Illegal Aussie overseas Ops

[Rhino55]

An Aussie company from Perth has been sending engineers to work in Phuket, Thailand without work permits or local licenses. The Thai seaplane operator, Blue Water Air, currently only uses knee jerk, band-aid maintenance supplied intermittently and illegally by the Aussie company who are fully aware that paperwork, maintenance manuals, and the general condition of the aircraft are not up to par or up to date for this Thai registered Cessna Caravan. This appears that it will continue as they are currently on another well paid working holiday here. By supplying this unaccountable sporadic service they flaunt the local laws, avoid work permit and licensing fees, and do not follow up with responsible long term maintenance. An Australian Pilot has been fired for refusing to fly the aircraft with open write ups and all other expat staff have recently left due to safety concerns based on faulty maintenance. Is this normal procedure down under?

[leekmas]

Another Aussie operator and pilot operated into Bougainville (PNG) illegally recently. Have been heavily fined by the courts (or 12 month jail in default) and one pilot's licence suspended for 12 months.....bloody cowboys.

[The Enema Bandit]

What's the problem? Ops normal for GA isn't it????

[The Strez]

Having spoken to the Aussie pilot of this "operation" just recently, he wasn't fired (well at the time he wasn't). He simply refused to fly the aircraft until the maintenance improved dramatically, the company found a new Chief Pilot (who quit due to these problems) and a new Chief Engineer was employed.

I raise my hat to this "Guy" for sticking to his morals and not placing his life or career at the mercy of these shonks!!

All the best mate, hope something comes your way real soon. You deserve a break!!

[FlyHighGuy]

Well gents . . . who really knows what goes on between mgmt & crews in conversations tainted with financial aspirations (on both sides), egos & pressing operational issues ! But - I happen to have been interested in this company recently and have had a couple of phone interviews with their recruiter there and - quite frankly, he seemed quite forthright with me about certain shortcomings in the company (don't they ALL have these - especially startups ?!) but they seem to want to put professionals in positions to rectify the problems. Anyway - how bad can it be for a Caravan anyway - we're not talking about an aircraft that can kill you easily . . . especially on floats and VFR like they fly ! Even if you put the aircraft into a powerplant seizure, all you gotta do is deadstick her down to the water. And if you load any 208 up to the max (or even higher - I know!) or put her cg past the limit fwd or aft and you'll still be able to maintain control even if their flops dept there are a bunch of numbskulls !

As for me - I'm heading for Phuket if I can get them to agree to contract terms... A great place for diving & I'm very tired of these lousy weather conditions here. I've been to Phuket a few times on ferries and the weather's always great this time of year !

[swh]

A number of Oz pilots operate illegially, i.e. not having a medical every 6 months when flying outside the Australian FIR as required by ICAO.

Interesting to see what an insurance company would say if they had a prang O/S.

:hmm:

[Jerry Springer]

"How bad can it be for a caravan anyway?"

FlyHighGuy, are you nuts?? ANY aircraft is unsafe if not maintained correctly, no matter if it is a hanglider, an airbus or caravan! What professional pilot would suggest otherwise??
And what proffesional pilot would say "I know" how a particular aircraft handles outside of its CofG and overweight? Obviously that is how you fly!?
Also, don't you realize that GA bosses will tell you anything you want to hear and endeavor to hide their problems?
Sound to me like they and you deserve each other!
:eek:

[compressor stall]

SWH...or fly into PNG with over 900hrs in the last 365 days....

[NAMPS]

It must be a wind up.

No one can say something that silly and mean it, surely?

[zakpeegoodus]

And I was told that the new pilot rushed back to the States because of a family emergency! Not that I believed it for one moment!
I flew for Blue Water Air from their first day of operation in February 2004 until a few weeks before you arrived. Prior to this, the Chief pilot and the Canadian mechanic resigned due to their concerns with maintenance related issues. I did not quit, but simply refused to fly again until the aircraft was fixed and a replacement mechanic and a new Chief Pilot were employed. I was then sacked for being, “uncooperative.”
The management had this opinion of all the ex-pat staff at Blue Water Air for some time as we refused to do what was illegally asked of us.
Rather than listen to our concerns, they set about replacing us; they went behind our backs in doing this by pretending in an advertisement on Climbto350 that seaplane pilots were wanted in Tahiti – in reality the job was in Thailand! (makes me wonder how may other fraudulent jobs I have applied for?? )

True, the tsunami had nothing to do with the demise of Blue Water Air – the biggest tragedy of the company was that they had already shot themselves in the foot when the waves came.
We will never know how many people could have been plucked from the ocean with the seaplane. It is more than a shame.