This years Hadj was a mess !!!
For those of you who read about the 747 operation in Jeddah using the name of NorthEast let me fill you in some. As a pilot who was originally hired by TransJet Int'l,, formerly known as TransJet I have a few words to add.
TransJet went out of business about a year and a half ago. They had 3 747's and some MD80 series. They were a Swedish carrier and had some aircraft flying out of Manchester on the summer holiday season in 2001 amongst other flying they performed.
For reasons unknown to me, their AOC was revoked.
Now over a year later in an attempt to fly the Hadj, they contacted NorthEast to use their AOC to put their 747's on for the Hadj. They had organized approximately 10 crews and at the end could not get the financing organized to put these 747's in the air.
So one of the other parties involved, an Egyptian
gentleman by the name of Anwar Kadri tried to ressurect the remains of the project by
appropriating the Northeast name, AOC documents, ID card blanks, Northeast stationary and other Northeast papers in an effort to pass themselves on as if the project was continuing forward as planned. They had a contract to fly for Saudia but had no aircraft since TransJet Int'l's aircraft remained in Stockholm.
When I arrived in Jeddah, after a free ticket on Saudia and a 6 month visa entered in my passport, (by Saudi Arabian Airlines) I then went to the Crowne Plaza hotel in Jeddah and sat with a finger up my ass for about 2 weeks. The whole thing was a complete scam and Northeast was not to blame,, it was this Egyptian
gentleman named Anwar Kadri and his company name is Falkon Air, out of Poland. Not to be confused with Falcon Air out of Dubai.
Capt. Donkey Dick is talking about a separate issue involving Northeast and their L-1011 that is being held in a 3rd world African country since the company that hired Northeast to do ACMI flying for them did not pay for fuel, handling and navigation charges, in addition to not paying Northeast for flying they performed as well. That is why Northeast is not able to pay their crews as originally planned. Hope this sheds some light and corrects misconceptions spoken here in this forum.
...edit to remove a couple of references (to persons who wear striped black and white jumpers and carry bags labelled "Swag") that the Towers aren't happy with. Rest OK. £6
