Beijing Panam Mid Air Collision
A couple of days ago at Beijing Panam in China there was a mid air collision between a DA40 and a DA42 while doing circuit training.
For who work for the company this comes as no surprise. Their attitude to flight safety is almost non existant and a fatal accident is just a matter of time. By some miracle this mid air collision only resulted in one student getting a broken arm. Both Aircraft made it back down in controlled flight but are both written off. Chinese ATC is shocking and one cannot count the amount of near misses there has been. If there is an accident on the air field dont expect immediate medical attention. The first accident that happened there resulted in moderate injuries to instructor and student. The tower did not nofity the emergency services but just paniced. The instructor and student managed to get out of the plane, which was upside down, and had to walk back to the flight school and called for the ambulance. The hospital where the ambulance came from was 3 minutes walk away but took over 1/2 hour to get there. About 20 minutes after it arrived the airport fire truck arrived at the scene. It was stationed in a building about 200 meters from where the accident occured.
If you are thinking of taking a postion with this company I would strongly suggest that you don't.
This company has made up its own "VFR" met minima that is below the CCARs. Dual cross country VFR flights are authorised down to 2000meters visibility in aircraft that are not IFR certified. Due to ATC restriction these flights are flown at up to 3000meters (10,000ft). ITs begs the question .... "How can you see the ground if viz is 2000m and you are at 3000m?". Answer is you cant so you just use a GPS and hope you dont get disorientated spacially.
Instructors in this company are put under extreme pressure to fly illegally due to the Chinese CAAC delaying the issue of Chinese licenses. One instructor was fired for refusing to fly for safety reasons after receiving a moderate arm injury in a fall. Others who had tried to leave when they realised what the place was really like had a lot of trouble getting their passports back. Some even had to pay money to the company to get theirs back. Some instructors have been fired for no apparent reason. One direct hire instructor was told to leave and only given two days to sort out his stuff. He was then taken to the local train station and told to make his own way home back to the United States. He had to pay for his own air ticket.
If you are an instructor looking for a job then stay well clear of this company.
Beijing Panam has been flying now for about 1-1/2 years. In that time 3 daimond aircraft have been written off. 2 DA40's and a DA42.