Said airline that put a 747 into the golf course now has an idle reverse policy!!! It beggars belief.
Back in 1988, Air Nauru crews went on strike and the President of Nauru was conned into replacing them with pilots from Indian Airlines (Nauru had already employed numerous Indian expats clerical and general admin staff into the Nauruan Public Service via the then Chief Secretary also an Indian national.
In those days, the only runway on Nauru was 5200 feet long with the ocean at each end. No runway end safety areas. The TVASIS was often u/s due lack of maintenance. The Indian Airlines crews (all "captains") duly arrived and brought with them their own company procedures, which included idle reverse for all landings. This was not to save fuel or other costs but for stated noise abatement reasons. There was no noise abatement policy on Nauru. Many houses were only 100 yards along the full length of the runway and it wasn't practical for several reasons. One being obese young islanders in the habit of cruising around the island in rusty Landrovers with a bevy of amplifiers belting out ABBA and other pop music at Strength 10. Or noisier still, riding their huge Yamaha motor bikes along the airport road at full blast.
Prior to the Indian Airlines crews arriving to fly the Air Nauru 737's, it was not only SOP but common sense airmanship, to use full reverse on every landing. This was vital if the runway was wet because it wasn't grooved and braking efficiency was less. Nevertheless, airmanship was not part of the Indian Airlines lexicon (indeed the airline in those days had the worst accident record in the world) and these pilots refused to use anything more than idle reverse regardless of surface conditions and the waiting sharks in the Pacific Ocean at the end of the runway.
Brake and tyre wear rocketed as well as the shattered nerves of the few Australian first officers left to crew with the Indian captains. The combination of hard landings and hard braking also scared those Nauruan passengers who occasionally flew on the airline. One particular very hard landing and subsequent heavy braking (and idle reverse
) caused one lady passenger to be thrown about and she suffered a broken tooth.
The problem was that she happened to be the President's daughter. With that, a posse of Nauruan women had an audience with the then President (Hammer De Roburt) and demanded he send all the Indian pilots back home.
Eventually, Australian crews from the 1989 era arrived on Nauru and the comforting full throated roar of full reverse signalling the arrival of a 737 carrying news from the outside world, was heard once again.
