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Topic: We are not going to make it ! (Read 1216 times) |
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Fritz
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We are not going to make it !
« on: 2008-02-25 18:54:54 » |
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This is wrong for all sorts of reasons but like a train wreck I had to post it.
Fritz
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/25/777_flypast/
Airline pilot sacked for 777 Top Gun stunt
Wheels-up flypast, 30ft above runway
A senior pilot with Cathay Pacific Airways has been sacked for an "unauthorised low-level flypast" of a new Boeing 777-300ER in Seattle last month, Flight International reports.
Ian Wilkinson had just taken delivery of the aircraft on 30 January and, after take-off from Everett Airport en route to Hong Kong with about 50 to 60 passengers on board, including Cathay Pacific chairman Christopher Pratt, returned to the airfield for "a low-level flypast with the landing gear up":
News sources say Wilkinson had obtained permission from the tower for the stunt, but not from his employers. While onlookers applauded the low-level pass, the plane's passengers were said to be "stunned into silence". When footage of the Top Gun escapade subsequently found its way onto the internet, it revealed Wilkinson had taken his charge just 28 to 30ft above the runway.
According to reports, an airline insider said: "We heard afterwards he [the pilot] was asked to do a fly-by of the factory and decided to give them a flight they would never forget. But why he chose to do it with the chairman on board is anyone's guess."
Cathay Pacific was not best impressed, and confirmed that "the pilot in command of the flight concerned had been dismissed as he had not sought nor obtained the necessary company approval to undertake such a fly-by".
It added: "The approval process was not followed in this case, resulting in disciplinary actions. Following the incident, Cathay Pacific has issued a notice to all cockpit crew reminding them of the company’s policy for conducting fly-bys."
The airline is now conducting an internal investigation into the incident, "including the collection of flight data, and interviews with the crew involved", and concluded it had "taken the initiative to inform the Civil Aviation Department of the case and a report will be submitted to the department once the investigation is complete".
Ex-pat Wilkinson was a veteran Cathy Pacific pilot in his mid-50s, and earned £250,000 a year as chief pilot for the airline's Boeing 777 fleet. He has refused to comment on the incident and is reportedly considering an appeal.
His British co-pilot Ray Middleton, 47, who "is understood to have taken instructions from Captain Wilkinson and to have been unaware that the fly-by was unauthorised", has been suspended from training duties for six months.
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Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains -anon-
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Hermit
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Re:We are not going to make it !
« Reply #1 on: 2008-03-03 11:49:22 » |
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Assuming that he maintained velocity (and subsequent investigation at http://patdollard.com/2008/02/pilot-flies-boeing-777-28ft-off-ground-wlanding-gear-up-hes-fired/ shows that he was at about twice landing speed (320 mph)) and the engines at full take-off thrust (which they would have been to be at that speed) for the fly-by in case of technical glitches, and that he had A/C permission, this was a perfectly safe manoever. Ground effect at 1.5 x the wing span and lower ensures that positive control displacement is required to land any modern airframe, and the slipperiness of modern airframes means that active measures are required to bleed off airspeed to force a stall. What I see here is hysterical reporting of a pilot being disciplined for acceding to a perfectly comprehensible and viable request and conforming to a long tradition, because his higher-ups failed to perform the necessary administrative coordination (and reading between the lines of the cited article, because Hong Kong's Civil Aviation Authority is apparently miffed about the buzz on the Internet about it. Again, going from the article, the Cathay management on the airframe and Boeing management on the ground not only knew what was happening, but wholeheartedly approved it at the time.)
Further, according to http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/189318,cathay-pacific-chairman-was-in-cockpit-during-low-flying-stunt.html
The chairman of Cathay Pacific and a senior director were in the cockpit of a new Boeing 777 when it swooped about 10 metres above an airport runway in a stunt that cost the pilot his job, the airline confirmed Sunday. Briton Christopher Pratt, chairman of the Hong Kong-based airline, and director of engineering Christopher Gibbs were in jump seats behind chief pilot Ian Wilkinson when he performed the "fly-by" on the 200-million-dollar plane's maiden flight out of Seattle on January 31.
Wilkinson, 55, was feted and pictured in the company magazine upon his return to Hong Kong but then sacked after pictures and video of the stunt circulated within the company and on websites including YouTube.
Pratt and other VIP guests were initially believed to have been in the passenger cabin and unaware how close to the ground they came during the fly-by.
However, Cathay Pacific confirmed Sunday that Pratt and director of engineering Christopher Gibbs were in fact both sitting in jump seats behind the captain in the new Boeing 777-300ER.
Two other first officers were also standing, unharnessed, inside the flight deck to watch as Wilkinson circled after take-off to fly with landing gear raised above the Boeing plane maker's Seattle airport at more than 500 kilometres an hour.
Neither Pratt nor Gibbs complained about the pilot's manoeuvre, which was only brought into question when other officials of the Hong Kong-based airline saw pictures circulated online of the stunt five days later.
And further:Wilkinson, who was sacked with three months' pay and retains his full company pension, was on holiday in Thailand, according to the maid at his Hong Kong home. (supra) tends, I think, to support my initial reaction to this story.
Kind Regards
Hermit
Audio proving the fly-by was pre-planned and had clearance: http://microvoltradio.com/kpae86.htm Audio plays in background or may be accessed directly at: http://microvoltradio.com/wav_files/ctu52.mp3.
Still images: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22455670@N07/sets/72157603972956898/
Video images: http://blog.seattle-deliveries.com/2008/01/cathay-777-b-kpf-delivery.html, http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/02/26/221846/video-cathay-pacific-777-low-level-flypast-watch-the-withdrawn-video.html, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfmfd5zwkXk
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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Fritz
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Re:We are not going to make it !
« Reply #2 on: 2008-03-03 19:04:17 » |
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I was thinking more along the lines of the 9/11 meme causing the wrong reaction buttons to be pushed, as you point out.
I missed the point that as usual the management dispatches the guy on the front lines, in this case the pilot. ([Hermit] <snip>Thailand ...and full Pension<snip> might be tolerable)
A cruise on uTube videos of what silliness has been captured with regular airliners shows really scary stuff the media ignores.
The great fuss over the Air Transat glider that made the zero power landing in the islands in the mid Atlantic several years ago, was punctuated with interviews from passengers on how the pilot nearly lost control at the end rocking dangerously back and forth before planting it on the runway. No one in the media, as anyway who has flown an aircraft could point out, that with one shot at landing you come in high and fast and slide/slip/yaw back and forth to loose altitude at the last minute when you know you are going to make it.
Thx Hermit...great links.
Fritz
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Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains -anon-
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