One Two Go – But don’t ask about Safety!

Published by rickguy on Fri, 04/07/2008 - 8:35am

Art Prior from The
Muchas Preguntas! Agenda gives a heads up on questionable air safety in
Thailand

  • There is no such thing as a low
    cost safe airline. Aircraft are expensive to own and maintain, a
    simple fact.
  • Those carriers who do the right thing consistently work hard
    and spend a lot of money on maintaining standards.
  • It is never enough to depend upon safety regulation alone.

 

But how do we know what is going on behind
the maintenance hangar door? Or how much care goes into flight crew rosters and
training?

 

As with all laws in society, the
expectation of self discipline is our first line of protection. Discovery of
breaches in safety standards by inspectors and investigators, routinely or
after a disaster, can cast a shadow of doubt on more than just the guilty. So
it is very important to be able to distinguish between carriers whose cultures breed
a climate of shortcutting and suppression of internal dissent about safety
risks; from those honorable airline operators who invest time and respect to
ensure that their personnel at all levels provide the team effort that delivers
the record of safety which the industry as a whole has achieved over the past
decade and more.

 

It is more than sad to say that buying a
cheap ticket may be increasing the risk to the passenger. ‘Cheap' does not
translate comfortably to ‘safe'. It is confusing when marketing hype is an
attempt to substitute ‘low cost' for what may in truth be ‘cheap', and more
confusing when the passenger is intelligent and curious enough to enquire about
the difference between a ‘low cost' ticket price, and a ‘low cost' airline
operation.

 

Flight operations of LCCs within Asia are
rightly receiving scrutiny but it seems that unlike Australia,
the USA, and Western Europe,
this is not so much being driven by governments as by the grieving family
members of accident victims from countries outside of Asia.
The case that I mention now is keeping this kind of debate alive. It does not
give any assurance; no acceptable answers...just muchas preguntas


"One-Two-Go" flight OG269 Thailand - September 16,
2007:

40 survivors, 90 fatalities.

Faithful visitors will recall my commentary
about LCCs back in September 2007, which you can still read on this site. Since
that time, muchas allegations have been made; and muchas preguntas [questions]
asked about the safety and operating practices within Orient Thai. History tells us that advisory intervention
by accident investigators from and representing the victim's home countries
will provide more insight to the true cause of the accident. That has yet to be the outcome here, and
there is growing public concern that
little or no pressure is being put on the Thai government for a more
satisfactory investigation.

 

That concern is international because the
flight was carrying people of many different nationalities. It is shameful to acknowledge that in spite
of publicity, including a TV special broadcast in Australia, the families of the
victims have to resort to building their own petition to lobby the Thai
government for a meaningful and professional investigation into the OG269 crash
and the serious allegations that have surfaced.

 

Bonnie Rind, who lost her brother Stefan
Woronoff, age 42, in the crash, is the petition organizer. This is what she
wrote recently:

 

The day after the crash, an
anonymous Orient Thai pilot made an Internet posting detailing highly illegal
and dangerous actions by the airline leading up to the crash. Soon, more
pilots came forward for a news program detailing bribery, illegal flight and
exhausted pilots. The Thai crash investigator admitted - on camera -
receipt of fraudulent flight roster information from the airline.

I also have obtained the black box information. It shows the pilots deciding to
go forward with the landing despite warnings, and the pilots making numerous
mistakes. No one was flying the plane during 15 of the final 19
seconds of flight, and the reason why no one was flying the plane is
shocking.

For more information on the crash, and to see the proof Orient Thai pilots have
provided, follow the "Press Information" link on the petition
website.

Five months after the crash, despite compelling evidence -- the Thai crash
investigators stated the crash was "unavoidable" and that "No
punishment will be imposed on any agency or personnel...because the accident
was beyond control." The Thai investigators are seeking to keep the
crash information private, just as they have successfully done in their two
previous major incidents.

If you, our visitors, are as committed to
aviation safety as we, then I urge you to visit http://www.investigateudom.com/ and
consider signing the petition. What you will read there is deeply disturbing
and should worry Australians who are regular visitors or are planning trips, to
Thailand.

 

We need to know the truth. That is how we
prevent accidents. We must also show more respect for those airlines that ‘do
the right thing by doing the thing right'.

 

We must always remember the lessons; that
flying with professional Australian carriers brings a level of safety that is
not always matched in other countries; and that if the International Civil
Aviation Organization [ICAO] is not an effective safety instrument, it will be
up to us to identify and refuse to fly with, carriers whose safety record is in
doubt.

 

Art Prior from The
Muchas Preguntas! Agenda July 2008

Arturo - always asking
many questions

[Art Prior is a JFG
Guest Writer]