YVR Connections have posted an article describing their annual FOD walk, they mention their Tarsier FOD detection system. It would have been useful if the article had gone further, and discussed any reduction in the FOD found compared to those years before Tarsier was installed. Article and link to source below:
Long before your first cup of coffee, more than 150 volunteers from the airport community were already hard at work making a clean sweep of YVR’s runways at YVR’s 18th annual FOD Walk.
Wearing safety vests and toting garbage bags, volunteers were dispatched around the airfield to track-down and pick up loose objects like pieces of plastic, broken suitcase wheels and discarded luggage tags. If you found these things on the street, you’d call them garbage. But in the aviation industry, it’s more than just trash, it’s Foreign Object Debris or FOD. Even the smallest piece of debris on an airport’s operating surface can cause serious damage to aircraft or pose a safety risk for passengers.
The reward for volunteers is a hot breakfast and a prize draw to thank them for getting up with the birds. Thanks also goes to Air Canada, Fairmont Vancouver Airport, Cara, Blackcomb Aviation, Marquise, Pacific Coach Lines and the Delta Vancouver Airport Hotel who were all generous sponsors and supporters of this years’ event.
The event is just one of the ways YVR fights FOD and raises awareness about the safety hazards debris can cause. Foreign Object Debris (FOD) costs our industry billions of dollars annually and the FOD Walk’s goal is to promote awareness amongst the airport community of the issue with the expectation that working together, one piece of FOD at a time, we can reduce this unnecessary cost and preventable hazard.
In addition to visual inspections, YVR utilizes a high-tech radar system to help detect and pinpoint objects on our runways, taxiways and aprons day or night. Find out more about our Tarsier FOD radar detection system here.
So enjoy your cup of coffee knowing that we’re watching out for your safety, one piece of FOD at a time.