This Plane is not Safe
“Do not fly with this plane, it is not safe.” Those are some pretty direct words — no beating around the bush. If a pilot were to hear these words uttered from a mechanic, he would probably think twice about flying that aircraft.
But what if it was a pilot who said that? What if you were a passenger on an aircraft, buclked in and ready for takeoff, when you heard those words come across the intercom? Believe it or not, that situation did happen to some unfortunate passengers. The Daily Mail reported a few weeks back that a jet carrying 180 tourists was grounded when its pilot made some unsettling comments. The A321 was about to take off when a srange sound came from one of the engines. That is when the captain announced, “I am resigning from my job. Do not fly with this plane. It is not safe. Do not fly with Onur Air.”
The pilot was escorted off the aircraft leaving the passengers onboard an aircraft with temperatures over 100 degrees and no air conditioning. The passengers eventually deplaned, retrieved their luggage, and went to back to the terminal where an alternate flight had been arranged.
When the pilot made the announcement, there were varied reactions from the passengers. Some laughed nervously while others were crying and almost screaming. About 20 of them refused to board the re-booked flight and made travel arrangements to get home.
I don’t know how I would have reacted in that situation. I think I would have laughed at the surreal atmosphere of the situation. I likely would have been one of those trying to find an alternate means of getting home.
Thanks for reading.
Joe Escobar
That pilot just may have saved some lives - including his own. Maybe other pilots should have the gumption to do the same - re: Chaulk’s Airline.
I wonder why the Pilot quit, seems he had a big mouth and no fortiruide to stand up for what he believed was wrong. Typical pilot these days
Glade to see the pilot had the fortitude to stick to his safety principles. Goodness knows it’s not an easy decision to make, I know, I’ve had to stick to my guns.
The article says the pilot had turned in his resignation. If someone’s job is no longer on the line, they may be more apt to speak their mind, be it appropriate or not. Kind of like the lottery winner urinating on the boss’ desk.
Joe
In todays society, where the media seems to tell the common puplic what kind of Aircraft is safe is one thing, but for the pilot to openly admit that the plane and/or the Airline is unsafe speaks wonders, if its true I applaud him, for making such a statment like that!!
those are compelling words, i work for an airline as a mechanic and work the a320/a319 i never heard of the airline in question, but i do wonder what kind of technical issues this airline has had. I cannot rush to a judgement at least until other factors are known. in the mean time i make sure my airplanes are safe…..always
I will have to agree with “greg”.I also am a licensed aircraft engineer on that type (A319/320/321).We cannot rush to a judgementuntil other things about that story are known.Mayebe the captain had made up his mind on resigning and wanted to make the airline unhappy for his last flight.It is not very easy to “hear” something coming from the engine and quickly decide that this plane is not safe to fly without talking to an engineer first.
If the pilot was so concerned, he should not have let them board the a/c. Let alone start the engines. I would have insisted to get off the a/c.
I am an aircraft inspector, if a pilot quits his job and states that the aircraft is not safe, i will not fly on that aircraft. Its no diferent than stating there is a bomb.
I think that the pilot was totally unprofessional.He could have told the pax that there was a problem serious technical problem with the aircraft and that they would have to swap planes.The airline industry is volatile enough without shallow comments like that.
If I were a passenger and heard that comment from the pilot, I too would be a little worried. I have been in the aviation industry over 12 years as a mechanic / inspector and know that there are procedures to follow and a professional standards that you must obtain if a situation like this were to happen. My personal opinion is that he may have truely thought something was wrong but took advantage of the situation to bad mouth that particular airline for some personal reasons. If I were a passenger I would have boarded a different airplane with the same airlines. No worries.
I have been in the aviation industry for 27+ years as a mechanic/inspector. I am an A&P w/IA I also hold an ICAO Gov. Safety Insp. Airworthiness certification. I do have to agree for a pilot to make that kind of statement with the customers present is totally unprofessional. It sounds like he had a problem with the airline and should had left long before this flight. Even as a maintenance tech. I have had to put my foot down at times to ground an aircraft but never in front of the customers. This kind of action is totally unacceptable and smears mud to the aviation industry as a whole. We are professionals and our industry has a number of safety measures to be followed and ways to report non-compliance. These actions are not one of them.
does anyone use spell check?
Thanks for pointing that out “Bill”, of course, now I will commit some Spelling or Grammatic blunder since I have agreed with you.
As to the topic at hand I completely agree with the folks who have said this is “unprofessional.” This was a chance to use the “Bully pulpit” (or cockpit) to his own advantage and ends.
In his defense, at least the pilot put the skids on before he past the brink and did something he may have not have had time to regret. “Better late and tacky, than never and regrets” I guess. He will have to deal with his timing and style issues at the next interview if the interviewer can get their hands on the strait story. There are two sides to every story.
Yes, totally irresponsible. “Ladies and Gentlemen. I’m sorry but we are returning to the gate due to technical difficulties and are sorry for the dalay this will cause.” That is all that needed to be said over the intercom.
In the pilots defense I would like to point out this is not a US airline and as we all know the rest of the world does not always follow the established procedures outlined her in the US. We don’t have the full story, it could be this pilot was fed up with consistent poor maintenance and/or the airline disregarding previous squawks. Perhaps he did in fact think the airline as a whole was fling poorly maintained aircraft.
The pilot must have seen something to push him over the edge. Maybe he was fed up flying aircraft he felt were unsafe. Unprofessional, yes, uncalled for, yes, I would like to know his reason. Bad maintenance or just a bad attitude on his part. It could have been anything. Noise from the engine? Who said, a passenger, mechanic, who? It makes a difference who heard what. Foregin air carriers are scary sometimes and maybe this was an incident of an unsafe pilot not aircraft. You just never really know the rest of the story.
The pilot was very unprofessional.I have been the aviation industry for more than 15 years as a LAME,the sound he heard from the engine does not warranty him to declare that his aircraft was unsafe to fly, before the line engineers investigation of the cause.The pilots behaviour is like a cow putting on green sunglasses looking at dry grass and thought that the grass is green on the other pasture fields.
The pilot obviously had a reason for doing what he did and in the way that he did it. I suggest that all of us review our “personal standards” to be sure we don’t put flight crews in that situation. If we do that, and a flight crew still has a problem, we won’t be the ones that created or ignored it – that’s about the best we can do. And, we all know this can happen in the U.S.
I am assuming from the earler comments that most of the contributors are from the U.S. of A.
As a Licensed Engineer, I would like to put a couple of points over before the captain is dragged out and lynched.
1. The airline mentioned has previously been banned from certain European countries due to poor/lack of maintenance. Since rectified.
2> The newspaper reporting the incident is reknowned for its sensationalism. (But all papers print their version of the truth). Perhaps if they had chosen to print the full message from the flight deck it might have read something like ‘Ladies and gentlemen. You heard a loud noise from one of the engines. In my opinion, until I have had it inspected, I am declaring this aircraft unairworthy.’
Not very interesting copy for the readers, I think. Maybe he said something different, I agree as commented it was not a professional statement that appeared in the paper. I agree with the captain for refusing to take an aircraft he considered unairworthy. Joe, you didn’t say if he resigned before or after talking to his company. I remember a captain being told if he didn’t take a flight he needn’t bother coming back to the airline. Maybe thie captain chose to walk.
BiLl wat es dat? Bravoe to that pielot!!
All the driver had to do was write up the defect he thought was wrong with the plane. However, most drivers are used to having their own way and decided to have a tantrum instead of trying to cooperate and solving the issue. I have no sympathy for him.