News
20/03/2008
Scouts put Heathrow’s new terminal to the test
Long before it was officially opened by HM The Queen, Heathrow’s spectacular new Terminal 5 was put through its paces in a series of volunteer trials. Who else could test this brand new facility to its limits than hundreds of Scouts?
Alarm bells for Scout activity trousers
Eight members of Surrey’s Loki Network Scout Unit managed to clock up nearly 63,000 virtual air miles between them in less than 5 hours.
Tom Rice was one of the Unit’s Members who ‘travelled’ to Glasgow, Sydney, Inverness, Johannesburg, Miami and Cape Town. He said: ‘Biometric check in, automated baggage handling, unmanned trains and even first class were tested.
'Not bad going, but with over 2,00 participants something had to go wrong, so the boarding card system crashed once and to our horror we found that Scout activity trousers consistently set off the security alarms! All in all a good day was had by all and for a change nobody lost any luggage!’
Catastrophe!
Twenty-six Cubs, Scouts and Leaders from Watchfield & Shrivenham Scout Group and Waylanders Explorer Scout Unit in Oxfordshire were also amongst those lucky enough to be selected to take part.
Roger Padgham explained: ‘On arrival, we were each given a travel folder containing our new passenger names, flight destinations and the roles we were being asked to play during the trials.
‘One of the Explorers lost his paperwork and was delayed, whilst a Cub had problems at security when a small heavy metal object that he had found in the car park triggered a security alert. On the brighter side, two of our Scouts were unexpectedly upgraded to Business Class!
‘Some of us had instructions to pick up items of baggage, which saw one of the younger Scouts struggling with a huge suitcase bigger than he was!
‘Our other group was left in the main building with Nice as their next destination. But, catastrophe! It appears that one of our Cub Leaders had false papers and was hauled away by security and not allowed to continue on his flight.
‘At the end of the trial, we were all thankfully reunited safe and sound. There still seemed quite a bit of work to do to finish off the fixtures and fittings before the opening, but what we saw was really spectacular. We all enjoyed playing our part in the trials, trying to keep to our passenger profiles, which were inevitably spiced up by the reality of being a lively young Cub or Scout – or a harassed Leader!
'Everyone now had a much better appreciation of how complex running an airport terminal really is, and an idea of what goes on behind the scenes, especially when things don’t go exactly according to plan.'
'A very modern ingenious building'
Mark Darlow, an Assistant County Commissioner from Greater London North, joined a party of excited Scouts who were ready to test drive T5’s services. He said: ‘Greater London North County Network wanted to invest the new Network Unit in a memorable place and we managed to do this outside the terminal.
‘It was an interesting day - what a great place it will be when its running at full speed. It will be a good travelling experience with .’
