Another Airline Crash, more loss of life. This time a
subsidery of Lufthansa when all 150
passengers and crew died on flight 9525 = Barcelona to Dusseldorf crash landed in the
southern French Alps.
.In this case , I believe we had a situation, as per my
tweet.
German Wings and Budget Airlines – Too many Airlines; Planes;
Flights & over Scheduled, stressed out Crews – Heart Attacks & now
Pilots Mental Breakdown – Wake Up World.
This is a classic case of a 'Situation' waiting to happen,
within the Budget fleets around the world. This is particularly true in Europe,
where there appears to be a 'Mob' of companies with aircraft, criss croosing
Europe in an ever frenetic way. Goodness one can hardly see the blue sky for
the vapour trails of aircraft passenger carrying and empty schuttles.
Ever increasing flights; ever increasing schedules for ground
and aircrews, leading to ever increasing stress on all. This is all propagated
by the endemic endeavour to reduce costs.
We all know about meals or the lack of them on these flights. We do not
know of any maintainence shortcuts taken
on servicing and or extending the periods between service schedules.
What we do know is that it is easy to recruit young
entusiastic cabin crews, who for a
relatively short time, will work any hours; any where at any price.
German Wings appears to have come up with a new one. Cabin
crew - one senior experienced pilot, with one very junior co-pilot ( On a Commercial Flight ) at probably lower
pay rate by some margin. Hang on said a friend,the other day, that might not be
quite true, wasn't there an incident or in air colllision off the Cannary
Islands, some years agoe where there was a problem with a Senior pilot and
Rookie. In this tragic case Luthansa knew the young man had problems of a
possible mental nature.
Defies belief Lufhansa did not stand him down, a long time
agoe.
I will now tell you a story as near as my 79 year old memory
can recall. Sad to say, it is a Lufthansa story, with a schedule and routes
that could be challenged by a route scheduler. Any way here goes.
A number of years agoe, my wife and I were visiting England,
having arrved off the Le Havre – Portsmouth ferry one day, we saw a very nice B
& B, in a lovely area of Hampshire,about 100 klms from Londons Heathrow
Airport.
Lovely house in a forest and upon retiring for the night we
noticed that a wardrobe in our bedroom was painted with pastal coloures in the
Barvarian style. After breakfast we sat for a while and talked to the lady of
the house and somewhere the subject of Airlines of all kinds came up. The lady
was an ex Stewardess, First class, I assumed by her manner and that little aire
of authority. So what did husband do, a pilot for Lufthansa came the reply, he
is German and very dedicated, I said yes and I'm sure he puts in a full day and
that brought forward a story, with the good lady saying-
Only recently and or
it happens on occasion. Up at 5.00 hours and off to Heathrow to do the London –
Madrid at 8.00 hours. 14.00 hrs Madrid –
Milan. 17.00 hrs Please shuttle an aircraft to Amsterdam then the normal flight
to London arriving 22.00. Up at 5.00hrs
to do a normal day.
Yes ,he does it for Germany. This pilot who had a new child,
I think was treated like a number, even though he was senior pilot.
The young man on the German Wings flight 9525 had problems of
his own, which apparantly had been indicated to Lufhansa. He wanted to be
counted – I believe he was pushed too far by schedules and fatigue and cracked
under the strain leading to him crashlanding
and Clipping German Wings literally, if only to bring to notice the
practises of Budget Airline Operations.
Sorry Lufhansa, but was it not one of your pilots who had a
heart attack on landing in Sydney, some years agoe.
Another little story on Budget carriers and their staff. A
friends son in France , with great joy, joined a budget airline – six months
later he was leaving, saying it was all too much – go here go there and at the
end if a day fill in on another flight etc. It seems all budget carriers push
their aircraft and their sftaff to the limit or pretty well near it.
I call on all the 'Air Authrotities' to regulate very
strongly, the carriers operations in all areas.
I once wrote an article, a little criptic I must admit,
indicating sometimes they could fly empty planes, on the Non-Return of fares of
no show customers. My dear departed sister once said on canceling a trip – oh
no, they never refund for anything- cheap enough though. And my niece trips off
England to Greece at the drop of a hat, to see her boyfriend quite frequently,
adding to the pollution in the skies.
What has this got to do with 9525, Plenty, in that it is
clear Lufhansa and carriers like them, do not always listen to the concerns of
staff, they just look at the bottom line, which must be a scary thing in Budget
operatons.
All condolences to the friends and relatives of the
passengers and crew that fateful flight, which was crash landed on a Mountian in
France in March 2015. May they rest in peace.
May I quote John Ruskin
in 1819 - 1900
“It's unwise to pay too much but it's unwise to pay too
little. When you pay too much you lose a little money that is all.
When you pay too little you sometimes lose everything,
because the thing you bought was
incapable of doing the thing you bought it to do.
The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little
and getting a lot. It cannot be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is
well worth adding something for the risk you run.
And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something
better.”
Those passngers happy with their cheap flight, paid the
ulitmate price and I believe the Airline should be held accountable. Only
recently there was a case where six Australian navy personal (junior ranks,
except one}. They commited suicide whilst under medical observation for medical
illness alcohol and ICE, one was actually sent to sea in an armaments section. All
should have been. discharged into the care of their families and civilian
dioctors. So similar to the Lufhansa situation.
Now let us see what can be done, short of closing them all
down. A few ideas from this ex I.A.P.A
member, who over the years has travelled First class to
Cattle class around the Word; experienced four air incidents and a number of
terrorist events and interogation in Viet Nam (non combatant)
Here are some ideas for ALL carriers big and small, budget or
not.
1.
Upgrade Medical, physical and mental, stadards
and examination by Regulator Doctors,
with random checks for alcohol and drugs (ICE in particular these days).
2.
Both Airline and Regulator Doctors, listen very
carefully to the staff. Any hint of problems –
medical; drugs and family matters – Act immediately by
removing staffer from duties in areas of Flights; Maintainance and Armamets.
Better to cancel a flight than take risks, like German wings, appear to have
done.
3.
Terrorist proof door to Cockpit – A mechanical
lock -press button- with say seven digits. The Pilot on each flight, sets the
numbers and of course changes them each
time the first pilot talkes control. Maybe for emergency purposes the number is
given to the cabin captan via a location, pre determined.
4.
Never, never ever leave a 'Rookie” young pilot
in charge of a commercial passengr aircraft- never.
5.
In future cockpit design, how about a caravan
type toilet. A hatch for passing
refreshments etc, main fusalage to cockpit.
And so we come to the Captain of that fateful flight, of
which very little is know. Did he go to the toilet or did he go to talk to the
children, who woud have loved to meet 'Captain Marvel' Strange how on such a
short journey, he would have to leave cockpit at all. Oh dear what mistakes we
all make at some time or other – that spare of the moment thing when we take
our eyes off the game and in his case flying an aircraft from one European city
to another.Not realising any danger, except of course, that of leaving a young
relatively inexperienced fello in charge of a passenger aiorccraft
I hope my thoughts and ideas will be of use, out there in the
big world.
I have journeyed with many airlines and visited the
'Cartwheeling' city of Dusseldorf when I
was with the Austin Motor Company and Bruggamen AG? . I still think of the
young chap , one Rupert Wulf, yes thats was his name, drove a VW and had a
girlfriend, who could chat for an endless time without .taking a breath. I
wonder if they ever married and have grand children. It was these kind people
who sent a massive bunch on Carnations on our wedding day – memories- too many
I'm afraid. Ah yes names Herr Schmit.Buurgellews and Fuchs all people who made
me confide nt on my early foreign visits.
Again my condolences to all involved in the loss of friends
and relatives and course special thoughts for the parents of the chldren.
Thats it for now. See you next time.
Malcolm E Mason
Mogood, NSW 2538, Australia.
NB. We are deep in a forest, on a river and can set the clock
by the passing of a local tubo prop service, Sydney down the coast and on to
Melbourne. When we are by the river in summer, and we hear the 15.00 hrs into
Moruya, we know its time return to our house, to have a cup of tea . A far cry
from Aubiterre in the Charante, with its sky full of vapour trails and the
frenetic, schedules of Europe. Wasn't
that a marvelous add by Virgin Rail – Fly by Train. I wonder what Sir Richard
Branson would have to say to my blog. Such a long long time since we met
briefly in the Virgin Islands in the early seventies when he was looking for a
building for a recording studio and I from Australia promoting Mini Mokes, as
we had a good customer down in Barbados.
And now I must get dwn to the job of stoping Toyota selling
fleets of vehicles to terrorist organistions around the World. I have raised
the subject in my writings before, but now I really must get the message out.
The other day I was saying to a Sudanese chap, Toyota sell fleets of 20 or so
at a time to known groups such as I S. He responded, that in his Country it is
more like hundreds.
