Narrative:

While walking across the flight line from the pilot lounge; I noticed a large amount of FOD on the ground along the terminal in the vicinity of our gates in and around the safety zones and on the ramp. The FOD included soft drink cardboard cartons; six-pack soda plastic straps; packing straps; papers; empty snack bags; empty soda cans; work gloves; bag tags; etc. I picked up as much of the FOD as I could enroute and disposed of it in the trash cans along the way. Those people around me; ground operations personnel; seemed to be oblivious to the large quantity of FOD; and just stepped over it instead of retrieving the FOD. Most of the FOD appeared to be generated by our operation and not by the airport. I spoke to two high ranking leaders in las last month about the chronic FOD in las. As of today; the FOD issue only seems to have worsened rather than improved. As we conducted our taxi from the gate across the ramp to the taxiway; we needed to maneuver through the obstacle course of blowing FOD to prevent ingesting papers; etc. In the engines. We need to increase FOD awareness at las and all company stations; particularly the larger stations. Make FOD awareness an all hands effort. Ground operations leadership needs to be a part of the solution to retrain our people to pick up FOD as part of their routine. As we walk from point 'a' to point 'B'; pick up some FOD. Before the jet arrives in the safety zone; do a mini-FOD walk down in and around the safety zone. It is just a matter of re-emphasizing something we should be doing anyway. We do not FOD engines often; but it is not an insignificant event when we do. Keeping our work area; safety zones; ramps; and taxiways clear of FOD will assist in preventing an engine FOD thus improving safety.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Captain laments the large amount of trash (FOD) to be seen blowing around on the ramp at LAS and other large airports that his carrier serves.

Narrative: While walking across the flight line from the Pilot Lounge; I noticed a large amount of FOD on the ground along the terminal in the vicinity of our gates in and around the Safety Zones and on the ramp. The FOD included soft drink cardboard cartons; six-pack soda plastic straps; packing straps; papers; empty snack bags; empty soda cans; work gloves; bag tags; etc. I picked up as much of the FOD as I could enroute and disposed of it in the trash cans along the way. Those people around me; Ground Operations personnel; seemed to be oblivious to the large quantity of FOD; and just stepped over it instead of retrieving the FOD. Most of the FOD appeared to be generated by our operation and not by the airport. I spoke to two high ranking Leaders in LAS last month about the chronic FOD in LAS. As of today; the FOD issue only seems to have worsened rather than improved. As we conducted our taxi from the gate across the ramp to the taxiway; we needed to maneuver through the obstacle course of blowing FOD to prevent ingesting papers; etc. in the engines. We need to increase FOD awareness at LAS and all Company Stations; particularly the larger Stations. Make FOD Awareness an all hands effort. Ground Operations Leadership needs to be a part of the solution to retrain our people to pick up FOD as part of their routine. As we walk from point 'A' to point 'B'; pick up some FOD. Before the jet arrives in the Safety Zone; do a mini-FOD walk down in and around the Safety Zone. It is just a matter of re-emphasizing something we should be doing anyway. We do not FOD engines often; but it is not an insignificant event when we do. Keeping our work area; Safety Zones; ramps; and taxiways clear of FOD will assist in preventing an engine FOD thus improving Safety.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.