THY Will be Dumb
Received this letter below from a very distinguished and well known Turkish Gent (who shall necessarily remain nameless). Thought it worth posting here so as to elicit a few reactions (preferably knowledgeable ones).
We're all aware that the political complexion in Turkey is now coming with a religious colouring but it may well be the case that the Inshalla'ah factor is now affecting the safety of operations.
If any body's got anything worthwhile to say, it will be passed on to where it may do the most good.
As an ordinary passenger and Turkish citizen, I have always been proud of flying by our national airline company. Turkish Airlines used to be just one of the finest airline companies in the world until things started happening in recent weeks.
With the victory of a somewhat ''religiously inclined'' political party in the elections, this government in Turkey has started to remove all SECULAR (laic) thinking airline officials from their upper and middle managerial duties. For the first time in the history of Turkish Airlines (THY) somebody who is not coming from the aviation world has been appointed as the GENERAL MANAGER of Turkish Airlines.
The person who has been appointed as the general manager of THY was only the general manager of Public Bus transportation in the Municipality of Istanbul City. Can you imagine!!!? Anyway, as soon as the newly appointed, inexperienced administration started its job things started eroding... In fact although the company was in profit they’ve now drawn the company into plummeting loss. Of course this is a financial issue but in general the overall morale has been lowered among the personnel (as far as we can read from the uncensored press). They make the crews work more than the international safety rules allow now because they have withdrawn a number of RJs due to corrosion in the fuel tanks and we public have just been informed this week that now they going to bring back these small jets into mainline service without any further justification.
We (as the Turkish public) do NOT know, what was done so that these jets could be brought back into service. Now just this week in order to get a full membership negotiation date from the European Union, the Turkish government has agreed to buy at least 30 more Airbus planes but we all know that Turkish Airlines do not have enough trained personnel to run 30 or more new planes at the moment. As far as we know (for example) LUFTHANSA has 240 personnel per aircraft but THY has about only 110, and not all of those fully trained (many are undergoing OJT). At least this is what we have read from local Turkish Newspapers.
The reason why I am writing you about this is simply because of the fact that as a frequent traveler I am deeply worried now about the way our airline THY is being run by these ignorant people. Unfortunately it seems that in order not to lose their jobs, the pilots prefer to remain silent.
My advice to you would be, to conduct extremely strict audits on the management of Turkish airlines and share it with the Turkish Public.
I am suspicious that the internationally observed rules about resting times of flight and cabin personnel ...etc. are being violated frequently - and they are may be even falsifying the records to cover this up.
As an ordinary Turkish citizen who is not afraid of flying but who has to travel a lot in the course of my business, I deem it my duty to denounce the current state of affairs. At the end of the day human lives are always at stake... but now they are also at peril.
I would like to thank you very much for your kind attention in advance....