Posted on 07/10/2013 7:58:51 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
wow
great article
The pilots got us into these airports, that were closed to outgoing traffic, after long trans pacific and a polar routes with no problems. From my sense as a passenger they knew what they were doing...
As I say I have no hesitation flying with any major Asian carrier... but I refuse to fly with the American carriers as much as I would like to...YMMV
I don’t consider it much of a risk. The Asian carrier provide much more than pretty woman..they are just better than American carriers in customer service by a massive amount.
Very interesting....and ironically, the Military Channel was playing special tonight on Captain Sully’s landing in the Hudson. The difference in flying abliity and rote memorization of procedures and so on is stark. Sometimes...dang it....you just have to FLY THE PLANE. Sounds like the Asian airlines are not prepared for those eventualities .
Ill take the so called risk and judging from the fact the Asian carriers are profitable while the shoddy American carriers lose money year after year shows many others take the same risk.
American carriers lost money because their air crews had strong unions and had total pay packages way above their Asian rivals. Now that the unions are flat on their backs, US airlines are making money again.
Yup. Landing a 777 tail first would scare me into a domestic airline.
Watch the ‘books’ of any oriental business, ‘specially the Chinese. They are similar to fishermen in that ‘the truth is not in them.”
Happy landing to you and yours.
>”We have beaches, mountains,a giant waterfall and the world’s biggest hole”<
We also have the world’s biggest A HOLE.
I fly Oz all the time into both SFO and SeaTac, the last being Memorial Day. I will probably fly them this fall depending on my schedule and this incident has no effect on me.. I'll bring my family and friends on an Asian carrier any time but I wont fly or recommend my friends and clients that they fly an American carrier internationally.
If I do happen to crash some place in Asia and survive I'm pretty confident I wont have to worry about then getting killed by a firetruck..
>”I wouldn’t risk my life just to have good-looking women waiting on me”<
You’re not Married are you? LOL
I am a retired U.S. Army pilot. Both rotary and fixed wing. If I can relate my experience on a Japan Airlines flight, here it goes.
There we were, 11 hours into a SFO-HND flight. Just approaching the Japanese home islands. Suddenly, all the entertainment screens go blank. The very nice flight attendants grow alarmed. They are all talking to each other mutedly in Japanese. We, of course, have no idea what they’re saying. We seem to be the only non-Japanese on board. The other passengers start to get worried. They are all, of course, Japanese. The Flight attendants try to reassure them, in their language. The Mrs. and I, decidely Gaijin, are not informed nor reassured by the crew.
Then, a Flight Officer emrges from the cockpit despondent and confers with the Flight Attendants, in Japanese, obvioulsy. This is right next to our seats. The Flight Officer seems to be troubleshooting something in the mid-aricraft galley but the results appear...even more alarming!
Now, this is my first trans-pacific flight and we are over water somewhere between Russia and japan. If we go down here, I’m thinking, there’s no chance of us surviving a ditching much less the freezing waters that await us.
The Flight Officer returns to the deck (cockpit) all upset and embarrased. The Flight Attendants grow more alarmed. The wife is asleep and clueless next to me. I think I see one Flight Attendant crying. I am, like, oh shit.
The Captain (I ascertain this because of the gravity of his tone and marked leadership and a good dose of kudasais), starts jabbering something in Japanese, to which the rest of the passengers react to with what I would categorize as “oh, noes”, in their language.
Still hundreds of miles from any land, at night, and in freezing weather (mind you, all I’ve done on this flight is stare at the map and flight progress on my personal TV screen), I’m thinking, oh crap, what the hell’s going on!
So, in my most diplomatic and reverent tone, I approach the head Flight Attendant and ask her if she could translate for us poor Gaijin barbarians what the Captain just announced because I’m already trying to find my flotation device beneath my seat and I can’t find it. Dear Lord, she starts crying. Again!
She sheepeshly tells me, in English, that she, the Captain, Japan Airlines and the Empire of Japan is deeply embarrased to inform me that our airplane’s in-flight entertainment system is malfunctioning and that we won’t be able to finish our FIFTH in-flight movie before final approach into Tokyo-Haneda!
Jesus!
Oh damn no more inflight entertainment.The horror.I bet you were glad you didn’t have to wake up momma with the bad news.That would have been worse than a crash.
OMG! What a story! By God, they DO take their customer service SERIOUSLY!
Awesome!
One friend retired from United, his wife still flies for them. A few times a month the largest Boeing made takes off for China with what may be United’s smallest pilot flying left seat. IIRC, she is considered to be one of their best, too.
That in no way means either she or the airline is spared the slings and arrows of outraged Libtardism.
For example, he showed me the flight manifest for one of her flights on which was listed a steward named “Sugarplum Fruitcake”. Seems Mr. Fruitcake was queer, had an argument with his father over his coming out of the closet, and decided to annoy his father. The name choice did annoy dear old Dad. It also is a problem for the airline and the Captain of any flight Mr. Sugarplum flounces onto.
Imagine the reaction of airport/customs officials in Muslim ‘nations’? Open homosexuality is not legal in such places, so Lil’Sugarplum has to be scheduled separately. The Queer in the White Mosque demands it be so, and so does Queer Nation, ad nauseam.
Such behavior is not tolerated in asian aviation.
But being queer and politically protected is not the worst forced upon American airlines. Back when American air carriers were not yet killed by the unions, a place departed Miami International Airport. On climb out, shortly after the wheels left the ground, one of the three engines failed and spooled down.
Climb was continued and the tower was notified and a return was requested and granted. The plane went over the water to turn around and the second engine failed. Flight is possible on one engine and while tension was high, the approach was flawlessly maintained.
Then the last engine began to spool down. Moments like this are when one is thankful the flight crew is not Asian.
Fortunately, the wheels were on the ground before all power from all three engines was lost.
The reason all three engines failed in flight was traced to the mechanic not replacing the safely wires securing the dipsticks on the turbine engine main bearings. The dipsticks vibrated out, the oil came out, and the place came down.
The dipsh*t mechanic who could not remember to wire the dipstick shut could not be fired. Union employee, blah, blah, blabber, blabber.
With unions and Libtardism firmly in control of American regulatory agencies, it is a wonder American air carriers can survive at all.
Tomorrow does not look good, either.
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