panam
I know the istructor who was fired with the arm injury. I was there. He did have an arm injury however I'm not sure his refusal to fly with the injury was the reason for him being fired. This individual was pretty outspoken about issues regarding safety. Not only in the air, but for us foreigners living there. I can't be sure of his motivations, but he seemed to feel it his duty to point out all the screw ups of the company. He made a lot of good points whether he was right or wrong in his motives. Over a period of time certain directors started getting uncomfortable with this.
In China, saving face is more important than doing things right.
I can't be sure. But I beleive this was the reason for his termination.
Unfortunatly the attitude of some of the management there is hazardous. I can say from experience there that the only reason why there hasnt been more accidents is because the aircraft spend most of the time sitting on the ground.
Lets spend loads of money buying a sate of the art fleet and then ignore safety considerations like first aid kits in the aircraft. I'm not sure if they have them now. But they'v been "in the mail" for the last 2 years. From what I understand its not a regulation in China. This is likely because the regs are copied from the FAA. In the USA, if you have an acident in 90% of the country, you can at least be sure someone knows where you are and some sort of help is on the way. This is not the case in China. If you crash on a x- country and sustain injuries that require treatment....you are dead. Not that a first aid kit will make much difference, but its the thought that counts.
This guy who got fired along with many others have continuosly reminded management of serious safety issues that need to be fixed. By the way they have responded time and time again, it is obvious that safety is very low on their priority list.
This is tragically funny as Pan Am's motto is Safety, Quality, Efficiency and Harmony.
I'm not just some disgruntled employee. I genuinly hope they can get their act together. I still have some great friends over there and the last thing I want is to hear about one of them getting killed.