Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Diego Ruiz De Vargas

What: Danube Wings Boeing 737-400 en route from Poprad/Tatry Slovakia to Dublin
Where: The entire flight
When: Jan 2nd 2010
Who: Number aboard not released
Why: A Slovakian agency decided to test their security by slipping 9 packages of explosives into innocent passengers’ luggage. Eight of those packages were found.

George’s Point of View

ONE of those packages—85 grams of RDX plastic explosive— made it all the way to the innocent Slovakian-Irish passenger’s HOUSE, where suddenly Irish forces evacuate their entire neighborhood (reportedly evacuating several apartment buildings and shutting down a couple of intersections) to retrieve that one package of live explosive from his apartment on Dorset Street. Stefan Gonda, a 49-year-old Slovak electrician working in Ireland, must have been really surprised at that knock on the door. On the other hand, maybe not, since he’s from Slovakia and may be used to such thoughtless, stupid, ridiculous, dangerous, psychotic behavior from his government.

How do they justify endangering a plane full of innocent passengers on a commercial jet? RDX is considered unstable–it can light without a detonator. What if there had been turbulence? What if the temperature had dropped to make the compound even more unstable?

One head has already rolled for this. The head of the Slovak border and foreign police Tibor Mako resigned. Was he the one responsible or did he throw himself on his sword? Is there more to this?

I find it difficult to believe that anyone would use real passengers as guinea pigs, put real explosives on an actual international flight. If Ireland has a legal chip on its shoulder the same way the US does, there’d be an International lawsuit pending.

The Slovokian ministry claims no one was endangered.

Excuse me?

85 grams of RDX plastic explosive aboard a plane. Irish forces evacuated the neighborhood to retrieve it…but hey, on a volatile oxygen pumped package like an airplane, no problem.

It’s hard to believe they call that branch of government “intelligence.” Talk about an oxymoron.

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Kenya Airways Flight Returns to Nairobi due to Loss of Cabin Pressure

Kenya Airways flight KQ-112 had to return and make an emergency landing in Nairobi, Kenya, on December 28th.

The Boeing 787-800 plane took off for Charles de Gaulle Airport, France, but had to return shortly afterwards due to loss of cabin pressure.

The passenger oxygen masks were deployed as the plane landed back safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.

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Singapore Airlines Tragedy at Taiwan


Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Johan Knijn

What: Singapore Airlines Boeing 747-400
Where: Taiwan
When: October 31, 2000,
Who: 179 people aboard, 83 fatalities, 44 injuries
Why: On October 31, 2000, approximately 2317 Taiwan time (1517 UTC), Singapore Airlines Flight SQ006 Boeing 747-400 airplane entered the incorrect runway at Chiang- KaiShek (CKS) Airport, Taiwan. Heavy rain and strong winds from typhoon “Xiang Sane” prevailed at the time of the accident. The airplane, during the take-off roll, was destroyed by its collision with the runway construction equipment and by post impact fire. There were a total of 179 people on board with 159 passengers, 3 flight crewmembers and 17 cabin attendants. There were a total of 83 fatalities (including 4 cabin crewmembers), and 44 people injured.

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Always the Last to Know

In spite of reports to the contrary, Qatar Airways and Ethiopian Airlines deny emergencies that occurred during Sunday’s power outage at the Lagos airport. The rest of the world knew about the power outage even before power was restored. Apparently however, no one told Qatar Airways or Ethiopian Airlines.

Even the brand-spanking new radar system installed at Murtala Mohammed International Airport will not function without power. And neither can communications.

Of course, how do you communicate while in denial?

Pilots coped by flying in a holding pattern or rerouting to other airports when they stopped receiving input from ATC during the power outage.

Officials of Ethiopian Airlines and Qatar Airways can play all the semantic games of denial that they want. The game is up. Everyone knows. Newspapers got wind of the power outage forcing up to a dozen planes into holding patterns, some of them until they experienced a fuel crisis and had to land without official clearance. There’s nothing like a little journalism to clear the air.

With enforcement bodies like IATA and EASA empowering the airline passenger and providing oversight, and the aviation industry taking advantage of the (practically) instantaneous communication the world enjoys, legitimate airlines have made it universal policy to be as “transparent” and honest as possible regarding the unavoidable multitude of mini-disasters that constantly creep up in the course of making the world safe for aviation. It is that kind of wide-awake, constant open trouble-shooting and problem-solving which makes flying as safe as it is. No one wants to be “caught with their pants down”– but when it happens, you can be sure most airlines do their best to be wearing shiny clean underwear when it happens.

Except in countries where denial reigns over truth. Countries that have certain airlines on a banned list.

Qatar Airways and Ethiopian Airlines say “none of their pilots complained about an enforced landing prompted by depleted fuel.” Maybe their pilots are scared to open their mouths, especially if they’re familiar with that policy of denial.

One wonders if their pilots–or air traffic control, for that matter–had cell phones. Surely SOMEone in ATC called the main office and said, “Excuse me boss, but we have 12 planes circling, and no electricity. What do we do? What is the policy on that?” Surely SOME pilot used a cell phone, and told somebody somewhere, “Dude, we gotta land, we’re running out of fuel.”

What did they say at headquarters? Pretend it’s not happening?

To the folks in charge at Qatar and Ethiopian: Listen, nobody’s perfect. These things happen. Don’t deny it. Take responsibility. You examine what went wrong. You fix it so it doesn’t happen again.

You don’t pretend it didn’t happen. You’re not a seven year old who broke Mama’s favorite cup or tracked mud on the carpet.

You don’t fire the poor shmuck who happened to be on the duty that day.

You admit the problem, own it, examine it in detail, and fix the mechanism, and make helpful policies for what to do if it happens again. And to go the distance, you award that poor shmuck on duty, because while you were sitting there with your head in the sand, denying any problem existed, somebody somewhere on the front lines—pilots and/or ATC—made some right decisions that kept people alive.

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Air Blue Families Safety Activists

As long as we’re talking about efforts made toward safer skies in Pakistan, we should mention Hans Ephraimson-Abt, the Air Crash Victims Families Group and the Air Blue Families which have been instrumental in:

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    With help from men like Christophe Haddad and Hans Ephraimson-ABT, the Air Blue Family Association is developing its own teachers, leaders, and power of influence. In Pakistan, we look forward to when the Air Blue Family Association may become equally as instrumental a force for change in Pakistan as the Brazil group is in Brazil. There is power in right. There is strength in numbers.

    Since 1985, Hans Ephraimson-ABT has been the Chairman of “The American Association for Families of KAL007 Victims.” Since 2000 he has been the spokesman for the “Air Crash Victims Families Group” and is also an invited observer delegate at the “International Civil Aviation Organization.” His group is a model for other groups, and he is a frequent spokesman. He has stakeholder status at the European Union. During the past 26 years, he has participated and served in various capacities in workgroups at the National Security Council, the National Economic Council, two Presidential Commissions, the Task Force that implemented the “Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act of 1996” and subsequently the ICAO “Guide on Assistance to Aircraft Accident Victims and their Families” of 2001. He has been invited to testify before Committees of the US Senate and the House of Representatives. He was one of the original members of the air carrier focus groups that developed and subsequently implemented post-crash crisis management plans in the United States. Since 1996, he has been asked to assist airlines and governments with the resolution of air transportation tragedies, including the “September 11, 2001 Victims Compensation Fund” and as the Chairman of the Advisory Board of the “Families of September 11th Association.” He is often invited to participate and speak at international conferences and he is a published author. He is not a disinterested observer in the fight for aviation safety. He is a survivor. In 1983, his daughter Alice Ephraimson-Abt was aboard Korean Air Lines Flight 007 when it was shot down by a Soviet pilot.

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