Ryanair secrets?

[8eyes]

Well I was rather disappointed when I watched his programme. It all seemed rather thin. As Beamer said it tended to 'feature the presenter rather than the subject'. I would agree with that.

This is a very serious subject and the programme spent far too much time focusing on the presenter and his anonymous (actor voice over) 'guests' instead of concentrating on the facts. Facts that can be corroborated and not made from silhouetted figures with very actory voice-overs. Oh and the hats. Hats on all of the time. I didn't know Ryanair were a hat-wearing outfit. A classic mistake I think in a potentially serious film. But it wasn't that serious was it. They didn't seem to know the difference between a black box (FDR) and a CVRs. Or how easy it is to erase their contents.

Does anyone know how many other aircraft in the past year have landed at european airfields with minimum fuel reserves or less. Quite a lot I would have thought, especially when fog persists at the destination or there are serious levels of CB activity - which of course there are in the summer months in southern Europe. We all know how much expected arrival fuel diminishes as runway in use is changed at the last minute due wx etc

So why concentrate on Ryanair. No I don't work for them, never have done and probably never will do.

The problems over fuel and its increasing costs affect every airline. No one wants to waste it or to carry too little and as a professional pilot you don't want to carry too much. However, in the case of poor weather it is obvious that you may need to carry more than the legal minimum. That is just good airmanship and let us not forget that it it the Captain's legal responsibility to decide on the departure fuel, not the airline's. If a pilot can not handle that responsibility then they should not be in the LHS.

The main point here is that it is an industry problem, not just a Ryanair problem. The relevant authorities have the ability to do something constructive about this and they don't. Now why is that? I would like to have seen a few of the regulators questioned about their views and how they can assist with protecting employees in this sort of situation and, more importantly, help to make flying safer in the crowded skies over Europe. As Heathrow Director sensibly pointed out, what happens when the first of the diverted aircraft (on minimum, but legal fuel reserves) lands and then bursts a tyre while still on the runway? Where does everyone else go then?

This programme was a missed opportunity that concentrated on easy targets. It should have involved other professional/political contributors (aside from ATC and pilots) who could have provided a more objective view and hopefully more constructive views on the way ahead.

To have spent so much time concentrating on the presenter's chic attire and those dreadful pilot's hats, all gave an impression of a very slight affair. Hardly the result of a polished piece of investigative current affairs.