One for WUN

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7962082.stm

"An Italian court has jailed a Tunisian pilot who paused to pray instead
of taking emergency measures before ditching his plane, killing 16
people."

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, The Older

No worries, I don't believe in god.

Odd though, one of the things that is drummed into you time and time
again is *never* trust the fuel gauges. I dip / look into the tanks
before every flight.

OK, the commercial guys aren't going to do that, but they should know
what's on board, and what's been uplifted at each stop.

One thing the CAA take a *very* dim view on is running out of juice.
They always prosecute. More than one pilot has been seen frantically
trying to find a witness to see that yes, fuel *was* leaking from a
ruptured tank after a bad forced landing.

 

One hopes that the pilot's belief in the existence of his deity has been
severely dented.

But I doubt it.

 

Saved the pilot's life didn't it? I reckon it worked.

 

You sod. I'm sitting in a conference hall, enduring a rather dull
presentation, and pretending to take notes on my iBook, and I've just
started giggling.

 

Huh. Tell me about it.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Grimly Curmudgeon

Oh?

<sits back, makes self comfortable>

 

Bare bones...
http://groups.google.ie/group/uk.rec.motorcycles/msg/ae2053e576dd678e?hl=en

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Grimly Curmudgeon

Eeek!

**** me, is it really two and a half years since I started down this
road? I'm a useless ****, and no mistake.

Mind you, I have had a bang on the wrist.

 

FI (or was it Pilot) used to have a column titled,

"I learned about flying (with dangerous wankers) from that."

The problem was, I was used to flying with my mate, who was ultra
cautious and took it all dead seriously, so I extended the same level of
trust to this other **** and took it for granted the arsehole knew what
he was doing.
To be faced with almost-death once on a trip is unfortunate, twice is
carelessness, but three times is nothing short of fucking incompetence.
Oh, did I mention this was the one-eyed pilot? That, you see, was the
kicker - he made a great thing about how he had to be good at it because
of his disability. Suckered me.

Heading north over the Scottish Borders in the pitch black, with nothing
but blackness under you and knowing there's fucking hills down there and
there's next to **** all left in the tanks, is not recommended.
We actually ran one tank totally dry deliberately.

After we landed he got a right bollocking from the Senior Controller on
duty and got reported. I think he got a warning from the CAA and lucky
he didn't get his ticket pulled. The only reason that didn't happen was
they didn't know the whole story.

The Cherokee was left at Turnhouse for a day and he went back to pick it
up. Just out of curiosity he ran the engine to see how much was left -
it ran for two minutes.

Plenty have taken longer and were still shit. I recall a dentist (it
always seemed to be dentists) at the GFC who had taken five or six years
and still hadn't done the final steps. A true Frank Spencer of the air,
but apparently quite a good chap in his surgery and one of the nicest
blokes.

Dodgy coves, those Poles.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Grimly Curmudgeon

Eep!

I was talking to a chap a few weeks ago who hopped one of our planes
over to our maintenance guy, whose field is very close to ours (it's
actually usable in an EFATO from one runway). Being such a short flight,
he didn't bother with checks.

The engine cut as he taxied in at the maintenance place... =8^O

 

Perhaps there should be a question in the flying tests, "do you
believe in god" if you respond in the affirmative you can't fly
commercially.

 

Report in English:-
http://www.ansv.it/cgi-bin/eng/FINAL REPORT ATR 72.pdf

Purportedly, last 5 mins of CVR.


Maybe? I have read the report - well I skimmed a
lot of it but tried to read all of the aviation related bits
(yes there are others??? - full detail of echo sounder
survey and the recovery by unmanned submersible)
- and there is no mention of the captain relinquishing
the controls and no mention of praying that I noticed.

Looks like some dodgy^w average reporting.

There is what is purported to be the last 5 mins of the
CVR on UBend - no praying - a few "my gods" mind you but
it was not what I would call praying. Whole incident lasted
15-20 mins from 1st engine out of fuel to ditching.

Controllers seemed shit-ish - rescue helicopters delayed
cos of lack of approval, needs big wig approval
for > 5km off shore.

Strangely no Italians prosecuted.

The convicted people are unlikely to return to Italy. Ever,
it seems.

CVR for sure was in some contrast to the hero of
the moment but absolutely not criminal in my view.

The fuel thing was quite complex and may have been
criminal.


Here is the story.

It would appear that -

7 seg fuel gauge LEDs went to 5 segs and display was replaced.
After some trouble finding the part number, wrong bit was used.
Management and maintenance criticised.
The display read say X * 2 +1000kg (not exactly) of
correct value X. When tanks empty, reads loads and
also reads more change than fuel added/used. Display
head is a computer that sorts out sender signals and tank
shape and displays computed value.
Crew get in, notice that fuel has "appeared" from
examining fuel logs (required action), check
for refuelling chit which can't be found. After a *lot*
of asking around they decied it is lost and off they go.
They did not try to find someone who would admit
to the fuel going in.
They did not get the tanks dipped. (D_r_ipstick system)
They did not do the required fuel burn reconciliation on the
subsequent non-passenger positioning flight. There is an
completely independent fuel used meter and the crew are
supposed to compare that with the fuel gauges and
write down the results.
They then put fuel in and did not notice that the amount
the bowser recorded was at variance with the
amount requested. The gauges (used to
conrol the refuelling process) showed the requested
amount.
They flew with passengers.

I forget all detail now -
Think they put fuel in twice and did not nitice discrepancy
Think they did two flights without fuel burn reconcilliation
and in the process of the second one came to grief.
Maybe it was the third hop that caought up with them?

Seems pretty dodgy to me. Yet the media pick up on
some crap which does not even appear to be true.