AF 447 Thread No. 8

[Lyman]

First identify there is a problem... Wait and see seems to have been the drill. AF had (has) a leadership problem, it shows from all the ridiculous commentary post crash. Only Public Relations? No. Indicative of no one in charge.

There was a cluster of nine UAS events at AF in the year around 447. I think I'd have been tempted to organize a special program to isolate that data and use it to saturate an intensive focus by several check pilots, in parallel with Airbus pilots, and narrow the scope to creating a very strict profile of who flies where, and when, tighten up the roster on an emergency basis, and perhaps assign a safety pilot on a temporary basis to fill out the cockpit. Engage the crews who had experienced the events, put together an interim, "here's how", "do's and don'ts", etc.

No grounding necessary, though I would seriously consider a dead head home event for each a/c, similar to what UAL did when, after BA038, United's eighty eight T7s were ordered immediately stateside to undergo immediate inspection of fire bottles. The inspection was deferrable, but they hobbled their operation to do a gd line check.

I could be wrong, but the nonchalance apparent at AF was breathtaking. The crew of 447 was a wild card, that is not a difficult call to make, and issues of rest and command, experience, etc. should have been on alert until the challenge was completely quenched. Dubois had failed a check ride, ordinarily not a huge deal, but it would have flagged him (possibly) for a vacation from ITCZ flights until these events were better understood.

You could easily say this is all hindsight. I like to think that from what has fallen out, it may be ascertained that much more should have been done. Look at the flight path of each incident a/c. You fly small and fast, in the airline business, wandering around the sky is a no no. Flight Path loss is serious. No, Critical, perhaps not in and of each event, but for what it suggests, could go wrong as follow on to unidentifeied behaviour.