Watch out frequent flyers - EU blacklist

Anyone going on safari...?

What I think is so amazing is that there are something like 50 carriers from the DRC...umm...it seems a little strange that they would have so many carriers in one relatively undeveloped country. naja...

flag of convenience, knusper muesli. They obviously have no controls over standards so it easy to start up an airline there. Probably mostly freight carriers with just one or two aircraft, things like 20-40 year old Boeing 727s or 737s.

True, although a "respectable" airline worried me this week...

"AIR INVESTIGATORS PROBE MONARCH FLIGHT THAT ‘SWOOPED’ OVER CITY
By Brian Reyes
British government air safety investigators are probing an incident in which a Monarch flight aborted its landing in Gibraltar and, according to eyewitnesses, flew over the town area.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch [AAIB], part of the UK’s Department for Transport, confirmed yesterday that it was “conducting enquiries� into the incident, which occurred in bad weather last Friday evening.
The results of the AAIB investigation could potentially have broader implications for property development in Gibraltar.
Although the investigation is still in its early stages, the incident has intensified concerns about high-rise buildings and airline safety.
Monarch flight ZB068, a Boeing 757 aircraft carrying 184 passengers from Luton to Gibraltar, was due to land on the evening of March 17th.
The plane flew on a routine approach path before banking to line up with the airfield.
But as it came close to landing, eyewitnesses said it turned sharply and flew at low altitude over the town area.
In a statement to the Chronicle yesterday, Monarch said the crew had been unable to complete the landing due to poor weather conditions.
“After the crew discontinued their approach into Gibraltar, they received a report from Air Traffic Control that, although remaining within the designated airspace, they had deviated from the normal routing,� the statement said.
“Following standard procedure, this matter has been reported to the UK Civil Aviation Authority and is now the subject of a full investigation by the airline.�
After aborting the landing at Gibraltar, the Monarch flight diverted to Málaga where it touched down at 9.13pm.
Investigators from the AAIB will interview the Monarch crew and talk to witnesses to try and establish the sequence of events.
They will also examine official flight control data, including voice recordings and radar information, to track the plane’s flight path and altitude as it banked away from the airfield.
“It’s too early to say how serious it could have been,� said the AAIB spokesman in London yesterday, stressing that this was a preliminary probe.
But even at this early stage, the incident has reopened local concerns about airline safety and high-rise buildings close to the runway.
Such concerns had already been publicly aired in relation to new developments such as Waterport Terraces, the Eastside Development and the Midtown Project.
All of these developments are already subject to specific rules on height in relation to the distance from the airport.
According to its website, the AAIB is tasked with investigating “civil aircraft accidents and serious incidents� within UK airspace.
The purpose of its investigations is not to apportion blame or liability but to improve aviation safety by determining causes and making safety recommendations to prevent a reoccurrence.
The findings of the AAIB investigation, which will likely take several weeks to conclude, will be published in its monthly bulletin."

That's exactly what I thought. And all of them are obviously crap. That's scary.

Why would anyone want to visit any of those countries in any case?

This is a recurring story and it give the papers something to fill up their pages with on one day a year. It's an absalute non story unless you are going somewhere really exotic.

The other reason for so many airlines in DRC is that the country's road and rail infrastructure is shocking.

@ Ulysses: Plenty of reasons to go to DRC if you want minerals. The place is stuffed full of stuff for western companies and a tiny local eleite to rip off the local population. Your mobile phone 99% contains metals that come from there.

My wife was in a cockpit of a 747 a while back whilst flying to Joburg. The pilot told her that because the ground radar and ground control was a big "dodgey", the cabin crew look out of the windows and use the radio in order to make sure there are no collisions... (sounds a little ropey, flying over the African continent)

The airlines will fly all over the place and very few of them will own aircraft as such, they'll just charter planes, which may very well account for such high number of firms if they're all chartering the same ten or twenty aircraft from dodgy operators who are also based abroad.

Well, I think that it's actually pretty standard to fly by sight when possible. Correct me if I'm wrong but unless the weather is bad most pilots land off-autopilot. Of course this doesn't mean that they aren't using the airplane's instruments to help them etc...

I have no idea, just relaying what the pilot and co-pilot told my wife. He could have been lying but I dont know why he would have done that. I dont understand the bit about auto-pilot and landing in relation to flying over a lot of the aforementioned continent with little or no ground radar control (sorry if I am being dim again)

As far as I know the pilots usually start and land off-autopilot. Inbetween they use the autopilot and don't have anything to do no more. They are bored and therefore read the newspaper and eat quite a lot. In fact they eat all the food that is supposed to be for the whole crew and don't leave anything for the flight attendants which are busy after the start and before the landing.
Well, that's at least a story I heard when I was working temporarily for LTU

That's an old joke! You obviously don't understand SA humour. We love doing that to Europeans. I can remember telling a couple of girls in London that we had lions walking around the streets and that I had to shoot my lunch on the way to school...and they believed me!

On a more serious note, as a pilot you fly with everything you've got, not just your eyesight, but your instruments too. I wouldn't say ground control are dodgy, but they can make mistakes too. Always good to check up and be careful.

Oh right, odd though as it was an English chap on a BA flight (we brits have a ropey sense of humour too!)

From Boeing.com



that covers things like flight path and hitting other planes...so what else do they have to look out for? Mountains?

Ulysses. It may be "dodgier" than you think. "Relying on radios that do not work in bad weather, radars that are either obselete or dont work at all..." and that is only one country. Perhaps the bloke wasn't joking and you should travel by boat in future?

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/c...718/718ap09.htm

BA pilots are renound for havign just as lousy a sense of humour as south africans.

you shoudl read the company magazine.

errr no its not, MT. Many of these shittly little and mostly freight airlines fly regularly (or at least try to) into european airspace. They could quite easily kill people on the ground if they crash ( remember that plane that crashed into an apartment block in Amsterdam?) It is a miracle that there haven't been more crashes.

wimbi diri airways? great name but not sure i'd choose to fly with them!

Why, there a lot of sheep-shagging jokes in it?

Well, I've flown with SAA, Air Namibia and Egyptair and I can safely say, SAA ranks amongst the best in the world as far as quality of pilot and machine is concerned...(ha, ha, that's funny, hey!?).

But on a more serious note, Egyptair and Air Namibia felt dodgy all the way. Was glad to be off. But my dad had an even worse experience with Balkan Air. Had to put his used toilet paper in a bin next to the toilet. So much for european airlines...

I refuse to believe it was worse than the R.A.F news. I got into trouble once for doing a little "editing" on a copy in the officers mess!!

Personally, I think that everyone should get their own private jet (a proper military one)

So, if I was an unscrupulous airline owner named on the list (particularly if I'm actually just chartering someone else's planes), why wouldn't I just close OhFFS Airlines and start OhFFS We're Going To Crash And All Die Horribly Airlines, and avoid the blacklist? Or is there actually a whitelist of airlines and everyone else (the 90-odd companies mentioned) is banned?