Author: hughesg
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The Blowout Chain Reaction: How a Disintegrating Tire Turns Into a FOD Event Anywhere You Operate
On July 6, 2026, an Air Nostrum CRJ-1000 suffered a main-gear tire burst at full thrust on France’s Nantes Atlantique…
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The Heat Is On — and Creating FOD You Didn’t Budget For
On July 13, 2026, inspectors at Tokyo Haneda Airport found a roughly 20-centimeter cavity in Runway C — not a…
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The FAA Just Handed Runway Safety to an AI. Here’s What It Means for Your FOD Program.
In June 2026, a Politico investigation confirmed what safety analysts had long expected: the FAA is deploying Palantir‘s Foundry AI…
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250 Years of Pushing the Limits: An Independence Day Tribute to the People Who Drive America Forward
Two hundred and fifty years ago, a group of builders decided the world could work differently. They wrote it down,…
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What Motorsport Facilities Can Learn From Aviation FOD Programs
When a sanctioning body inspector asks how your facility manages debris on the racing surface, what do you show them?…
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The FOD Audit Playbook: How to Prepare Your Airport for a Program Review Before the Auditors Do It for You
Picture this: A Part 139 inspector arrives at your airport. Your operations team runs daily runway checks without fail. Your…
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Part 139 and FOD: What Self-Inspection Compliance Really Requires
For any of the roughly 520 US airports certificated under 14 CFR Part 139, runway safety is a federal mandate…
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FOD on the Flightline: Why Military FOD Programs Fail at the Shift Change
The aircraft is buttoned up. The outgoing crew is signing off. The incoming shift is still getting oriented. For a…
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When the Equipment IS the FOD: Cross-Domain Case Studies in Staging Zone Failures
The most instructive operational FOD case studies share an unexpected feature. The hazard wasn’t dropped debris or a failure mid-operation.…
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One Fence, Three Owners: The Airport Perimeter Problem Nobody Talks About
Most airports split perimeter responsibility across three departments. Airport perimeter security best practices require integration. Here’s how to start.