Was no-frills wirklich heisst...

[Gast]

aus a.net

 

No-frills pilot could not land plane in fog Mar 22 2002

 

By The Evening Chronicle

 

 

Geordie jet passengers were stunned when the captain announced he didn't know how to land the plane in bad weather.

 

Nearly 100 passengers on a flight out of Newcastle Airport to London's Stansted Airport couldn't believe their ears when their captain told them he was on a training flight and could not land in fog.

 

The jet was forced to turn back and land at another airport with clearer weather.

 

Now the Chronicle can reveal the no-frills airline Go is flying up to 20,000 people to and from the North East every month using some pilots who are not qualified to land in fog.

 

A mum of two, from Gateshead, who was on last Friday's flight said: "If I had known this I would never have flown with them.

 

"I would rather pay more and feel safe. When he told us this in the air I was terrified."

 

Go says not all its pilots are trained to fly at its so-called Category Three A level. This qualifies pilots to land in foggy conditions - when visibility is less than 200 metres.

 

Go's policy came to light after the flight which left Newcastle for Stansted circled above Stansted Airport while the pilot told passengers he was on a training flight and did not know how to land in fog.

 

The plane was forced to fly to East Midlands Airport, where conditions were clear.

 

The 92 anxious passengers had to wait on the East Midlands runway for nearly an hour until the arrival of a Go flight from Malaga, which had a Category Three A trained pilot.

 

The Malaga-flight pilot was whisked across the tarmac to take over the controls of the Stansted-bound plane, where relieved passengers greeted him with a round of applause. Three hours later than scheduled, the plane finally touched down at Stansted, re-uniting the passengers with their worried friends and families.

 

Go, a key player in the cut-throat budget airline industry, began flying from Newcastle to London last November and carried 70,000 passengers in its first three months.

 

A Go spokesman said: "We are not able to reveal how many pilots have received Go's Category Three A training."

 

Go chief operating officer Capt Ed Winter said: "Go's number one priority is the safety of its passengers and crew, which is why we train our pilots to the rigorous standards set out by the Civil Aviation Authority, who have exactly the same rules for all airlines.

 

"CAA rules state pilots joining all airlines, whether traditional or low cost, must carry out three auto-lands before they can land in Category Three A conditions.

 

"Even if they have been fully qualified to Category Three A at their previous airline, on joining Go, we require them to repeat the procedure in a Go aircraft.

 

"In this particular case there had been no fog forecast for this flight, but unfortunately fog came into Stansted very quickly. As one of the pilots on this flight had not completed three auto-lands with Go, we adhered to the strict rule that the aircraft could not land in the Category Three A conditions.

 

"For that reason, the aircraft was diverted to East Midlands where a captain who was qualified boarded the aircraft and flew it to Stansted.

 

On board GO 612

 

Moments earlier we had been reading, dozing or planning our weekends.

 

Now we sat gripping our seats trying to stay calm.

 

We had started to wonder if something was wrong when we circled over Stansted Airport for half an hour without landing.

 

I craned to see out of the window but the night sky was heavy with clouds.

 

When the pilot's voice came over the loudspeaker a few minutes later saying he couldn't land because he was in training, people gasped, hardly believing what they had heard.

 

After a bumpy landing at East Midlands he came out of the cockpit and stood at the front of the cabin and apologised, admitting this flight was part of his training and that he had not yet been taught to land in fog.

 

He looked embarrassed.

 

Passengers reached for their mobile phones and started calling their families to tell them what had happened.

 

The woman alongside me sat quiet and grim until I turned to her.

 

As others nodded sympathetically she told me she was scared and furious and vowed to write to Go to demand an explanation .

 

Meanwhile, an air stewardess walked down the aisle with forced calm and a smile, reassuring us we would not wait for long and that she would be handing out free soft drinks.

 

Although we were on the tarmac for an hour we never got them. This was no-frills all the way.

 

Smokers hovered with trembling hands at the exit, but there was to be no relief for them either.

 

When a van eventually drew up at the side of the plane and another pilot climbed aboard we cheered and clapped with pure relief.

 

Our ordeal ended 45 minutes later when we successfully touched down at Stansted at midnight - three hours late and still a little shaky.'

[Gast]

Das heisst dann VFR in einer 737???

 

Ich finde das Ganze ziemlich verantwortungslos und gefährlich. Machen das andere Fluglinien auch??

[Gast]

Ich bezweifle, dass bei irgendeinem Major ein CPT nicht cat3 zertifiziert ist...F/Os vielleicht, aber es ist zumindest der Captain im Besitz eines 100%igen Typeratings.

 

Was hätte go gemacht, wenn überall schlechtes Wetter gewesen wäre?

 

[ Diese Nachricht wurde geändert von: racko am 2002-03-24 21:18 ]

[Gast]

Osprey,

 

verantwortunglos und gefährlich wäre es gewesen, wenn der Pilot ohne Erlubnis und ohne die erforderlichen Kenntnisse trotzdem gelandet wäre...also vielleicht erstmal überlegen...

[Gast]

Das wäre auch verantwortungslos gewesen aber was wäre gewesen wenn in Reichweite der 737 aufgrund von tiefhängenden Wolken kein geeigneter Flughafen erreichbar gewesen wäre?

 

Also auch mal überlegen!

[Gast]

Jeder Flug muss eine Menge X an Reservetreibstoff mitführen, um - im Falle einer Unbenutzbarkeit eines Flughafens - einen Alternativflughafen anfliegen zu können. Es gibt in Südengland mit Sicherheit 20 Flughäfen, auf denen eine 737-300 hätte landen können...

[ChrischMue]

Auf SAT1 Videotextseite 117 ist es auch!

[Gast]

Das einer der zwei Piloten nur CATI ist, kommt gar nicht mal so selten vor. Man muss eben erst eine bestimmte Anzahl an Stunden auf einem Muster und diverse simulierte CATII/III Anflüge nachweisen, bevor man CATII/III Anfluege fliegen darf.

 

Das der Kapitaen in diesem Fall einen solchen Anflug nicht machen kann, ist natuerlich schlecht fuer die Firma. Aber die Entscheidung war richtig nicht dort zu landen und das zeigt das die Firma - die Crew vertritt und praesentiert ja die Firma - als sicher und professionell eingestuft werden kann.

 

VFR in einer 737 war's trotzdem nicht und ein Ausweichflugplatz muss auch vorhanden sein. Hier macht eine Zeitung wieder Panik und der Nicht-Flieger faellt drauf rein! Schlecht wenn dann noch o.g. Aussagen fallen.

[Gast]

Ich weiss nicht, was daran sooo schlimm sein soll. Hauptsache, er ist nicht gelandet ohne entsprechend qualifiziert dafür zu sein.

 

Allerdings: es ist schon oberdämlich, den Paxen das so mitzuteilen. Da muss ich doch sagen "Das Wetter ist zu schlecht hier, wir müssen leider nach xy ausweichen, sorry for the inconvenience" Damit kann jeder Pax was anfangen. Aber so versteht doch der durschnittliche Fluggast nur "Eigentlich kann ich gar nicht richtig fliegen" und wechselt logischerweise erstmal die Gesichtsfarbe.

 

Gruss

Frank