Here is the original story I posted on AlArabiya.net about Emirates Airlines that I was forced to take down. Now that I am safely out of the country I wanted people to see what the story was all about. I removed the name of the first reporter upon her request since she still works at Al Arabiya and lives in Dubai.
Now, you’ll notice that we specifically did not point out the major conflict of interest in the last section and I didn’t use any of the quotes pointing out that because Maktoum is the head of the Aviation Authority that his airline therefore has carte blanche to do whatever it wants. I knew this would be crossing a “red line,” to highlight how incredibly ridiculous such a setup is. But the public should know if an airline is unsafe, if the authority charged with regulating airlines is unable to do so fairly and impartially. So, here you go, here’s the story that I was “made redundant” over. What do you think?
Pilots say airline puts commercial considerations before safety
Emirates airlines under fire for neglecting safety
DUBAI (Courtney C. Radsch)
Emirates Airlines came under fire Sunday after pilots complained it put commercial considerations ahead of safety and said that was the reason behind a near-fatal crash in Melbourne earlier this year, a charge the airline “strongly refuted.”
The unnamed pilots said they warned authorities three months before the incident about the problem of pilot fatigue and concern of inadequate crew rest facilities, Australia’s Sunday Herald Sun reported, citing documents obtained under United States Freedom of Information laws.
The pilots were also concerned about scheduling, working hours and their belief management was putting commercial considerations ahead of safety, the paper said. “Crews cannot get proper in-flight rest and suffer from fatigue and micro-sleep during the approach and landing phases on the Airbus A380 and on the A340-300,” the paper quoted the official complaint as saying. “There has been continuous pressure from the commercial department … flight safety is becoming increasingly impaired,” the complaint added. Emirates was hit hard by the financial crisis and recorded a loss of nearly a billion dollars last year. The airline ranks amongst the top ten in the world and has won several awards, including the largest airline in the Middle East. |
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Emirates airlines “strongly refuted” the report and questioned why none of the data it provided about the incident was reported in the article, which the airline blasted as “one-sided” and “based on statements from anonymous persons.” “The crew of EK 407 (Melbourne-Dubai, 20 March) were allocated a 24-hour layover in Melbourne – a sufficient time period to use the rest facilities provided,” Richard Vaughan, Emirates’ Divisional Senior Vice President and Commercial Operations Worldwide, said in a statement released to Al Arabiya. “When it released its preliminary report on the event, the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau indicated it had not found any evidence to suggest fatigue was a causal factor,” Vaughan said, adding “Emirates reiterates its absolute commitment to safety.” |
The incident in question happened in March when an Emirates jet narrowly escaped a fatal crash at Melbourne Airport after the captain, who had reportedly only slept for three-and-a-half hours over the past 24 hours, entered the wrong take-off weight into the plane’s computer. None of the crew or staff noticed the error and the plane, which was programmed to take off with 100 tons less than the actual weight on board, dragged its tail along the runway and almost failed to get airborne with 275 people on board. Upon returning to Dubai both pilots were handed letters of resignation and the airline said it had implemented new safety measures to stop something like that from happening again. |
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According to the Australian paper, several complaints were lodged with the American regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), three months before EK407 nearly crashed into a suburb. The FAA documents show that pilots complained to an Emirates’ senior vice president, Captain Ed Davidson, about fatigue. “I am very concerned that the commercial versus safety balance in this airline is tipping in the wrong direction,” a pilot was quoted as saying in the FAA document. “The sad thing is that in the event of the worst happening it will be the fatigued pilots who will be in the dock, dead or alive, and not the people in management who dreamt up, approved and enforced the misguided policy,” the pilot said. An Emirates Airline employee who requested anonymity because of concerns over job security told Al Arabiya that fatigue is problem with pilots and cabin crew, and that flight shifts are scheduled too close together. “We should take longer rests between such sectors, especially to Australia and New York and long shifts,” the employee told Al Arabiya, noting that crews often fly 14 continuous hours, such as on the Dubai-Sydney route, and the continue on another few hours to New Zealand. The employee added that the cabin crew also suffered from fatigue and are having more trouble than the flight decks. “Of course it’s a problem with safety,” the employee said. |
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No safety regulator, including Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), is authorized to investigate the complaints as international rules prevent broad-ranging audits of foreign airlines. But a spokesman for CASA, Peter Gibson, told the paper Australia’s aviation authority had no concerns over Emirates safety and was satisfied with the airline’s response to pilot fatigue. The only organizations authorized to investigate the claims against the Dubai-based airline is the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the United Arab Emirates’ General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA). The chairman of the government-owned airline, Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, is also president of the CAA and on the board of the GCAA. |
