MILWAUKEE – Ever wonder how much work goes into making sure the runways are clear when major ice and snow storm events happen in Milwaukee?
Harold Mester is one of the people who has to be intimately familiar with those deicing procedures. He’s the Director of Public Affairs and Marketing at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport.
“We have a winter weather operations team that’s here at the airport,” Mester said.
“We make sure everybody is staged and ready to go before the storm starts, so we can make sure all of our runways, taxiways, aircraft parking areas are all safe prior to the start of the storm,” he said.
Those crews then remain at the airport working 12-hour shifts until the storm is gone.
Mester says when a layer of ice coats all surfaces, like it did on Tuesday, a special team is called in to help.
“Plows don’t really help us during these kind of storms, so we have a separate team that does ice storms like this,” Mester said.
“We use a combination of a liquid and solid deicing agent to make sure the runways stay clear and still have traction for planes landing and taking off.”
“We also use an aviation-grade sand mixture. It all depends on what the type of precipitation is that’s coming down.”
One person was injured on Tuesday when a de-icing truck overturned on the runway. Mester said the person who was behind the wheel received only minor injuries.
“Really almost no injuries and refused treatment but we still took that individual in for evaluation,” Mester said.
There were at least seven flights which were cancelled on their way out of Milwaukee on Tuesday.
For the latest departure times at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, click here.
You can listen to the entire interview with Harold Mester of Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport in the player at the top of the page.