PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - AW139 G-LBAL helicopter crash in Gillingham, Norfolk
Old 21st Oct 2015, 14:29
  #792 (permalink)  
SASless
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Downeast
Age: 75
Posts: 18,300
Received 523 Likes on 218 Posts
I once had a Manager walk out onto our Runway....cast an eye skyward....and look over at me as I stood there Tea Cup in hand clearly in hurry not to go anywhere.

He then looked at his watch and then again at me.

I looked at my Watch and suggested he might one day buy a Rolex like mine....and if he wanted to go flying the Keys were in my Cab.

He told a Training Captain to take my Co-Pilot and aircraft and go make the run....to be told by the Co-Pilot that he was assigned to fly with me that day and had no intentions of changing the roster. The Training Captain put his fingers to his Brow and found a Co-Pilot and aircraft to fly.

That is how a Crew should work together....weather below Company Minimums....get another Cup of Tea and wait for a distinct improvement in the weather. Once you say "No!"...the harder someone tries to coerce you to fly....just become far more firm in your stance.

The weather was good in the Oil Field Ten miles away but the Takeoff location was blanketed with Fog with less than a Hundred Yards Visibility and no way to safely comply with the two Takeoff Profiles authorized by Company Procedures.

Sometimes you just have to say "NO!".

If I had gone and nothing bad happened I would not have gotten a single Red Cent more in my pay packet.....but if something had gone wrong....the Company Management would have dropped me quicker than a used Condom to protect their own backsides.

Later on that same Training Captain obtained employment with the CAA.
SASless is offline