# Pre\-Flight Anatomy of a Passenger Airliner \(en\)

What happens on the stand before a passenger airliner can take off: crew, ground staff, catering, fuel, checks and baggage

By greenlig

Topic: Engineering

[Open the interactive Jig](https://ask.jig.com/j/F3UQd334hbut)

## Guide

### 1. Half an Hour Before Take\-off

After a short\-haul jet lands, it usually waits at its parking stand for only twenty minutes to an hour before it leaves again\. This busy pause is called the turnaround\. Up to thirty people work around the aircraft, and most jobs happen at the same time\. Drag the scene to turn it and look around\.

The turnaround clock starts when the wheel chocks go in and stops when they are taken away\.

### 2. Parking: Chocks, Power and the Jet Bridge

Once the aircraft stops, the ground crew wedge chocks in front of and behind the wheels and set out safety cones\. A ground power unit, a cart that supplies electricity, is plugged in so the engines can be shut down\. The jet bridge, a moving covered walkway, swings out from the left side to meet the front door\.

Passengers almost always get on and off on the left side\. The right side is kept for the catering, fuel and baggage vehicles\.

### 3. The Crew Arrives

The captain, first officer and flight attendants board through the jet bridge\. Before coming aboard, they have already gone through the flight plan together: the route, the weather, the alternate airports and how much fuel to carry\. The purser, the senior flight attendant, then briefs the cabin crew and gives everyone a station\.

Crews usually report for duty about an hour before departure\.

### 4. The Walk\-around

One pilot steps off the aircraft and walks all the way around it\. They look closely at the tyres and brakes, the engine intakes and the body for dents or leaks, and check that the covers on the speed\-sensing probes have been removed\. Meanwhile, engineers check the technical log, the aircraft's logbook, to make sure every fault has been fixed\.

A walk\-around is done before every flight, even if the aircraft landed only an hour ago\.

### 5. The Cabin: Cleaning and Safety Checks

The top of the cabin lifts away so you can look inside\. Cleaners collect rubbish and tidy the seat pockets and seat belts\. Flight attendants check each piece of emergency equipment, including fire extinguishers, oxygen bottles, life jackets and torches, and make sure nothing suspicious has been left behind\.

This aircraft has roughly 160 to 189 seats\.

### 6. Food, Fresh Water and Waste

The catering truck parks at the front right door, and its box rises like a lift to the height of the door\. The crew roll out the used trolleys and push fresh ones, full of meals and drinks, into the galley, the aircraft's kitchen\. At the back, one truck empties the toilets while another fills the drinking\-water tank\.

The fuel truck and the catering truck both work on the right side, so they are parked carefully to keep out of each other's way\.

### 7. Refuelling

The fuel is stored inside the wings, not in the body of the aircraft\. The fuel truck drives under the right wing, connects a static grounding wire first, then attaches its hose to the refuelling point\. Drag the slider to watch the right\-wing tank fill up, block by block\. The pilots check the amount loaded against their plan\.

This type of aircraft can hold about 26,000 litres of fuel\. Jet fuel is counted by weight, and one litre weighs about 0\.8 kilograms\.

### 8. Loading Bags and Balancing the Weight

Baggage carts bring checked bags to the right side of the aircraft, and a belt loader carries them one by one into the hold\. The bags are stacked neatly and secured\. A load planner works out how much weight goes into each hold so the aircraft stays balanced from front to back\.

The holds sit under the cabin floor, one in front of the wings and one behind\.

### 9. Doors Closed, Bridge Away, Pushback

Once the load sheet confirms the total weight of passengers, bags and fuel, the doors are closed\. The jet bridge pulls back, and the chocks, power unit and other vehicles move away\. An airliner cannot reverse on its own, so a tug pushes it back off the stand\. Press the button to push the aircraft back\.

After pushback, the pilots start the engines and, once air traffic control gives permission, taxi to the runway for take\-off\.