Take This Class and Please Don’t Die on Our Plane. That will be £125. Thank you for not dying on British Airways.

British Airways has a problem.

It seems that they developed a class for British Petroleum. You see, BP sends their staff to remote locations which are only served by airlines on the EU banned list. As we described it on the last article the last time we talked about it, these poor BA employees ended up on flights on planes that skydivers wouldn’t touch with a ten foot parachute.

Anyway, this class they worked up must now be like a friday night paycheck burning a hole in their pocket. You see, they keep trying to market this class as a product. Like the guy who gets stuck with a warehouse full of Widgets. The first time we heard this, the class was being offered for purchase, and the purpose of the class was to teach aviation safety and how to behave during a crash to increase your likelihood of not dying on their plane.

We think the whole thing is kind of fishy, since the plane is not supposed to crash. Landing safety is the airline’s responsibility, not an option. I wouldn’t keep writing about this but I keep getting notices about this class.

So they’re now looking for a new market, and they’ve found it. They announced that the£125 four hour class on how to survive a plane crash will be available for FREE. Or actually, only free to passengers who want to pay in mileage points, i.e. rich people. So. Rich people can pay in points (or perks) to get a lesson on how not to die. If anyone else wants to be safe, you’re going to have to ante up the cash.

We are not really arguing against the class, if they want to provide it. Maybe it will make some people feel safer. (Though probably not. Why would you take a course in how to crash if you thought you were going to land safely? It’s probably going to be full of white-knuckled flyers anyway.) We just believe that, since arriving safely is the responsibility of the airline, that the class should be for free. After all, we don’t charge school students for fire drills.

To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.

Similar Posts

| | |

21st Century Air Traffic Control: GAATS+ Technology

New technologies in aviation come about to solve problems and make air travel safer. From this new technology, controllers will have increased situational awareness.

Air traffic control relies on positive and procedural navigation: positive uses radar; procedural uses the radio-procedure of pilots reporting their position every few minutes.

Gander Automated Air Traffic System Plus (GAATS+) is Canada’s new trans-oceanic flight control system developed especially to help deal with sixty percent (the percentage of jets equipped with GPS position-reporting and text-based communications avionics) of the thousand jets crossing the North Atlantic daily (just as Air France 447 did.) It reduces radio procedure by extending positive control via north coast radar feeds.

The new technology is an advance in integration which automates ATC processes (taking advantage of the newest GPS technology, ADS-B and ADS-C) and is expected to save client airlines a million in fuel yearly. It is said that GAATS+ “provides significant enhancements to the original GAATS system, including electronic flight strips and increased automation of data exchange with other ATC facilities. GAATS+ also integrates automated flight plan processing, track generation, advanced conflict prediction and data-link communication for position reports.”

Of course I can not help but have opinions on operational technology, even without a single tangible thing that qualifies me to have an opinion.

The phrase that caught my eye is the statement that “GAATS allows reduced separation by lessening reliance solely on procedural control.”

I am not now nor will I ever be working in a control room. I will have to take the word of Air Traffic Controllers on how this system will work at making flying safer.

My opinion is only based on a layman’s experience and too much attention paid to aviation detail. I only see a few sticking points and they are broad ones:

  • The technology conundrum: Technology is good because it brings greater efficiency; but sometimes I wonder if a reliance on technology will allow skills to atrophy. Will a system like this ultimately result in less able controllers, the same way cockpit technology has resulted in less able pilots?
  • Separation conundrumI hear the phrase greater separation, and I think, “okay, these planes won’t impact each other; they’re safe from direct contact and wake turbulence.” So when I just see the GAATS literature talking about enabling “reduced separation,” what perceive a greater possibility for direct contact and/or wake turbulence. I know the idea of a 5 minute longitudinal separation as opposed to ten is intended to mean greater capacity for traffic. But increased technological accuracy and precision in tracking jets is a good thing only as long as we don’t use the precision in a way that is ultimately chancy.
  • New software conundrum Anyone who has ever had a system knows that the bugs in the system don’t show up right away. They are discovered at various points whenever parameters are stretched or unexpected /unanticipated/ extraordinary events occur. Even when software is not beta any longer, ( las GAATS+ is the latest incarnation of existing GAATS), it is still a developing work in progress, as new problems are revealed and are bridged. So we can only hope that any bugs that exist will not be fatal ones.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
| |

American Airlines says Farewell to A300

George’s Point of View

Bravo to American Airlines which is (finally) putting their Airbus A300’s to bed. American’s spokesman Tim Smith announced “One, we are in the process of cutting capacity. Two, these airplanes are a likely candidate for retirement, in that they are older than most of the airplanes in our fleet, and three, the A300 requires different training and maintenance from the other airplanes in American’s fleet.” We should expect to see a greener, more responsible American AIrlines now. This is part of the fleet renewal effort introduced in American’s 2007 Environmental Responsibility Report when they began replacing their MD-80s with new 737-800s.

I don’t know about being clean and green, environmentally renewed and downsized. I do know that these are 21 year old planes. They’re old enough to vote. (And –I am told–old enough to drive a pilot to drink.)

Think about it…In 1987 when these planes were first introduced into American’s fleet, Charles and Diana had just separated; Jim Bakker got caught playing hanky panky with Jessica Hahn; Klaus Barbie was convicted of Nazi war crimes; Andy Warhol died; an earthquake in LA injured 100 and killed 6; and most unbelievable of all, the Cosby show and Cheers were still in their first run.

I guess time flies when you’re flying deathtraps.

As a frequent flyer who does not trust the A300, I applaud that decision–though it does seem to be a no brainer to retire 21 year old planes.

To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
|

Hudson River Airspace

Thursday FAA’s new rules for Manhattan airspace go into effect. The Hudson River air corridor will be carved into separate areas for local and long-distance traffic.

Local planes and helicopters will fly at 1,000 feet or less; those passing through NYV between 1,000 feet and 1,300 feet; and scheduled airline flights directed by ATC at higher altitudes above 1,300.

To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
| | |

BA Stowaway Dies in Landing Gear Bay

What: British Airways Boeing 747-400 en route from Cape Town to London
Where: London
When: Aug 23rd 2012
Who: 1 fatality
Why: It has not been released whether the stowaway found in the plane’s landing gear bay died from exposure or lack of oxygen. Temperatures at 30,000 feet are between -40 and -50ºC. The body was found by crew at Heathrow and is presumed to be the trespasser who evaded pursuers in the Cape Town International Airport. Police were called at 6.25am when the body was found.

To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
| | |

Turbulence: When the Light is ON, SIT.


Contact photographer Alex G.-Denicourt
What: Continental Airlines Boeing 737-700 en route from Houston,TX to McAllen,TX
Where: McAllen, TX
When: Apr 18th 2009
Who: 104 passengers and 5 crew
Why: First, severe thunderstorms delayed takeoff. Then, en route, fasten seat belt signs were on. The plane experienced turbulence while a woman was in the bathroom; she hit the ceiling and sustained serious back injuries. A flight attendant and another passenger also were injured. On landing, the seriously injured women was ported to the hospital and underwent (2?) neck surgery/ies. It is not known if the severely injured passenger will be permanently paraplegic.

George’s Point of View

Do not think the seatbelt sign does not apply to you. You’re not someone exempt from turbulence. The seatbelt sign applies to everyone.

To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
| |

Remembering Air Blue Flight 202: July 28


In George’s Point of View


Sometimes all we do is listen. We listen to the families speak of their loved ones, listen to the little ones cry, the child who loves snowflakes because that is what her father called her. The wife and children with no means of support and feeding themselves with empty spoons. Knowing that no matter what we do, we cannot bring them back, nor fill that empty place. Still we do what we can on behalf of the families.

This will be the first July 28 in history when these 152 people will not be living on this earth. We want to remember these people who lost their lives in such a tragic and unnecessary way. They deserve to be remembered.

Some remember those who are no longer with us by using symbols. Memorials like the one promised. There are other symbols, like the bird in flight that symbolizes a soul, or a chain with a broken link.

There is a tradition dating back to ancient times of placing rosemary by the graves of loved ones. “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray, love, remember;” Hamlet, (V.iv.124)

I was going to talk about more ways that people remember, but I must pause here. In ancient times they put rosemary by the graves of loved ones. Some people still do. But we cannot lay sprigs of rosemary for remembrance at the feet of our loved ones, because there are families still waiting for a memorial promised before the first anniversary of the crash. Waiting a year to lay their flowers and their grief.

Instead of a bouquet of flowers, we have a bouquet of broken promises. Shall we count them?

A broken promise to share the final investigative report.
A broken promise over the Monument at the crash site (they want it elsewhere); and a broken promise over the 72 unmarked graves.
A broken promise over Airblue being grounded for negligence, malpractice, manslaughter.
A broken promise to assist the families.
Or maybe we can call this a pending promise, as we wait for an independent inquiry board and a pending promise of greater safety in the skies over Pakistan.
We have our Rosemary for remembrance, but it is bittersweet.

CDA is constructing a memorial for the Air Blue Flight 202 just a few miles from Damn-e-Koh, Islamabad
CDA is constructing a memorial for the Air Blue Flight 202 just a few miles from Damn-e-Koh, Islamabad
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.