Posted on 05/16/2008 8:02:23 PM PDT by shield
How do you say, “Hold muh beer” in Arabic?
Not a pilot here but as an interested aviation observer I’ve seen stories of dumb mistakes and gross incompetence by crews of many western major airlines and air forces. Like the Dutch KLM pilot who when taking off in heavy fog didn’t think it important enough to make sure there wasn’t another 747 headed his direction on the same runway.
Interesting story and pics but I can’t make too much of a thing about this being a flight crew from an Arab airline. Especially on a new airplane they apparently hadn’t been fully trained for. The censorship of the story by good Europeans, thats the troubling part.
Oh my...lol
Arthur Dent: I wonder what'll happen if I press this button.
Ford Prefect: Don't.
Arthur Dent: [presses it] Oh.
Ford Prefect: What happened?
Arthur Dent: A sign lit up saying "Please do not press this button again."
Mark
In 2006, the Sheikh of Dubai sent his agent to Lexington, KY, to buy horses. I saw his 747 parked on the edge of our little airport, with the tail hanging over Highway 60. You may remember the airliner that crashed here two weeks earlier, because the flight crew picked a runway that was too short. My conclusion was that the Sheikh has the best pilot that money can buy; he certainly isn’t like the characters on that Airbus.
This is EXACTLY the kind of thing I visualize when someone says mohammedan scholar or scientist.
A crashed airplane that never even got into the air.
Maybe someday they will leave the 7th century, but I really don’t expect it for another 3-4 hundred years...
Max Landsberger: Since the 1984 oil discovery in New Guinea, we have sold the Bu!kais hill tribesmen 20 of our S-24 fighters. At $21 million per unit, that's $252 million. This has started a local arms race between the Bu!kais, and their local neighbors the Kla!klalas. Now the Kla!klalas also happen to be sitting an a large amount of oil. And now the Kla!klalas want to buy 20 of our new Slash X-Ray Ultra Pursuit fighters for a total of $480 million.
Pete Helmes: What are the chances of war between them?
Bob Nixon: Very good sir. Our spare parts replacement contracts could be very lucrative.
Pete Helmes: Who trains their flight personnel?
Max Landsberger: Well, as near as we can assess it... well, they don't actually fly the planes. They sort of roll them down hills, crashing them into each other.
Scott Dantley: Personally, I think that it's a shameful waste of incredible kill power.
Pete Helmes: Make the deal.
Bob Nixon, Scott Dantley: Absolutely.
Mark
“That’ll buff out...”
LOL! Thanks I needed that!
Oh...LOL!
“Interesting story and pics but I can’t make too much of a thing about this being a flight crew from an Arab airline. Especially on a new airplane they apparently hadn’t been fully trained for.”
That’s what is weird. If you are a professional sent to do pre-flight tests, one would imagine some sort of engineering type. Planes not only have POH’s there are checklists for everything. Plus, you never get in a plane you aren’t fully trained for - that’s one of the reasons simulators were developed. It’s a very odd story.
You did mention something really curious. If the crew was not Moslem, or partially Moslem, why the blackout? That is interesting. Maybe simply because they were picking it up for an Arab airline? Hmmm.
>>> If the crew was not Moslem, or partially Moslem, why the blackout? That is interesting. Maybe simply because they were picking it up for an Arab airline?
Well the point was regarding the preparation of the flight crew. Trying to express it a little better I was wondering if it wasn’t the responsibility of Airbus to ensure the Etihad Airways crew were checked out on the model before letting them loose on their own with an airplane that at this point was still the property of Airbus.
Perhaps this was done and it really was a flight crew screwup. But the story hints to me the real screwup was corporate by failure to demonstrate on simulators or ride-alongs what they needed to know about this particular model. Sparing Airbus from discussing such an embarrassing lapse might be the greater cause for suppressing details of such an incident.
This is the first time I’ve seen this. Thanks for posting it.
consider SQ?
actually, all jovial mocking of incompetent arabs aside, the story really doesn’t add up.
the aircraft was not etihad’s first a340 (first -600 series, I think, but etihad was alreadying operating a340-300 and -500’s for a couple of years before placing orders for the -600). plus nobody, and i mean nobody, would allow the initial check of a brand new piece of equipment with a crew unqualified on the type with only a checklist for reference. any checkout crew would have spent the required hours in the type’s simulator before stepping into the actual cockpit. and the initial check run would have been accompanies by the maker’s own test pilot / engineer - certainly in this case where the aircraft was still pre-delivery and under airbus (not etihad) ownership. this is sop at both airbus and boeing.
And, if the runway is too short to legally try it, just call someone in DC. ;’)
Depends what specification one is talking about. The A340-600 is longer than the 747-400, 777-300ER and the A380. The 747-8 will be 7’ 7” longer.
I concede that Airbus jets have a reputatation for doing funny things. My favorite was the one that belly flopped at the Paris Air Show, the one that the pilot later described, “I wanted to go up. The plane wanted to go down. It won.”
In all seriousness, we can not fairly apply our own standards to other nations. We demand excellence and usually reward it. Other countries promote people on the basis of who they know, not what they know.
We have had our share of wrecks here from pilots who did not thoroughly understand the machines they flew. This mostly happens in general aviation, but there have been commercial wrecks, too. I’ll have to think of some examples. The American Airlines Flight 191 crash is sort of an example. Although the crash was caused by maintenance procedures not pilot error, the mechanics and engineers are expected to perform at the same, or better, standard of excellence as the pilots.
According to the story, the Etihad crew wasn’t going to fly it, they were just running up the engines. Where was the Airbus test pilot? I don’t have an answer for that question. Perhaps the story is wrong, but we have seen enough pilots of the third world mentality crash airplanes to suggest that the story is accurate.
Is that how you say Good God, Stop! in Arabic?
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