Originally Posted by
Flyat450
Direct from the horses mouth. I flew for Ntw for some time. It is a company with incredible potensial, or shall I say it was a company with incredible potensial.
I must however stress that when any family member of mine travel, I damm well make sure it is not with Ntw. I honestly believe that it's not a question anymore of IF they have an accident, but rather WHEN. From defers which are repeated again and again, to way below standard instructors rushing to get way below standard F/o's on line, to crew flying way out of flight and duty times.
I'm absolutely surprised that Ntw is still in business. I blame the CAA for this mess. They are supposed to protect the public!!!!! Mean time, inspection after inspection, they turn a blind eye to all the issues, allowing passengers lives to be put at risk for another year.
I can only pray that somebody at the SACAA will read this, and make work of it, before we have another National Geographic movie to watch.
(This all said, I do think that they now have a fighting chance since Victoria Buxton have been fired)
I don't think it's quite like that anymore, and I feel I must make a defence:
- Most (if not all) training is done by Comair nowdays - I think we can agree they set high standards. Sim recurrencies/OPC's are done correctly and on time. Experienced SAA Captains do a lot of the other checks (line etc), and run the training dept.
- Most (again, if not all) new hire F/O's are at least fairly experienced compared to the 800 hr pay as you go F/O's of yesteryear, normally about 1500 hrs + ATP (normally higher experience levels), and seem to be of a good, professional standard.
- Said Captains do their level best to not get shafted, and guard against the type of defects you mention as best they can. Nobody wants to lose their licence to a Nationwide screw up, and nobody likes to see a snag passed around the aircraft. With the recent IATA audit (passed), plus some CAA audits, it's ever present in the crews minds that somebody could check them out at any stage, on any flight, or about any paperwork.
- Crew are also quite aggressive (literally) nowdays about not flying out of FDP, since the rosters became so chaotic.
-
VB doesn't prowl the ramp anymore and jump on people who don't want to depart. The culture nowdays is very much 'I won't go if I feel things are unacceptable', perhaps in part due to an aggressive backlash against the old (female
VB) powers that were, as well as having quite a few ex-SAA Captains flying for the company. But quite frankly, the older Nwide Captains are just as (often more) cautious.
That said, there is still quite a bit of chaos, and always room for improvement. As I said, I don't think it's as bad as you made out though, there has definately been marked advances in almost all the aspects you mentioned. You are entitled to your opinion of course, but it sounds like the facts have changed since you were there. I do agree that Nationwide is a company with great potential, which I believe it still has.
Thanks.