean-As-You-Go” and define the rules that apply to daily work routines.
Review tool and hardware rules, to include tool crib issued items.
Review the Missing Item Report, when to use it and how to submit it.
Identify FOD control areas. Show examples of typical FOD charts/metrics.
If a borescope
Borescope
A borescope is an optical device consisting of a rigid or flexible tube with an eyepiece on one end, an objective lens on the other linked together by a relay optical system in between. The optical system is usually surrounded by optical fibers used for illumination of the remote object...

is available at your site, discuss who may use it, and general safety rules.
Also identify other specialized tools used to locate or remove foreign objects.
Explain the role of the FOD department and how to contact a representative if needed. Put out the Welcome Mat.

Formal certification in Foreign Object Elimination (FOE) – Elements of Basic Awareness is now available from The National Center for Aerospace & Transportation Technologies, NCATT (www.ncatt.org) (formerly called National Center for Aircraft Technician Training), which is funded by the National Science Foundation. Certification covers knowledge of the following areas:

Basic Terms & definitions
Housekeeping
Tool Accountability
Hardware Accountability
Lost Items
Physical Entry & Personnel Control
Reporting & Investigating
Material Handling
Parts Protections
Hazardous Materials
Wildlife / Environment
FOD Effects.

Technologies capable of detecting FOD

There is some debate regarding FOD detection systems as the costs can be high and the domain of responsibility is not clear. However, one airport claims that their FOD detection system may have paid for itself in a single incident where personnel were alerted to a steel cable on the runway, before a single aircraft was put at risk. The FAA has investigated FOD detection technologies, and has set standards for the following categories:

Radar

example: QinetiQ and Trex Aviation Systems

QinetiQ installations combine radar with cameras mounted on pylons alongside runways. Trex use mobile radars mounted on vehicles, which are driven on the runways, taxiways, aprons and parking ramps. Due to its mobility, the Trex system is the only FOD detection system reviewed by the FAA that covers 100% of the airports operating surface.

Electro-Optical [visible band imagery (standard CCTV) and low light cameras]

Stratech

Hybrid:

Xsight Systems Xsight's Surface Detection Units are mounted on the runway edge lights and combine a millimeter-wave radar sensor and an optic sensor with NIR illumination.

RFID on metal
RFID on metal
RFID on metal refers to radio-frequency identification tags which perform a specific function when attached to metal objects...

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is used to track objects such as tools to prevent items from being left in airplanes, nuclear reactors, and other critical areas.

Technologies, information and training materials helpful in preventing FOD

FOD Prevention Program Manuals

examples: Make It FOD Free

Magnetic Bars

examples: F.O.D. Control , Monroe , and Thompson

Promotional and Awareness Materials

examples: NAFPI , Posters/Decals/Mugs/etc.

Tool and Parts Control/Retrieval

Tool Detection Systems -- examples: Aeroprobe , AIT, IDZ Technologies

Parts Control -- example: Parts Organizers

Tow-behind Sweepers

examples: FODBUSTER ROCKSWEEPER,

The FOD*BOSS

Training Materials

examples:

FOD 101 Basic Training PowerPoint

FOE certification

NAFPI

Vacuum Truck Sweepers

examples: Elgin , Tymco , and Tennant

Walk-behind Sweepers

examples: Billy Goat , F.O.D. Control , and Tennant

Studies on FOD

There have only been two detailed studies of the economic cost of FOD for civil airline operations. The first was by Brad Bachtel of Boeing

Boeing

, who published a value of $4 billion USD

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

per year. This top-down value was for several years the standard industry figure for the cost of FOD. The second work (2007) was by Iain McCreary from the consultancy Insight SRI Ltd. This more detailed report offered a first-cut of the cost of FOD, based on a bottom-up analysis of airline maintenance log records. Here, data was broken into Per Flight Direct Costs and Per Flight Indirect Costs for the top 300 global airports, with detailed footnotes on the supporting data. The Insight SRI research was a standard reference for 2007-2009 as it was the only source presenting costs and thus was quoted by regulators, airports, and technology providers alike.

However, while that 2007 Insight SRI paper remains the best free public source of data, the new analysis (2010) from Insight SRI offers new numbers. The author of the new report (not free) says "Readers are cautioned not to rely on or in the future refer to numbers from the 2007-08 Insight SRI paper‘The Economic Cost of FOD to Airlines’. This earlier effort was ‘The’ first document detailing the direct and indirect cost of FOD that was based on airline maintenance data (the entire document was a single page of
data, followed by 8 pages of footnotes)."

Per Flight Direct Costs of $26 are calculated by considering engine maintenance spending, tire replacements, and aircraft body damage.

Per Flight Indirect Costs include a total of 31 individual categories:

Airport efficiency losses
Carbon / Environmental issues
Change of aircraft
Close airport
Close runway
Corporate manslaughter/criminal liability
Cost of corrective action
Cost of hiring and training replacement
Cost of rental or lease of replacement equipment
Cost of restoration of order
Cost of the investigation
Delay for planes in air
Delays at gate
Fines and citations
Fuel efficiency losses
Hotels
In-air go-around
Increased insurance premiums
Increased operating costs on remaining equipment
Insurance deductibles
Legal fees resulting
Liability claims in excess of insurance
Loss of aircraft
Loss of business and damage to reputation
Loss of productivity of injured personnel
Loss of spares or specialized equipment
Lost time and overtime
Missed connections
Morale
Reaction by crews leading to disruption of schedule
Replacement flights on other carriers
Scheduled maintenance
Unscheduled maintenance

The study concludes that when these indirect costs are added, then the cost of FOD increases by a multiple of up to 10x.

Eurocontrol and the FAA are both studying FOD. Eurocontrol released a preliminary assessment of FOD Detection technologies in 2006, while the FAA is conducting trials of the four leading systems from Qinetiq

QinetiQ

Qinetiq is a British global defence technology company, formed from the greater part of the former UK government agency, Defence Evaluation and Research Agency , when it was split up in June 2001...

(PVD

T. F. Green Airport

T. F. Green Airport , also known as Theodore Francis Green State Airport, is a public airport located in Warwick, six miles south of Providence, in Kent County, Rhode Island, USA. Dedicated in 1931, the airport was named for former Rhode Island governor and longtime senator Theodore F. Green...

Providence T F Green Airport), Stratech (ORD

Ord

Ord may refer to:People* Boris Ord Ord may refer to:People* Boris Ord Ord may refer to:People* Boris Ord (1897-1961, British composer* Edward Ord (1818-1883, Major General in the US Army* George Ord (1781-1866), zoologist* William Ord (1781–1855), English Whig politician and landownerPlaces*...

Chicago O'Hare Airport), Xsight Systems (BOS Boston Logan Airport), and Trex Aviation Systems (ORD

Ord

Chicago O'Hare Airport) during 2007 and 2008. Results of this study should be published in 2009.

External links

www.runway-safety.com The 2010 report from Insight SRI 'Runway Safety: FOD, Birds, and the Case for Automated Scanning'
www.FOD-detection.com A news site containing details of recent FOD strikes, media articles, and discussions on the current FOD detection systems available.
FODNews.com Issues, information, and actions to help prevent Foreign Object Damage
Insight SRI
FOD group at LinkedIn A LinkedIn group setup to discuss FOD issues.
www.AINonline.com An AIN Online article on FOD
Air Transport World An Oct 2010 article on the cost of FOD
FOD Detection at Heathrow Airport June 13, 2008
Best Practices for the Mitigation and Control of Foreign Object Damage-Induced High Cycle Fatigue in Gas Turbine Engine Compression System Airfoils. RTO Technical Report TR-AVT-094
List of Various FOD Mitigation Studies, Including Links to Corresponding Technical Papers

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.