Originally Posted by
zippinbye
It was all civil, but a bit strange to me. Am I out in left field for thinking a FOD scan is in order?
I think it’s fair to consider the threat, and you may not be all the way in left field, but not in the infield either.
FAR Part 139 is a hefty read that outlines everything airports need to do to maintain an operating certificate in order to allow for operations of 30+ seat aircraft in 135 or 121 operations.
Those airport ops guys that you raised on frequency are required to do FOD checks on certain intervals (I didn’t feel like looking up the exact matrices), but the basic idea is that based on risk management, the number of operations, and frequency of operations, the runway is getting inspected on set intervals no matter if tower is open or not.
So yeah, the FO has a valid reason to be skeptical; however I think the way you handled was the best possible outcome. A back taxi is likely an over-use of resources, but having airport ops do it is exactly why they’re there (and required to be there per Part 139).
Just food for thought, but I’m guessing a busy airport such as ATL likely gets many more operations between inspections than the airports that go non-towered at night. There’s no way tower sees most FOD in the dark and hundreds of takeoffs/landings can happen with someone getting eyes on pavement.