If you don't follow the SOP's what do you expect the airline to do? They have a set of rules for your safety and everyones else's. We all make mistakes and EK knows that; but if guys are persistant offenders or trouble causers why keep hold of them? Do you think O'leary is any different. Go and fly for Ryanair then if you think it's so great there. How about Virgin? Just look forward to 15 years in the right hand with a few rounds of redundancies thrown in for good measure. Take you pick...
Si Jet,
I try to hold a balanced view on here and I will gladly point out to prospective joiners and new joiners both the good and the bad points (there are many of both).
However, don't be so NAIVE with regards to job security. My one gripe out here (once you've dimissed the frustrating but inevitable T&C changes) is the lack of support for pilots.
You say we all make mistakes and EK knows that? Yes they do, but they don't care for it. It's easier to sack you - that way for Management there is someone to blame other than themselves. This is a brand new civilisation only 30 or so years old that still has a middle-ages mentality regarding justice, science and indeed flight safety... this is NOT a dig at the UAE it's just a fact of life.
When an incident happens someone important wants a response, someone to punish. So he goes to the person below him and slaps him round a bit; that person then goes looking for the lowest common denominator to slap around a bit - and
that my friend is you and I.
Forget fair investigations, forget independent analysis - it's a case of "that guy could have made
me look silly, off with his head"... I'm sorry if that doesn't fit in with your comfy UK sensibilty but you should learn VERY quickly that this is how it works out here. And not just in your job either.
I can't speak for the Melbourne crew, yes they broke SOP's. Maybe there's more to it than that -
why did they nreak them. Was it negligence? Was it the Captain, was it the First Officer, was it Fatigue?
I can however speak for the guys in Manchester, Accra et al who simply made a human error... as you said:
We all make mistakes
Well the crews in these incidents did and were fired. The poor FO in the Manchester incident was still under training...! Go figure! How do you be 'negligent of duty' when you're still being trained how to accomplish your duty?
I'm still waiting for some clear information from the Company regarding exactly what happened and how we're all supposed to avoid making the same mistakes in the future. That is traditionally how flight safety progresses - unfortunately we have an open-minded, excellent and supportive flight safety team at EK who are not given any freedom to do their jobs in any capacity whatsoever. I sometimes wonder if they are just there to satisfy the CAA requirements just to employ someone with said title. Ask the the former top guy in the Safety Dept why he left...
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I am very sorry that your current employment has been such a miserable one but please please please don't be naive and try to come here with an open mind. This is NOT the UK. It has it's good and it's bad points but don't be taken in by the EK sales schpiel as you'll be so disappointed if you do... marketing is what they're good at - it's the reason all our planes are full even though we are neither the best nor the cheapest airline!
Good luck with your move and we look forward to working with you. Dubai can be a fascinating place to spend a few years, especially if you have young kids, and the weather here is a dream for those migrating from Northern Europe.
See you soon.
