Whilst I agree with some of what's being said here re Journo's reporting or lack thereof we pilots amongst us must bear in mind that the 'general' public have little idea about flying other than boarding a large airliner & being 'bussed' to somewhere else. What we have here to Mr & Mrs Joe Average is a story that to them is frightening & so it should be. Very few flights ever reach this outcome thank God but when they do they get full exposure right or wrong. The real story behind this is not why they run out of gas that's getting fairly obvious to those with some knowledge of OS Med Ops etc but what led this experienced (said loosely) pilot to get himself & his crew in this one way potential suicide mission? That's the question/answer I'd like to hear but will probably never know the real truth due ass covering, a typical human trait, we are all guilty of it some time in our lives big or small!
So we also seem to have a hero at the start of a story like this then a villain at the end? That's from a pilots perspective but from the gen public's angle is it safe to do such flights in a small jet? Very good question of which 2 answers could be applied.Yes given thorough pre flight planning WITH options & no as most small jets lack the range/endurance but are cost effective & at the end of the day this was most likely an insurance job & we all know that insurance Co's just love to pay for Gold class service right?.......NOT!!!
Anyway scape goats, there's always a scape goat! Forget the Capt he's made probably his last major decision on those type of Ops ( I hope) it's more now what are the regulators going to do about it (regarding education) other than run & hide after they now realize that they (CASA) are now also under the spotlight!
PelAir/Rex could do well to start owning up to some of this mess I do feel for the victims the innocent ones that relied upon a CASA sanctioned professional organization to get them safely to their intended destination. Their story tonight on TV would have a LOT of the general public jumping up & down that the tasked Co hasn't even sought their well being after what just have been a terrifying time in their lives.
Again as has been said many times to date their all safe that's a great outcome now we can only pray that we don't see this type of incident again.
A pilots license is just a piece of paper to go out & really learn but sometimes we stuff it up!
Wmk2
Last edited by Wally Mk2; 7th Mar 2010 at 08:36.