Squawk 7600:
With the risk of being accused of having reading comprehension troubles (as you stated BOAC and Enjoy The View are suffering from, and that probably anyone that has a different point of view must be suffering from), let me share a couple of observations:
Regarding the fact that you have no specific interest (you “could not give a toss”) in Ryanair, a quick search (and thus prone to error) reveals that 42 out of your 90 highly educational posts on the forum are directly related to Ryanair, i.e. about 45 %. That is, with a bit of imagination, half of your contributions. A ‘particular interest’ that is how I would read that.
Regarding your repeated statement (you in fact repeat it so much that it starts to smell) that you are merely trying to extract lessons for all pilots in general and do not want to crucify any involved Ryanair flight crew, I observe you nevertheless do so on several occasions. The insults, allegations and condemnations are too many to list.
Regarding accusing other contributors of “playing the man”: you have been doing more than your fair bit here on that one. That is unless of course you consider calling people “ idiotic’’, “partisan” living in a “parallel universe” is playing the ball rather than the man.
Regarding your statement that Spanish ATC is a total irrelevant factor in these events (yes, events, nothing else than that). I assume that within the operations of your excellent carrier (bla bla bla) you have been operating in and out of Spain, maybe you haven’t. For those who have, and were awake while doing so, it is clear that Spanish ATC is definitely to be regarded as a significant factor on a daily basis.
With your professional experience, as you have laid out here extensively, I would expect you to show a more collegial attitude towards concerned crews, not write them off as “rookies” with “poor airmanship” and “crap decisions” and to acknowledge that - most probably- the real situation concerned crews found themselves in that night, and subsequent decisions made, are not so easily captured in the simplistic summaries of yours and some of the other contributors here. You were not there that night, you were not taking part in any investigation afterwards. You have no more objective info and facts than any of us here. It baffles me that a professional with your experience fails to acknowledge that we do not dispose of all relevant elements in order to make a judgement on the concerned crews.
Your posts, and more specific the general undertone towards Ryanair Flight crew, lead me to belief you do have an issue with Ryanair. Whilst I can appreciate that one might have a multitude of valid reasons to have a go at Ryanair I believe your contributions reveal a sincere misappraisal for your fellow colleagues, i.e. Ryanair flight crew. Allegations/assumptions such as that the concerned crews purposely waited to minimum diversion fuel in order to declare subsequently a mayday with the intention of then getting “priority in the sequence” and screwing everyone else in the air are nothing less than infantile. I would have never come up with something like that, it simply shows the views you have on your colleagues. Funny isn’t it ? The day the rookies at Ryanair get hired by BA, Air France, Emirates, Etihad or Qatar they become well respected members of the pilot community, overnight that is.
You have by now far passed your noble intentions of extracting valuable lessons for all of us. And anyway… what lessons are there for you to learn from that night? Flight planning and in flight adaptation to current wx and operational conditions seem to hold no secrets for you. So whom are you trying to educate “Captain”? (it does reads awful when you put it between quotation marks)
On a side note: careful use of the word “partisan” with the intent to insult someone is recommended: “ A partisan is a member of an irregular force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity. The term can apply to the field element of resistance movements, an example of which are the civilians that opposed Nazi German rule in several countries during World War II”. (source: Wikipedia)
And to conclude: a “general consensus” on this forum exists on the “rookies” at Ryanair with “poor airmanship” and “crap decisions” … in YOUR parallel universe.
I’d love to do my sim ride with you, any day.
Last edited by Adhemar; 7th Oct 2012 at 22:56.