What do the security guys do? Do/did they threaten to attack the families of any pilots who were minded to not take off in an especially dangerous aircraft?
add cabin crew, flight ops, airport ticket counter staff, journalists, and
passengers to that list.
In my opinion, the insidious nature of partial IRS failures in B737 aircraft can catch even the best trained pilots off-guard.
Yes, pilots here are re-checking the manual. We had a coffee get-together the other weekend between enthusiasts, 737 crew, and an investigator, and this was one point raised. The NTSC in the end decided that for the benefit of moving our aviation forward, that they do not put the abovementioned point as a question or recommendation to Boeing. One factor is the fear that someone might try and divert attention from the prevalent systematic deficiencies and purport an argument that Boeing is deficient.
In the case of Adam Air its very doubtful these guys were exceptionally bad pilots (in Indonesian terms)
Well, throw the words "doubt" and "exceptionally" out of that sentence and you get the sentiment of the country's crew pool. We got airlines who refused to accept former Adam pilots for "deficient standards" after they got the good ones, and then the bad ones started applying. Others have decided to accept them on condition of "full retraining".
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For those who have followed the Adam Air story since my post on "the flying circus nightmare", this accident, and whatever else, I'm putting the following as a "thank you" for those who have followed this, gave me support, or simply, participated with a cool head instead of just slagging of us "Indons" as silly idiots...
*Disclaimer: I have no direct knowledge that the following is >0% accurate, but these are just information I have received.
I had an interesting afternoon with two former Adam Air staff (they personally asked for help in this mess, especially on the career front, but that's a different story). After the usual discussions on the deficiencies in the ops, we went on to deficiencies in other parts of the company. Apparently, it looks like Mr. Adam himself is the victim of his family. Although he is the CEO, the mother calls the shots and she only talks in one language... money. The auntie made a huge sum by collecting ticket money from agents and never gave it to the airline (it is said she burnt the ticket audit coupons to eliminate the evidence), and the brother, well, now I have heard stories from several different sources in Adam Air that he was the one who drove Adam into ruin from day one. According to the information, this is the guy who literally made Adam into an operational nightmare. Apparently, his hand not only screwed up maintenance by deciding to delay maintenance, or forced pilots to fly (and told his mother to force them, or the "monkeys" to do the job, leaving Adam out of the loop), he also overrode recommendations for training, and again, got his mother to override everyone else. God knows how much he made out of the cargo (and since he's in charge of ops, we can guess how much was not reported in the manifest). He seems to have followed his auntie as well in selling tickets to agents, making them pay the money into his account, and never gave the money into Adam Air, and... oh yes, audit coupons were said to have been burnt.
So, the behaviour of certain members of the family really opened the way for corruption, misconduct, and other misdeed to occur within the company. Reservations control was one story that confirmed my suspicion on how Adam flew itself into the ground (and the airplanes followed suit), for one flight, there was an occasion where a 737 had 600 ticketed passengers booked on that flight!!!
The director of safety is now chain smoking continuously outside the HQ everyday, wondering, hopelessly. This was a guy who was stuck between doing good, bad, and the ridiculous, and he staked his career on it and is now paying for it.
Staff haven't been paid their salaries for the past 2 months, due to disputes between the family and the other investor, and no one wants to appoint a liquidator. It looks like the family now is deciding whether to liquidate the company and move on and take whatever is left, or standing their ground and prevent the other investor from taking over Adam Air. The family versus the investor = Two wrongs don't make a right.
The afternoon also revealed how Adam Air managed to keep selling tickets despite the mess, and survive. The way the ticketing offices operate is simply amazing, and they developed many breakthroughs in the airline industry here regarding branding, distribution, and marketing. It is a pity that these brilliant ideas were not supported by a safe and reliable product.
One disturbing fact though. It was revealed to me that my real identity has been known to Adam Air for a long time. I am told that I am fortunate that those in Adam Air who knows my identity hasn't divulged such information to the family. The reason being, that until the very last minute, Adam Air was a continuous battle between the good and the evil. Several wants to get rid of me, several thought it might have been a better idea to pay me for my silence, and several thought that I should have been recruited to join the now lost struggle for the good.
So, enough with the gloom, here's one good bit. The allegations on Adam Air's conduct in 2006 that was put on PPRuNe has been requested to be given to the authorities for further investigation for the NTSC to put recommendations to the industry and the regulator, on how to further address systematic deficiencies in maintenance, incident and serious incident surveillance. Basically, if it does end up as we wish, the recommendations address the questions raised by the National Evaluation Team for Transportation Safety and Security (NETTSS/TimNas EKKT) in early 2007 on, "Why does the DGAC, DCAT and NTSC miss out on so many of the alleged violations and incidents/occurences while certain members of the public (read: not the press) can know and put those information out in a coherent, timely and systematic manner?"
The inability for the DGAC and DCAT and NTSC at the time resulted in the heads of those agencies to be replaced by those who do care about these stuff and want to use all available channels to make the information available to them.
So, thank you guys for all of these so far, now let's hope this ends up the way we want it, that is a better aviation safety where I am. On the other end, I'll have to stay quieter/smarter now. The last thing I want is the "status quo" forces to end up on my doorstep.
PK-KAR