Originally Posted by
Ian W
From the reports the engine problem was low oil pressure. The decision was made to turn back rather than continue to Milan. The aircraft did not have a major problem and was not on fire until after it landed. I presume you would carry out an immediate diversion with an oil pressure low indication?
It seems that there are a lot of posters who would have applauded a decision to evacuate and send a dozen or so pax to the hospital but find a problem with a decision to not evacuate presumably on the advice of the airport fire crew, which resulted in no injured pax. This actually was the right decision in hindsight probably based on a risk assessment from fire crew experts actually on the scene.
The 'no-brain' automatons would presumably disregard fire crew advice and evacuate anyway. An interesting position to take if pax are subsequently injured in what the experts on the scene felt was an unnecessary use of the slides.
This is a false analysis. Sure, everyone is happy that there were no injuries. But....
The captain is in charge, not the fire crew. And the fire crew was one minute out when the wheels stopped. And the right wing and #2 were on fire! After one minute (the plane wasn't full) most pax would have been out. Before the services arrived. At 1.5 mins, they would all have been out.
Meanwhile, at 3 mins (about the time when China Air went boom) the fire is not out and the crew is crossing their fingers!
That's what you call a no brainer.
As for the apparent paradox about Singaporean culture and rote learning (my earlier post). I agree I wasn't clear. The point is, when the situation is outside of their comfort zone, they look to someone else to make a decision. Rabbits frozen in the headlights.
Lastly, a pax evac on LHS would not have diminished the ability to fire fight on the rhs. Oh, and everyone would have been out 30 seconds later anyway.