Perhaps you may have been one of the lucky ones to be on board an aircraft which, upon landing and taxiing to the gate was welcomed by a couple of fire trucks whose operators were eagerly waiting for the signal to begin blasting their water cannons over the aircraft.
You begin to rule out all manner of thoughts such as a fire breakout during landing, but then again, the flight crew have not alerted you to any emergency and it surely can't be that they are waiting to clean the aircraft of any bird strike remains and other debris. It also couldn't possibly be an emergency drill of some kind as people have connecting flights to catch and there other passengers waiting to board this very aircraft.....
So what could it be???
The answer to this is very simple..... You have now been introduced to a fancy ritual known as a Water salute.
Usually this lasts for a few minutes as the aircraft taxi's to parking.
It mostly happens on special occasions such as:
- Welcoming a brand new aircraft to an airline's fleet as well as celebrating the last flight of a particular aircraft.
Eg: This Jetstream 41 aircraft with a South African registration is a new aircraft being added to one of the local airline's fleet in Congo. Location: FZNA, Congo
- Celebrating the first or last flight of a particular airline to an airport.
- Honouring the retirement of a senior pilot or air traffic control personnel.
- Celebrating the home-coming of a winning team.
....and any other special occasion which will require a water salute.
It is also good to note that water salutes were first introduced in the maritime industry where very large vessels new to a port were welcomed by fire boats. These smaller boats would position themselves on either side of the larger vessel and begin to shoot arcs of water to mark the safe arrival of the vessel. The exact time frame of when this practice was introduced is however not clearly known.
Water salutes were later introduced to the aviation industry and carried out for the reasons mentioned above.
In order to successfully carry out a water salute, a lot of co-ordination and communication happens between ATC, ground crew and flight crew especially since safety is paramount in all airport operations.
What you will notice is that as the aircraft approaches the gate, it is made to hold at a particular point, with the fire trucks positioning themselves at a safe distance away from the aircraft which is enough for the plane to pass through and for the trucks to shoot a good water arc over the aircraft.
Usually two fire trucks are used for this exercise, though more could be used depending on what is available and of course, they make sure that enough water is left in the tanks should any emergency around the airport occur.
Wind direction is also put into consideration because it has the potential of ruining an otherwise flamboyant display. Strong winds will cause water to scatter everywhere thereby not allowing a solid arc to form. This may be a minor inconvenience but like I mentioned before, the overall aesthetic of the display is ruined.
There have also been incidences of water salutes gone wrong such as the one that happened at Dubai International Airport where a Saudi Airlines A320 was being welcomed in celebration of the 88th birthday of Saudia Arabia. As the aircraft taxiied in, one of the fire trucks encountered an issue causing it to spray water up and down. Eventually, the operator seemed to be able to stabilize the cannon but as the aircraft was passing, the pressurized water hit the side of the jet triggering the emergency slide to break open. In the process a passenger got injured as the emergency door was flung into the cabin.
There have been a few other mishaps that have occurred at other airports and this has resulted in water salutes being done away with completely at some of these facilities.
Regardless, this is a practice that has been firmly integrated in the world of aviation that I don't see it being scrapped any time soon.
So the next time you see fire trucks scrambling towards your aircraft, do not be alarmed, (unless the crew has declared an emergency) you could be among the lucky ones taking part in this short, simple but very honorable ceremony of the water salute.
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