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College Aviation Guide for COVID-19 Response


COVID-19 Response Guide PDF

    • 1How COVID-19 Spreads per CDC
      Person-to-person spread
      • The COVID-19 virus is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person.
      • It is highly contagious and can be spread by people who are asymptomatic as well as symptomatic
      • The virus will spread between people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet).
      • The virus spreads through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
      • These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs.
      Can someone spread the virus without being sick?
      • People are thought to be most contagious when they are most symptomatic (the sickest).
      • Some spread might be possible before people show symptoms; there have been reports of this occurring with this new coronavirus, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.
      Spread from contact with contaminated surfaces or objects
      • It may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.
      • There is no conclusive evidence, but it is possible that the virus can remain on surfaces for hours or even days.
      Symptoms: People with COVID-19
      People with these symptoms or a combination of symptoms may have COVID-19
      • Cough
      • Shortness of breath
      Or at least two of these symptoms:
      • Fever
      • Chills
      • Repeated shaking with chills
      • Muscle pains
      • Headaches
      • Sore throat
      • New loss of taste or smell

      CDC COVID-19 Symptoms

    • 2Steps to Prevent Illness
      Take steps to protect yourself
      • Wear face covering
      • Clean your hands often
      • Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds especially after you have been in a public place, or after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing.
      • If soap and water are not readily available, use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. Cover all surfaces of your hands and rub them together until they feel dry.
      • Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
      • Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
      • No more than 10 people should be congregating in one place at a time. This includes Dispatch and any common areas. Markings will be placed where appropriate to encourage people to stay apart.
      • All ground school will be taught remotely.
    • 3Feeling Sick
      Mt SAC requires employees or students to stay home if they are sick.
      • Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze or use the inside of your elbow.
      • Throw used tissues in the trash.
      • Immediately wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not readily available, clean your hands with a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.
      • If you think you may be sick, leave flight school immediately.
      • If you have symptoms, see a doctor. Use the Company’s video healthcare service first. Going to a doctor’s office will expose you and to other ill people, and others to you.
      • If you go to a doctor’s office, you should wear a facemask when you are around other people (e.g., sharing a room or vehicle) and before you enter a healthcare provider’s office. If you are not able to wear a facemask (for example, because it causes trouble breathing), then you should do your best to cover your coughs and sneezes, and people who are caring for you should wear a facemask if they enter your room. If symptoms occur during the flight, discontinue flight immediately, remain clear of flight school and notify the Dispatch desk and Flight Training Supervisor upon return to airport.
    • 4Emergency Response Plan COVID-19
      For Students and Staff Members
      • The staff member or student must contact Flight Training Supervisor to inform Mt SAC of they are having symptoms related to COVID-19.
      • The staff member or student shall remain at home to self-quarantine for 14 days, plus 3 days following no symptoms.
      • If the student or staff member test positive, they will have to abide by the health care provider recommendations and notify MT SAC that they will be self-quarantining. If a student is confirmed positive COVID, Student Health Services will contact them to discuss contact tracing
      • The instructors of infected student will need to be quarantined and it is recommended to get tested.
      • Should a staff member or student be confirmed to have COVID-19, formal contact will be made with fellow staff and students who may have been exposed. Full confidentiality will be maintained during this process. Further instruction will be provided to individuals at time of contact.
        The students of the possible infected flight instructor will need to be quarantined and tested immediately.
      • The students will remain quarantined for 14 days or until they can produce a negative test result a doctor releases them.
      • Staff members and flight instructors will remain quarantined until a doctor releases them.
      Mt SAC Facility Procedures
      • Mt SAC will quarantine the area of possible infection
      • Infected area will be disinfected prior to re-occupancy
      • Mt SAC will abide by CDC recommendations
    • 5Initial Response Workflow
      Use this Workflow when:
      • Directed by the Flight Training Supervisor, Department of Aeronautics Chair(s), or Division Office Manger
      • Illness due to Infectious Disease

      For staff or students
       
      1. If a student or staff member is experiencing symptoms at home, they should contact Mt SAC Student Health Services or their physician.
      2. If a student or staff member is experience symptoms on campus or at the flight school, they need to self-quarantine themselves off campus until they contact Mt SAC Student Health Services. The student or staff member must then contact the Flight Training Supervisor, their flight instructor, or the College Aviation Dispatch Desk.
      3. No staff member or student can return to campus or flight school until they are cleared by a doctor or Mt. SAC Student Health Services. Please provide doctor clearance to Mt SAC Student Health Services. For authorization to return to campus or the flight school.

        Contact by telephone Mt SAC Student Health Services at 909-274-4400 and one of the following personnel in sequence: (See Contact List)

        If a Students or staff members:
        Contact Flight Training Supervisor or College Aviation Dispatcher 909-392-0917

        If a flight instructor:
        Contact the Flight Training Supervisor See contact list

        Department Chair(s)
        Robert Rogus See contact list
        Linda Rogus See contact list

        Mt SAC Technology & Health Division
        Dean Sam Agdasi or Associate Dean Sarah Plesetz 909-274-4750
    • 6Body Temperature Testing
      Employees or students who have symptoms of acute respiratory illness are required to stay home and not come to campus until they are free of fever (100.4° F [37.8° C] or greater using an oral thermometer), signs of a fever, and any other symptoms for at least 24 hours, or other symptom-altering medicines (e.g. cough suppressants). Employees or students should notify the Supervisor of Flight Training or dispatch desk and stay home if they are sick.

      • Students will be temperature tested prior to every flight or simulator lesson. Temperature logs will be maintained at the dispatch desk at College Aviation. Students will remain outside of the facility at the entrance of the flight school until they have been temperature tested by a dispatcher or flight instructor.
      • Students are asked to arrive no earlier than 5 minutes before the start of their lesson. If you are earlier than this please wait in your vehicle.
      • All employees are asked to take their temperature at home prior to arriving at work. If an employee does not have a thermometer at home, they will be tested at work. Remain outside until you have been tested if others are in the building.
      • If an employee or student has someone in their home or who they have been in contact with who has a fever over 100.4 F, they will be sent home for 14 days, unless they have documentation from a doctor or COVID-19 testing service that states they can return to the campus.
    • 7Students & Staff Questions

      Students and Staff shall log on to the Mt San Antonio COVID-19 Health Screening Log Smart Sheet and complete the “COVID-19 Student & Staff Health Questionnaire.” Student may be flagged by Health Services and be asked to not come to campus or the flights school.

      FTA Members will be required to read and sign the COVID-19 Understanding of Risk for FTA Members. In addition, the following questions will be asked by CFIs and/or Dispatchers, and If at any time a staff member feels the student could put others at risk, the student may be denied entrance into any college facility or aircraft:

      • Have you exhibited any COVID-19 symptoms or tested positive for the virus?
      • How are you feeling today?
      • Have you come in contact with anyone exhibiting COVID-19 symptom or has tested positive for COVID-19?
      • Have you read and do you understand and agree to abide by the College Aviation Guide for COVID-19 Response?
    • 8Social Distancing Procedures

      Mt. SAC College Aviation mandates no employee or student gatherings of more than 10 people in one physical place.

      • No meetings with more than 10 people
      • No ground school classes with more than 10 people per classroom. Most ground sessions will be conducted via Distance Learning.
      • Dispatch areas will be limited to a maximum of 10 employees and students. Markings will be placed in dispatch lines 6 feet apart to prevent contact in the dispatch lines.
      • CFI and Computer Desk, offices and hangar will be closed until further notice for the purpose of group or individual study. Students are encouraged to study at home.
      • Flight Training Supervisor, CFIs and staff will reinforce to students the importance of spreading out while waiting for dispatch, etc.
      • Facemask coverings are to cover both the mouth and nose will be required at all times for staff and students.
      • Students and staff will enter from the north door and exit office from the west door of the office or hangar.
      • Group activities have been cancelled until further notice.
      • No outside guest or visitors
    • 9Office Space Hygiene
      • Staff will turn on lights, open doors, and wipe down high touch areas to limit contact with these common surfaces.
      • Students should bring their own pencils and pens.
      • Pre-flight briefs, post-flight briefs, and any other ground instruction are to be conducted in the hangar at the safest social distance possible. There are tables and chairs set up for each flight instructor that can be used. Students shall not sit at CFI and/or Dispatch Desk.
      • Call for KPOC ATIS (909) 596-1523 – do not use UNICOM radio
      • Mt SAC requires regular wiping/cleaning of all high touch surfaces in the workplace, such as workstations, countertops, and doorknobs. Mt SAC uses the cleaning agents that are usually used in these areas and follow the directions on the label.
      • Mt SAC will provide disposable wipes so that commonly used surfaces can be wiped down by employees or students before each use.
      • Mt SAC has placed posters that encourage staying home when sick, cough and sneeze etiquette, and hand hygiene at the entrance of our workplace and in other workplace areas where they are likely to be seen.
      • Mt SAC has provided no-touch disposal receptacles for use by students and employees.
      • Mt SAC instructed students and employees to clean their hands with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60-95% alcohol or wash their hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Soap and water should be used preferentially if hands are visibly dirty.
      • Mt SAC provided gloves for staff to use while using or cleaning instruction equipment.
      • Mt SAC provides soap and water and alcohol-based hand rubs in the workplace. Mt SAC will make sure that adequate supplies are maintained, and we placed hand rubs in multiple locations to encourage hand hygiene.
      • Campus has cleaning protocols in place that cleans and disinfects each Mt SAC facility each evening. Mt SAC cleaning protocols include cleaning products designated as proper disinfectants related to viruses. If Mt SAC staff is not able to maintain scheduled cleaning, outside vendors will be recruited to provide the proper disinfectant of occupied services
    • 10Aircraft and Simulator Hygiene
      • Before dispatching to pre-flight the airplane flight instructors and students must wash their hands or use hand sanitizer.
      • College Aviation will have disinfecting wipes in each aircraft.
      • Flight instructors and students wipe down all surfaces that are frequently touched in the aircraft.
      • Do not spray the panel directly with alcohol-based cleaners as over spraying can cause damage to the instruments.
      • Do not spray disinfectants or allow overspray on the windows as this can cause damage to windows.
      • The employee or student must throw away the used disinfectant wipes after use. Do not leave in the aircraft.
      • Employees and students are not allowed to take the isopropyl alcohol spray bottle with them on flights or leave it in the airplane.
      • Students will be required to use their own headset, or a headset checked out to them by the college.
      • Dispatchers will wipe down the Hobbs book and aircraft keys with a disinfectant wipe after each flight.
      • Before scheduled maintenance and after scheduled maintenance, the Maintenance Officer or staff member will clean touched surfaces of the aircraft with disinfectant wipes.
      • Simulators are closed until further notice. If the simulators become available then, students and flight instructors will follow same protocols as aircraft.
      • All commonly touched areas on simulators must be wiped with sanitizing wipes at the start of each flight.
    • 11Steps for Students Who Have Traveled Outside the US
      • Incoming students will be quarantined by their airlines in the country of travel if possible, or they must be able to produce a negative COVID-19 test 3 days prior to travel to the US.
      • If neither of the above is true, the new student must spend 14 days in self-quarantine in the US prior to training.
    • 12Sick Employee or Student
      • CDC recommends that people who appear to have acute respiratory illness symptoms (i.e. cough, shortness of breath) upon arrival to work or become sick during the day should be immediately separated from other staff and students and will be sent home immediately.
      • Staff and students are required to self-quarantine for 14 days if they develop symptoms plus 3 days once they become symptom free.
      • Flight Training Supervisor will be tracking sick staff members and students and providing a daily update to the Department Chairs. The Department Chairs will update the Division Office and Human Resources daily on this list of sick employees and students.
    • 13Useful Resources

      Contact the CDC at 800-232-4636