The FOD Control Corporation

Is your FOD program audit-ready — or just operationally solid? There's a big difference.

When a Part 139 inspector walks in and asks for your documented risk assessment, your named FOD manager, and 90 days of trend data, having good daily habits isn't enough. You need the paperwork to back it up.

The FAA updated AC 150/5210-24A in February 2024, and EASA has formalized FOD control as a regulatory requirement for certified aerodromes. If your program hasn't been reviewed against current standards, there's a good chance gaps are hiding in plain sight.

We put together a practical internal audit framework so you can find those gaps on your own terms — before the auditors find them for you.

Read the full playbook here: https://www.fodcontrol.com/fod-audit-playbook/

Does your Part 139 self-inspection program cover every trigger — or just the daily walkthrough? 🔍

Section 139.327 requires more than a daily movement area inspection. Two additional triggers — unusual conditions (construction, severe weather, operational changes) and any runway accident or incident — are equally binding, and they're exactly what FAA auditors look for at certification reviews.

AC 150/5210-24A (the updated 2024 standard) gives certificate holders a clear four-step framework: prevention, detection, removal, evaluation. With $523M in recent federal pavement grants, the funding is there. The mandate has always been there. What separates compliant airports is ex*****on.

Here's what a complete, audit-ready FOD self-inspection program actually looks like: https://www.fodcontrol.com/part-139-fod-requirements-self-inspection-compliance/

What's the most dangerous 20 minutes on a military flightline? It might not be the moment you'd expect. 🔍

Shift change — the window between outgoing and incoming crews — is where military FOD programs consistently break down. Tool counts get rushed. Work area ownership goes undefined. Situational awareness hits its daily low. And DAFMAN 91-203's requirements are on the books, but not always in the briefing.

Our latest article breaks down exactly why this gap keeps producing incidents, what failure patterns show up most often, and what a real prevention framework looks like — from structured handover checklists to enforced flightline entry checks to explicit ownership protocols.

If you manage or support a military airfield FOD program, this one's worth the read.

Read more: https://www.fodcontrol.com/fod-flightline-shift-change/

What if the most dangerous piece of FOD on your operating surface isn't debris from outside — it's the equipment your own crew staged there? 🔍

Across aviation, military maintenance, and motorsport, incident data points to the same pattern: containment failures cluster not during active operations, but during the transition between equipment-at-rest and equipment-in-use. The staging window.

At Dover this month, a pit box rolled free during pre-race setup. At Orlando International on May 7, an airport tug struck a jet bridge at the gate and a ground worker was killed. At Singapore 2008, Ferrari sent Felipe Massa out with the fuel rig still attached.

We analyzed four cross-domain case studies to identify the six principles that close the staging window. Whether your operating surface is a runway, a flightline, or a pit lane, the gaps — and the fixes — are the same.

https://www.fodcontrol.com/equipment-as-fod-case-studies-staging-zone/

At most large US airports, three different departments share responsibility for the same fence line. Security manages access control. Wildlife management runs exclusion fencing. Airfield operations handles movement-area FOD sweeps.

Each team has a clear mandate. The question is what happens in the spaces between them.

Our new analysis looks at how leading airports are building integrated perimeter operations — and what five practical first steps any airport can take, without a capital project, to start closing those gaps.

Read the full piece: {{BLOG_URL}}

Did you know that 33 degrees of banking does more than create 200 mph speeds — it also funnels every piece of loose debris to the exact same spot on every lap? 🏁

Oval tracks and road courses look like they share the same FOD challenge. They don't. The geometry of banked corners means debris accumulates in predictable high-side zones, turn after turn, until those outer walls become a hazard zone before every restart.

NASCAR ovals averaged over 2 debris cautions per race for more than a decade. The physics of the track is a big reason why.

We broke down exactly how banking angles create structural FOD problems — and what oval track managers need to do differently than road course facilities.

Read more: https://www.fodcontrol.com/oval-vs-road-course-banked-tracks-fod-problem/

Every FOD prevention manual assumes you've got a paved runway and a permanent flight line. Forward operating bases don't work that way. 🚁

FOBs run on Pierced Steel Planking, AM-2 matting, or bare dirt — and almost everything flying off them is rotary-wing. A single UH-60 landing creates a 160-foot debris hazard radius in every direction. Standard doctrine wasn't built for that.

So what actually works in the field? Our latest article breaks down why the permanent-base playbook falls short, what really generates FOD at a FOB, and the field-expedient practices units can use today — plus when equipment-based sweeping finally becomes the right answer.

Read the full breakdown: https://www.fodcontrol.com/fod-prevention-without-infrastructure-forward-operating-bases/

Is your FOD program covering pavement repair windows — or just the gaps between them? 🔍

Runway milling, joint sealing, and overlay work leave behind loose aggregate, sealant chunks, and milling fines that standard FOD walks consistently miss. And the highest-risk moment isn't during construction — it's right after the crew leaves.

FAA guidance requires FOD prevention plans for construction near aircraft movement areas. But the transition from construction closeout to return-to-service is where most airports have a protocol gap.

Our latest article breaks down what pavement repairs leave behind, why standard programs fall short, and what a smarter post-repair response looks like.

Read more: https://www.fodcontrol.com/__trashed/

At the 2026 Australian GP, a cooling fan fell off Kimi Antonelli's Mercedes onto the circuit. Red flag. Here in America, a loose lug nut rolled down NASCAR pit road and struck another car mid-service — nearly hitting a crew member. 🏁

Same problem, two different series. Pit lane FOD doesn't arrive from outside the venue — it originates inside the operation, whether the stop takes 2.5 seconds or 12.

NASCAR debris cautions spike 50% right after green-flag pit windows. F1 teams manage 20+ crew in sub-2.5 seconds. The debris is different — lug nuts vs. cooling fans — but the risk is identical.

We break down the cross-series problem and how layered prevention actually works.

Read the full article: https://www.fodcontrol.com/pit-lane-fod-how-2-5-seconds-of-chaos-leaves-hardware-on-the-racing-surface/