I sat in my office yesterday and read with despair the diatribes surrounding this event. Strangely, I am a Brit who works for Afriqiyah; yesterday was a day I could have done without, even after 40 years in The Industry. It called upon all my experience to manage the day. Yet all the speculation and comments from armchair pundits still appears after an incident. I knew all the crew on yesterday's flight from my previous life in flight management, and lost some good colleagues. I wish this speculation would stop. Afriqiyah is a small airline, where everyone knows everyone else - the same spirit of cameraderie as was with Dan-Air or Laker. As you are all aware there is no single cause to an accident, but a sequence of events that culminates in tragedy. To question the crew's competence is uncalled for; the ex-chief pilot of Austrian Airways, and senior pilots from Sabena/SN Brussels also work for Afriqiyah. The sim training is done locally here, in Crawley, not in a Bedouin tent full of hookah pipes in the desert. Furthermore, they possess an excellent command of
basic good airmanship - something which I think is disappearing fast. I was racking my brain to remember what inlet was missing - how could someone steal a hole? Actually the port
winglet has been missing for a few weeks, and whilst the general handling is not affected, the port-side fuel burn has increased by 4%! No, not really, but that is the sort of comment I could expect. The upside is that Gatwick Airport has done unnecessary runway sweeps looking for a dropped winglet that was not there! I cannot understand how nobody amongst you experts has not commented on the picture of the chap walking through the wreckage in his suit, oblivious to any MMMF particles that may be suspended in the atmosphere.
I have said my piece, and am now returning to hopefully, a normal day's work at Gatwick.
