Hi there,

If you are a regular reader, you will know that I have become increasingly frustrated with Flyblog of late… Whilst I love the idea of a dedicated aviation blog site; the admin appear to be experiencing issues with replying to my queries and comments.  I may well move back to this site at some point in the future if they sort these issues-but for now, please find me at my new address:

http://partnerofapilot.wordpress.com/

Please don’t forget to change your favourites settings too…

Update on the Hewa Bora DC-9 crash  

Plane veers off runway in Congo, bursts into flames

By CHARLES NTIRYCHA – 17 hours ago

GOMA, Congo (AP) — A Congolese jetliner with about 85 people aboard crashed on takeoff Tuesday, careening off a runway into a busy neighborhood and bursting into flames, officials said.

Witnesses reported dozens of bodies at the crash site in this city in eastern Congo. Rescue workers with tractors, trucks and shovels searched for survivors as U.N. peacekeepers sprayed the wreckage with hoses. Smoke and flames engulfed the charred debris.

The remains of the cockpit and tail rose over the flattened fuselage, Anna Ridout of the aid agency World Vision said from the scene. Rescue workers carried about 20 bodies from the plane, many on stretchers, she said.

Regional Gov. Julien Mpaluku said up to 75 people were injured, though it was unclear whether they had been on the ground or passengers on the DC-9 jetliner operated by the private Congolese company Hewa Bora Airways.

“We have already picked up many bodies — dozens of bodies. There are a lot of flames, which makes it difficult to know if the bodies we are picking up are those of passengers of the plane or else passers-by or people that lived in the area where the plane crashed,” Mpaluku said.

There was no confirmed tally of the dead and injured — either on the plane or on the ground.

Dirk Cramers, a representative of Hewa Bora, said at least 53 passengers and seven crew members were taken to hospitals.

“I talked to a man who rescued seven people, including a 6-month-old baby, from an exit door. They were still conscious and moving,” Ridout said. “But he couldn’t go any further because he couldn’t see anything. There was too much smoke.”

Congo, which is struggling to emerge from a 1998-2002 civil war, has experienced more fatal crashes since 1945 than any other African country, according to the nonprofit Aviation Safety Network.

Last week, the European Union added Hewa Bora to its list of airlines banned from flying in the EU.

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Alison Duquette said no Congolese airlines now fly into the U.S., although they are not banned from doing so.

World Vision said in a statement that the plane “failed to leave the ground,” plowing “through wooden houses and shops in the highly populated Birere market.”

A former pilot, Dunia Sindani, was among the surviving passengers. He told a local radio station that the plane suffered a problem in one wheel — possibly a flat tire — and did not have enough power to lift off.

One of the plane’s pilots reported that an engine died as the plane taxied down the runway, Gov. Mpaluku said. When the pilots tried to brake, a tire failed as well, the governor said.

It was unclear if weather played a part in the crash. It had stopped raining about one hour before the DC-9 took off at about 3 p.m., residents said.

Goma’s runway was partially blocked and effectively shortened by lava from a 2001 volcanic eruption. The plane appeared to have burst through a fence separating the runway from a market district of wooden houses and cement shops where sugar, avocado, flour and fuel are sold.

The jetliner had been headed to the central city of Kisangani and then to the capital, Kinshasa, 700 miles to the west.

President Joseph Kabila expressed condolences to the affected families and called for an investigation.

The DC-9, an aviation workhorse for decades, has been involved in a number of accidents, including ValuJet Flight 2553, which plunged into the Florida Everglades on May 11, 1996, killing all 110 people aboard.

On Jan. 1, 2007, a Northwest Airlines DC-9 went off the runway in Milwaukee. The accident was due to an explosion in one of the engines, forcing the pilot to abort takeoff. Of the 104 people aboard, only one injury was reported.

I hate to see pictures like the ones here. It really brings home how tragic accidents like this can be. It also reminds me of the potential danger that Bf faces in his career. Though to be honest I always live with the attitude that it’ll ‘never happen to us’. I guess I have to otherwise I’d be a nervous wreck every time he shut the door to go to work.

It’s good to see that most of the passengers and crew survived in this scenario, especially when you look at how shocking the photographs are.

Full story:

OMG!

Hewa Bora Airways (Kinshasa) suffered a serious crash this morning involving its DC-9-51 S9-DBH (msn 47731). The aircraft was departing the Congolese town of Goma when it crashed into a crowded residential area shortly after takeoff. Initial reports put the estimated casualty toll at 78 or more, and say the aircraft may have been overloaded.

I will write more tomorrow, as I am doing this from my mobile phone!

This weekend was FAB! Bf and I took baby to see his parents. Whilst we were there, Bf had an aerobatics flying lesson that his parents bought him for his birthday. Baby and I went along to ‘watch’. Unfortunately, all we got to witness was his take off, as they were far clear of the air strip by the time they were doing doughnuts!

He managed to achieve ever such a lot in the 30-40 minutes he was up there. He was able to master all of what he was shown first time and was subjected to over 4G’s worth of force on his body! I cant remember all of the names of the manoeuvres he tried, but I can remember these: barrel roles, loops, wing-overs, aileron rolls and stall turns, to name a few. He came back from his lesson looking like a child in a sweet shop. I have a feeling that our bank balance is going to take a pummelling financially as a result of his new flying hobby! 

Not that I mind at all… In fact, I am very keen for Bf to become an accomplished aerobatics pilot, as I am desperate to go along with him for the ride when he is! I am quite a fairground adrenaline junkie; and aerobatics has got to be the ULTIMATE ‘rollercoaster’ experience. I have loved just being in light aircraft with him when he has done steep bank turns, and always hanker after a bit more!

In fact, most of you will probably assume that I am stark raving bonkers for this, but it has always been my ambition to go wing-walking… I even applied to the Utterly Butterly wing-walking display team a few years back.  I happened to mention this to Bf’s instructor whilst we were there (after he asked me if I’d ever like to be a passenger in an aerobatics plane). He has given me the details of a company where I can do some wing-walking as an ‘extreme dream’ type of day experience-so I have re-applied to the wing-walking display team and in the mean time, I am looking into booking a session… I have researched costs, and it costs £550 ($1100 USD) for approximately 10 minutes in the air as well as the 45 minutes training (Eeeeeek)!

Bf thinks I am insane. He says that he can get his entire aerobatics rating for this cost; plus, he would never get into a plane doing aerobatics without being inside, and preferably at the controls, but I can’t help looking longingly up at the wing-walkers at air displays and wishing I could have a go too!

…Who knows… Watch this space, and I’ll let you know when I do

For now, here’s a video of the team displaying: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m4HCMN2vZg&feature=related

Blogging is a weird thing. Here I am just writing out my thoughts, experiences and day-to-day randoms, and putting them out there into cyber space for everyone and anyone to read.  When I started I found it hard to imagine that anyone would go out of their way to bother reading what I had to say; I really started writing it because I had always kept a diary, and it seemed like a modern way of doing that.

At first I was a lot more open than I am now about what I had to say, because I guess naively, I assumed that nobody would find it or follow it. I had the option of making it private; but I have to admit I rather liked the idea that someone might enjoy it besides me.

However, over the months, I have watched the hits counter creeping up and up. Today I have over 7,700 hits I have been able to look at which search engines the hits were coming from, and I have received ‘ping-backs’ from other bloggers (not always with agreeable views to mine).

I started to feel more self-conscious, and found myself wondering who was looking at it, and what people actually thought about it. Honestly it made me feel slightly uncomfortable for a while, as though I were being watched by voyeurs.  I considered deleting the blog at one point after a friend deleted hers (for private reasons that I will not disclose out of respect).  It did make me wonder whether I should also consider it too…   However, it was around this time that I started to receive some really positive comments from people telling me that I had been of some comfort to them, and it inspired me to continue writing… I nearly always appreciate the comments I get, and am pleased to know that there are actually people who enjoy reading it. I always make sure to post comments on blogs that I read because of that.

Bf used to say that he didn’t ‘get’ the whole ‘blog thing’. He couldn’t understand why I would want to bother putting it all out there. Funnily enough though, he has been reading a few recently, and has even joked that he may start one himself… Who knows maybe some day he will surprise me and do just that!

I read quite a few blogs and am always quite inspired by the ones who use their real names, family photographs and personal details. I don’t write about anything that I wouldn’t want to put my name to, but I just get a little creeped out that I don’t know who I’m giving my name too I guess. I had a couple of bad experiences online that validated my concerns-so I choose to remain ‘anonymous’.

I recently received an email from a soon-to-be-cadet pilot and was surprised to hear that he regularly logs on to read all my posts (even the non-aviation ones)!  It really surprised me, because, for some reason, I assumed that my only regular readers were other female pilot’s significant others.  I was quite flattered actually! So I guess I am glad that I have continued to keep my blog public. I continue to play with the format of the blog and tweak little sections here and there. I am quite frustrated that I cannot add videos to my blog-I can think of lots I would like to add! Maybe I’ll pop a video links section in the right hand column soon?!

Wow, fuel prices are a bitch right now. With the price of fuel surging upwards by more than 73% in the past year, Oasis has joined several other airlines in the past month in ceasing operations. I am at a loss for words really, but here goes…

Budget airline Oasiswhich offered flights from Gatwick airport to Hong Kong has gone into liquidation today with debts of £64 million ($128 million USD), calculated at a loss in the region of £64,000 per flight ($128,000 USD)! I always have always wondered how budget airlines coull turn a profit with their ridiculously low prices; and  it appears those questions were well founded in this case. 

In a statement on their website they say:

It is with regret that Oasis Hong Kong Airlines announces that the airline has this morning applied to the Hong Kong Court to appoint a provisional liquidator. The Court has appointed Edward Middleton and Patrick Cowley of KPMG as the provisional liquidators, and they have assumed control of the airline with effect from 1400h HKG time today.

Our flight operations have been cancelled until further notice. The Provisional Liquidators are liaising with other airlines in order to help customers make alternate travel arrangements as quickly as possible.

The Hong Kong based airline was launched in October 2006 (to compete directly against Cathay Pacific) with Gatwick to Hong Kong flights, before starting a service from Hong Kong to Vancouver in Canada last June. This morning’s flight from Hong Kong to Gatwick landed as normal, but all the airline’s flights have now been suspended.

Only a few airlines have attempted a low cost, long-haul model and Oasisseems to be another victim of the surge in fuel prices. It was offering one way flights from Gatwick to Hong Kong for as little as around £65 one way or £150 return (less than 20% of the cost of the average Cathay Pacific ticket)! With such competitive prices, passenger numbers were believed to have been very healthy, (with occupancy levels at around 70 to 80%). But apparently rising fuel prices and increased competition appear to have taken their toll.

KPMG have been appointed as liquidators and Oasis is reported to be optimistic that a new investor will come forward to save the airline.

In the meantime hundreds of British holidaymakers and business people have been stranded in Hong Kong. Airline Cathay Pacific is offering Oasis customers a special one way economy fare on the Gatwick to Hong Kong route of £160 until 23rd April.

Perhaps ironically Oasis was named the world’s leading new airline at the World Travel Awards at the end of last year. Another budget airline based in Asia, AirAsiaX, is reported to be in talks with Stansted airport and Manchester airport about new flights to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

This one has bothered me more than the others. It feels somehow closer to home, although for Bf’s airline, not being a low cost model, it is not as daunting as it must be for others.

Just a quickie. Bf would have been due home today, except for the fact that he arranged an additional night’s stay at the ‘away from base’ airport he landed at to catch up with a very good friend of his from his training cadetship days, who is based there. It seems it was for the best actually, considering that his flight home would have been cancelled due to snow any way.  We really are hopeless here in the UK… One little flurry of snow for a few hours; and the whole country locks down!

Bf and his friend went out to a pub for dinner, and returned home to his lovely wife, slightly merrier than they had left. He promised to ring me ‘later’ to give me his flight details for tomorrow-so that I can pick him up (he only booked it fairly last minute).  At 12:30am I still hadn’t heard from him, so I rang him instead.

He answered, and was very sweet, but quite intoxicated… It seems they were watching TV with a bottle of wine or three, reminiscing about their training days, and had lost track of time. They are now fairly unable to speak coherently; probably aided by the fact that alcohol hits you more quickly when you are suffering the effects of jet-lag.  I feel for his friend’s poor wife. They are as silly as a pair of sheep when they are intoxicated, and she is the one sat there listening to it all.

*

I do love my man to bits; but I have to say; this is one night at least that I won’t miss him sharing my bed!

* By the way, if the picture above amused ‘ewe’ as much as it amuses me *groan* it is a card from a range  called SheepPooPaper TM (the paper it is made from is made from sterilised sheep poo! They also do a range made from reindeer poo too-Hahahahaha)! The company website is here: CreativePaperWales

Wow. Well, I guess there is a lot to write about over the past few days…  I have just read from varying sources that there have been a few airline closures accross the pond. 

Aloha Airlines was the first victim of the week on March 31st, stating on their website that:

Unfortunately, unfair competition has succeeded in driving us out of business, bringing to an end a 61-year-old company with a proud legacy of serving millions of travelers in the true spirit of Aloha. We realize that this comes as a devastating disappointment to our frequent flyers and our loyal business partners who have supported this company for many, many years

ATA is the second victim on April 2nd, stating on their website that:

After filing for Chapter 11 on April 2, 2008 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Indianapolis, IN, ATA Airlines has discontinued all operations and cancelled all current and future flights. Following the loss of a key contract for our military charter business, it became impossible for ATA to continue operations. Unfortunately, we were not in a position to provide our customers or others with advance notice.

Skybus was the third of the week on April 5th, stating on their website that:

Skybus struggled to overcome the combination of rising jet fuel costs and a slowing economic environment. These two issues proved to be insurmountable for a new carrier.

We deeply regret the impact this decision will have on our employees and their families, customers, vendors, suppliers, airport officials and others in the cities in which we have operated. Our financial condition is such that our Board of Directors felt it had no choice but to cease operations.

The Aloha and Skybus closures in particular are worrying as Aviation fuel costs and ever more aggressively priced competition (in their case, most likely go!) are threatening issues for all airlines; though I understand that poor management decisions and route planning were also a factor for the latter of the closures. 

I cant really add much more in the way of a comment to this news, except that if you were connected to any of these airlines, I offer you my condolences and wish you the very best of luck for a more stable future.

Bf has just landed from a VERY short stay in the West Coast of the States. He left at 9am on Friday from one UK airport on his body clock flew the 9.5 hour trip there (arrived at his hotel late in the evening on his body clock, but early afternoon in the States), had less than 24 hours there and then had to fly home throughout the night from West-to-East (the worst direction for jet-lag). He was horribly jet-lagged and landed at 6am this morning in another UK airport.

He said that he has never felt so tired on a flight; though he has done other similar trips like this one previously. He did not wake feeling well rested; and was definitely experiencing ‘fatigue’ by mid flight. He said he actually nodded off in the cockpit for less than 10 minutes! They were in the cruise at the time.  He remembers looking at the time, and then waking suddenly a few minutes later feeling guilty and angry with himself.

The experience jolted him awake, and he felt awful. Obviously this was just a few moments, and the Captain had been alert for this time. However, I think this really highlights the reality of how common this situation is! Normally, on long-haul trips with minimal rest break at destination; Bf’s airline will have a second FO operating too, so that there are 3 pilots on board. For some reason, this trip didn’t meet that criteria.

To put this into perspective; Bf prides himself on his professionalism.  He has had letters of commendation sent to the chief-pilot about his flying and general performance. He is extremely dedicated, and would (and does) make sacrifices from his/our personal lives to ensure his commitment to his career.

His airline is actually very good at staying well-within the CAA regulations, and do not flout the law.  Yet this level of fatigue still occurs. This is part of the reason why you don’t have a single pilot operating the flight; and part of the reason why auto-pilot was invented.

I fear that in the current aviation market, with ‘cost-down’/budget driven commerce, the consumer can expect to hear about more incidents of this nature. Pilots are expensive (not to mention jet fuel etc), hotels are expensive; yet tickets need to be cheap.  Hmm… Obviously there is a conflict here. Each day that a crew is resting at a destination is eating into the tight profit margins. Airlines that don’t streamline their operations to ensure that crew resources are not ‘wasted’ at destination for longer than necessary will fail to grow, and become strangled by their more aggressively micro-managed competitors.

Budget airlines like EasyJet are dominating the short-haul market with their 20 minute turnarounds and bus-like attitude to ‘no-frills’ flying.  The business-planning, micro-management strategy is inspired financially, but it does come at a cost. Luxury naturally, but also, arguably, quality in other areas too. In order to remain competitive-other airlines are also having to make compromises too.

JetBlue also caused a stir about 18 months ago, and ended up in hot water-when:

they outfitted a small number of pilots with devices to measure alertness. Operating on a green light from lower-level FAA officials, management assigned the crews to work longer shifts in the cockpit - as many as 10 to 11 hours a day - rather than the eight hours the US government allows for this type of flying. Their hope: Showing that pilots could safely fly far longer without exhibiting ill effects from fatigue! (see full story here)

As the ’significant other’ of a pilot; it worries me that my normally intensely astute, switched-on, professional man is working himself to this level of fatigue. Had the Captain also succumbed to sleep, had they missed radio calls, had they not woken for a longer period of time; they could have faced a similar situation to the pilots in my post below.

I told Bf about the go! pilots’ story. He said that he has known of quite a few captains that fell asleep on short-haul flights. He reminded me that many FO’s would have young babies at home and may experience ’sleepless nights’. Obviously, if you feel ‘fatigued’ prior to a flight as a pilot; you are supposed to report to crewing as not being fit enough to fly.  However, the likelihood of a pilot actually doing this, with the pressure that they feel to adhere to their strict schedules; and knowing the financial implications of their doing so on the airline, is that they would probably try to avoid doing so if possible.

I don’t know whether to crack up laughing, or be horrified about this one! My gut reaction is is belly laughter for about ten minutes… Then reality sets in and I think about the consequences… Here’s the story: 

Dozy pilots sacked after falling asleep and overshooting airport by 15 miles - despite panicked calls from controllers
By DAVID GARDNER - More by this author »
Last updated at 22:37pm on 16th March 2008

“It’s one thing for passengers on a short flight to grab 40 winks.  But it’s quite another for both the captain and his co-pilot to take a power nap at 21,000 feet.  Last night, two pilots were accused of falling asleep at the controls of a passenger jet and overshooting the airport by 15 miles.  The aircraft was left on auto-pilot as the crew went off the radar and the jet drifted off course over the Pacific. The captain and his co-pilot have been grounded and are under investigation for allegedly snoozing through 11 calls from air traffic controllers desperate to reach them. When the skipper finally picked up a call and was asked by a panicked controller if there was anything wrong, he responded: “Uh, no emergency situation.” By that time, Flight 1002, operated by the cut-price go! airline, should have landed after a 30-minute inter-island Hawaiian trip. 

The plane should have started to descend about 60 miles from its destination – Hilo airport on Big Island – after a 214-mile hop from Honolulu on Oahu. But the plane with 40 passengers on board was still at cruising speed. The only people who apparently hadn’t noticed were the few passengers who had grabbed a snooze – and the pilots.

Map showing usual airline routes between the Hawaiian islands. The pilots, flying from Honolulu to Hilo,overshot the airport by 15miles

The first call from air traffic control came through about 15 minutes into the flight, asking for confirmation that the pilots were preparing for a landing. Over the next seven minutes, the controller tried repeatedly tried to make contact but got no response. Then she contacted another controller for help. According to air traffic control tapes, the second handler said: “He’s nordo [flying without radio contact] at 21,000 feet by Hilo already.” His colleague added: “Oh, wow.” Airline analyst Peter Foreman said: “Obviously, someone was not minding the store.”

The increasingly-concerned flight handlers finally tried contacting another airborne go! pilot hoping he could come up with a way to reach the lost crew.  When the captain finally responded 32 minutes into the flight, the controller told him: “Air Shuttle 1002, guys, I’ve been trying to contact you for the last 90 to 100 miles. I understand you’ve passed Hilo. Is there some kind of emergency situation going on?”

Apart from his hesitant denial, the captain didn’t appear to give any explanation for his radio silence. The 50-seat Bombardier CRJ-200 aircraft landed safely a few minutes later.

America’s Federal Aviation Administration has launched an inquiry into the incident.

A spokesman for the Arizona-based airline declined to comment until the investigation has been completed.”

It would be easy to jump to the same conclusion that The Mail on Sunday has-blame the pilots… I mean they are obviously a ‘dozy’ pair right? Well, maybe… Maybe they were both coincidentally tired at the same time due to their own separate personal factors.

However, before we hang, draw and quarter them; consider this: these men are both highly qualified professionals, who trained long and hard to earn their careers in flying. Budget airlines are known for working their pilots to the very threshold of the legal limits… It is not as ridiculous as this article suggests that pilots take a nap/rest break in-flight; in fact, it is not uncommon (in long-haul pilots at least); especially if they are fatigued, and as long as they have the consent of the other pilot operating the flight with them.

I wonder if this was the case in this situation, but the pilot that was meant to stay awake drifted off due to ‘pilot fatigue’. There are bound to be other factors that we aren’t seeing reported in this story.  I seriously think that Go! will need to shoulder some of the responsibility for this situation. If there is one thing that Bf has drummed into me over the course of stories about air crash investigations that we have discussed; it is that there is never a single cause for these events. There is always a catastrophic chain of events that link together.

A slightly better reported article (see full story here) added this:

Barry Schiff is an airline-safety expert who says pilot fatigue is a bigger problem than the flying public knows. “I don’t think the public has any idea how tired these pilots are,” Schiff said. “But of course they get a cheap ticket, don’t they?”

A passenger on a Go! flight said: “Any time you hear of a pilot going to sleep on a flight - especially the flight you’re on - yeah, it makes you real nervous.” A statement from Mesa Airlines read: “We are cooperating fully. We have no further comment.” Mesa Airlines, which runs Go! Airlines, said in a statement today that it is cooperating with the FAA.

Pilots for Mesa Airlines have complained in the past about tight schedules and staffing shortages.

Obviously this was a short-haul flight, and this makes it slightly more unlikely; although I would not be surprised if they had been subject to delays leaving, or called out at last minute; or working a very heavy roster… Or all of the above! As far as I am concerned; the jury is still out until the FAA’s report is concluded…