New technology for life vests

Security seals with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) have been attached to life vest holders on board 120 aircraft.

​The project aimed to speed up security check procedures is now complete. In four months the teams from across Combined Operations have worked closely to equip 120 long-haul aircraft with thousands of RFID security labels and RFID tags containing date life information of life jackets.

Previously security and engineering checks required life vests to be removed, inspected and placed back. With over 11 million life vest checks a year, this time consuming and labour intensive process meant life vest holders were regularly replaced through over search. New RFID scanners now replace this manual process and significantly reduces security checks in the turnround both in the UK and US.

“RFID technology has helped transform this process for the airline,” said Peter Bunting, Airport Transformation Project Manager. “We’re currently looking for other opportunities to use this technology to streamline and improve other internal processes”.