Phil jumps into action in documentary
Engineering technician’s ‘race against the clock’ filmed for Britain’s Busiest Airport
A WEST Drayton man made his TV debut after featuring on an ITV documentary about Heathrow airport.
Phil Wells, an engineering technician, appeared on the second episode of Britain’s Busiest Airport, which aired on Thursday, June 11.
The 29-year-old was seen racing against the clock to fix an aeroplane jetty floodlight with minutes to spare.
The narrator said: “There is a danger of throwing Heathrow out of sync if a job is done wrong, costing pounds.”
Mr Wells, who thrives on the pressure of his job, describes a typical day at the airport.
He said: “It’s quite a wide array of things that we do. But during the day we’re more reactive. If anything breaks, we try to fix it or repair it to make it safe. I work in terminals myself so will fix anything inside the buildings, like fixtures and fittings, lifts, escalators, any signs and electricals.”
Mr Wells has lived in West Drayton nearly all his life, and said it was a bit surreal to be filmed at work.
But he added: “After a couple of days, I started to enjoy it, and it was quite
thousands
of nice, but very out of the ordinary.”
Mr Wells has been working at the airport for 12 years after joining Heathrow’s apprenticeship scheme, after his mum, who also works at the airport, got him an application form. He said he joined to get his ‘hands dirty and do something mechanical’.
The ITV series was aired over three weeks, with the final episode airing on June 18.