Unsafe Operation - Lombok Institute of Flight Technology - LIFT

[Gold Seal]

Lombok Institute of Flight Technology - LIFT

LIFT management continually doubted the decisions of the instructors and that is why we were given the ultimatum in a meeting on 7th December, that we either “flew the aircraft or we were out of Indonesia”.

There is no biased opinion of the situation here. Simply, the school has suffered from numerous power losses of varying degree over several months. The four instructors were ultimately fired because the situation grew worse and we could no longer fly the aircraft and maintain a level of safety. Instead of appreciating the seriousness of this issue, LIFT management forced the instructors into a situation where they either flew the aircraft or they lost their jobs. We all understand that flight instructing is a business that requires turnover (in this case flight hours), however safety is the key to any aviation business and this can never be compromised. LIFT management do not share this view and below is an email from Edmond Fung (owner of LIFT) to a prospective Spanish instructor in December which demonstrates this...



> Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2012 00:12:19 +0700

> Subject: Re: Documents Pedro Diaz
>
> Pedro.
>
> Yes, we have problem due to fuel issue and we have been proactive to
> solve the problem.
> Our FI lost their confidence in Mechanics.
> I do not want to say bad things on others especially they are young guys
> and still need a future.
>
> BIFA last year has three planes down, we are lucky still keeping a clean
> record.
>
> If this is your decision. We will respect it.
>
> Regards,
> Edmond.



You can clearly see that Mr Fung acknowledges that the problem is created by the fuel and that LIFT is ‘lucky’not to have had an accident up until that point. But what is more concerning is that he is quoting another schools accident record..... is he suggesting that there is some sort of ‘acceptable number of accidents’ that can be tolerated even when there is a known problem with the operation ?

I would also like to clarify a point regarding Fuel Vaporization. In November 2012, one of Mr Fung’s expat engineers asked the four instructors to turn on the ‘boost pump’ during any power loss incidents to see whether the engines would recover from the problem. I personally tried this and on two occasions, it made nodifference to the power loss. One of the incidents was on upwind and the aircraft would not climb higher than 300 feet AGL. The issue is not Fuel Vaporization