Airlink Accident in George 7 December '09
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media release
“On behalf of Airlink, I would like to offer my heartfelt apologies to the passengers who were on the aircraft and to those who have been inconvenienced by the knock-on effect to schedules today,” said Airlink CEO & Managing Director, Rodger Foster.
Airlink is assisting the South African Civil Aviation Authority’s (SACAA) air accident investigation unit, which is leading the probe into today’s incident. The investigation will consider all of the circumstances surrounding the incident, including the weather, condition of the runway surface, the pilots’ proficiency and the operational and service record of the aircraft.
“Airlink is one hundred percent focused and committed to the safety of its passengers, crews and aircraft. Airlink was one of the first African airlines to voluntarily submit to the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) operational safety audit system. It passed both of the audits that it has undergone to date. In addition, Airlink is an accredited airline with the SACAA,” explained Mr Foster.
“We are also cooperating with the SACAA’s in its latest audit of our operational, maintenance, training and recruiting procedures and processes. While we are confident that Airlink complies to international regulation and best practice, we will of course implement any remedial measures which the SACAA or IATA might in future prescribe,” he added.
Airlink is assisting the South African Civil Aviation Authority’s (SACAA) air accident investigation unit, which is leading the probe into today’s incident. The investigation will consider all of the circumstances surrounding the incident, including the weather, condition of the runway surface, the pilots’ proficiency and the operational and service record of the aircraft.
“Airlink is one hundred percent focused and committed to the safety of its passengers, crews and aircraft. Airlink was one of the first African airlines to voluntarily submit to the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) operational safety audit system. It passed both of the audits that it has undergone to date. In addition, Airlink is an accredited airline with the SACAA,” explained Mr Foster.
“We are also cooperating with the SACAA’s in its latest audit of our operational, maintenance, training and recruiting procedures and processes. While we are confident that Airlink complies to international regulation and best practice, we will of course implement any remedial measures which the SACAA or IATA might in future prescribe,” he added.
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“Airlink is one hundred percent focused and committed to the safety of its passengers, crews and aircraft. Airlink was one of the first African airlines to voluntarily submit to the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) operational safety audit system. It passed both of the audits that it has undergone to date. In addition, Airlink is an accredited airline with the SACAA,” explained Mr Foster.
Is that what is known as damning with faint praise?
Is that what is known as damning with faint praise?
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Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele is considering grounding SA Airlink's fleet in the light of a string of accidents involving SA Airlink aircraft, reports Talk Radio 702 this morning and TimesLive website.
That aside, watched Colin Jordaan on Etv news last night saying that the accident was just "bad luck" for Link and that these incidents always "come in threes". Maybe, but involving the same ailrine?
That aside, watched Colin Jordaan on Etv news last night saying that the accident was just "bad luck" for Link and that these incidents always "come in threes". Maybe, but involving the same ailrine?
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Airlink was not the one of the first African Airlines to submit to the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) operational safety audit system. It is a requirement to pass in order to continue operating as an IATA Airline. There are several South African and African Airlines on the IOSA registry.
Below are all IOSA certified Airlines in Africa:
• Air Austral
• Air Madagascar
• Air Mauritius Ltd.
• Air Namibia (Pty) Ltd.
• Air Seychelles Ltd.
• Air Zimbabwe
• Bellview Airlines Ltd.
• Comair Ltd.
• Ethiopian Airlines Enterprise
• Interair South Africa
• Kenya Airways Limited
• LAM - Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique
• Precision Air Services Limited
• S.A. Airlink (Pty) Limited
• SAFAIR Operations (Pty) Ltd.
• South African Airways
• South African Express Airways (Pty) Ltd.
• TAAG Angola Airlines
• TACV Cabo Verde Airlines
• Virgin Nigeria Airways Limited
I think and hope that Airlink gets through this rough patch. A lot of hard working people there.
Below are all IOSA certified Airlines in Africa:
• Air Austral
• Air Madagascar
• Air Mauritius Ltd.
• Air Namibia (Pty) Ltd.
• Air Seychelles Ltd.
• Air Zimbabwe
• Bellview Airlines Ltd.
• Comair Ltd.
• Ethiopian Airlines Enterprise
• Interair South Africa
• Kenya Airways Limited
• LAM - Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique
• Precision Air Services Limited
• S.A. Airlink (Pty) Limited
• SAFAIR Operations (Pty) Ltd.
• South African Airways
• South African Express Airways (Pty) Ltd.
• TAAG Angola Airlines
• TACV Cabo Verde Airlines
• Virgin Nigeria Airways Limited
I think and hope that Airlink gets through this rough patch. A lot of hard working people there.
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Airlink – Media Bulletin #4 issued 08 December 2009 10.30
AIRLINK APPOINTS INDEPENDENT EXPERT TO REVIEW SAFETY
Following updates earlier bulletins:
JOHANNESBURG – Airlink has appointed an independent expert to review the airline’s safety processes and procedures following recent accidents and incidents involving the airline.
“Safety and the well-being of our passengers, crew and aircraft is our top priority and it is essential that we always operate professionally and safely. While we are confident that Airlink complies with South African and international regulation and best practice, if there are gaps, then we want to know where they are and we will implement whatever measures are necessary to close them,” stated Airlink CEO and Managing Director, Rodger Foster.
“For this reason, we have approached a recently retired senior SAA expert on airline flight safety, to conduct a thorough and independent review of Airlink procedures and processes. I have called for the net to be cast wide. The review will examine numerous aspects including our leadership structure, cockpit resource management techniques, compliance with regulatory and standard operating procedures and training,” explained Mr Foster.
Media release on website
AIRLINK APPOINTS INDEPENDENT EXPERT TO REVIEW SAFETY
Following updates earlier bulletins:
JOHANNESBURG – Airlink has appointed an independent expert to review the airline’s safety processes and procedures following recent accidents and incidents involving the airline.
“Safety and the well-being of our passengers, crew and aircraft is our top priority and it is essential that we always operate professionally and safely. While we are confident that Airlink complies with South African and international regulation and best practice, if there are gaps, then we want to know where they are and we will implement whatever measures are necessary to close them,” stated Airlink CEO and Managing Director, Rodger Foster.
“For this reason, we have approached a recently retired senior SAA expert on airline flight safety, to conduct a thorough and independent review of Airlink procedures and processes. I have called for the net to be cast wide. The review will examine numerous aspects including our leadership structure, cockpit resource management techniques, compliance with regulatory and standard operating procedures and training,” explained Mr Foster.
Media release on website
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Line-Driver, I agree with you 100%, experience is a problem at Link, think the average age there is probably around 28, which is far younger than the world average I'm sure. Problem is like you say, no one wants to stay at Link for longer than is absolutely neccessary before they can move on to somewhere better and the company has only themselves to blame for that. Yes they want to go to bigger aircraft, but look at SAX, no one there is rushing to go anywhere, because they don't treat their people like slave labour. A friend of mine from Link told me they only have their minimum off days a month, and other than their flying days(on certain fleets there aren't many of those due to excess crew) they're on reserve all the time, they have usually about 9 standbys everyday on a fleet that only has 5 aircraft(ERJ), it's just becuase JVJ doesn't want them to be able to have a life and force them to take leave so the company doesn't have to pay them out when they leave.
Unfortunately, because Foster was too cheap to put in thrust reversers, so they fly around sand ballasts to make the weight and balance work, the aircraft is very prone to aquaplaning, there's nothing in my opinion the crew could've done to prevent it and good on the guys that no one got hurt. to all you on the ndola thing, they didn't actually go off the runway, just messed up the tyres but they taxied the ac back to the apron it was perfectly fine and those of you who haven't been to ndola, the runway is cement, not proper asphalt, lethal to land on at the best of times, why they even fly there is beyond me and since then, the new SOP is not to even try land there if its raining as you're almost certain to aquaplane, so come on, give the captain some slack here, it could have been much worse if someone less experienced was flying.
Unfortunately, because Foster was too cheap to put in thrust reversers, so they fly around sand ballasts to make the weight and balance work, the aircraft is very prone to aquaplaning, there's nothing in my opinion the crew could've done to prevent it and good on the guys that no one got hurt. to all you on the ndola thing, they didn't actually go off the runway, just messed up the tyres but they taxied the ac back to the apron it was perfectly fine and those of you who haven't been to ndola, the runway is cement, not proper asphalt, lethal to land on at the best of times, why they even fly there is beyond me and since then, the new SOP is not to even try land there if its raining as you're almost certain to aquaplane, so come on, give the captain some slack here, it could have been much worse if someone less experienced was flying.
Prof. Airport Engineer
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Risk of landing overrun for EMB135 at George
The relative probability of an overrun on landing can be estimated based on landing distance required (LDR). In simple terms, if an aircraft performance requires all the runway length available to meet the landing distance required, it has a higher risk of overrun. Likewise, landing a C172 on Jo'burg 03/21 should make the probability of an overrun remote.
FAGG (George) runway 11/29 is 2000 metres long. I don't have the landing distance required chart for the EMB135 for a wet runway, but its dry distance with flaps 45 deg at an elevation of 198m is 1375m. Since wet runway LDR is 115% of dry runway LDR, the landing distance required is 1580m. The excess runway length available (beyond that required) is therefore 420m. The relative probability of overrun can be found to be 0.1 for that aircraft and that runway [from Figure 2 of Emery, S (2009) Risk analysis study on the need for a runway surface friction layer. 2nd European Airport Pavement Workshop, 13-14 May 2009, Amsterdam].
A general estimate for landing overrun rate is, on average, 1 per million movements. Factor that by the 0.1 relative probability, gives a probability of landing overrun events exceeding specified distance, of 0.1 per million movements, which is 1E-7. I'm not going to calculate this risk analysis all the way through to individual risk, except I now can say that this overrun event SHOULD have been pretty rare for this aircraft at George.
FAGG (George) runway 11/29 is 2000 metres long. I don't have the landing distance required chart for the EMB135 for a wet runway, but its dry distance with flaps 45 deg at an elevation of 198m is 1375m. Since wet runway LDR is 115% of dry runway LDR, the landing distance required is 1580m. The excess runway length available (beyond that required) is therefore 420m. The relative probability of overrun can be found to be 0.1 for that aircraft and that runway [from Figure 2 of Emery, S (2009) Risk analysis study on the need for a runway surface friction layer. 2nd European Airport Pavement Workshop, 13-14 May 2009, Amsterdam].
A general estimate for landing overrun rate is, on average, 1 per million movements. Factor that by the 0.1 relative probability, gives a probability of landing overrun events exceeding specified distance, of 0.1 per million movements, which is 1E-7. I'm not going to calculate this risk analysis all the way through to individual risk, except I now can say that this overrun event SHOULD have been pretty rare for this aircraft at George.
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I have flown Airlink on this route 3 times in the last couple of weeks and find this worrying. Whilst I appreciate that the alternative, road travel, is significantly more risky, reading the preceding does not make me feel comfortable about flying.
I am not in a position to speculate on the possible causes of this run of 'incidents' but I do hope that given the generally very high standard of aviation in SA, this will be thoroughly investigated and necessary action taken.
I am not in a position to speculate on the possible causes of this run of 'incidents' but I do hope that given the generally very high standard of aviation in SA, this will be thoroughly investigated and necessary action taken.
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Looks like Link is making headlines everywhere. Here's an interesting article.
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Recently retired senior SAA expert
They should have appointed someone from outside South Africa who does not know anything about Airlink.
Appointing someone who is ex SAA will not be very objective. As SAA and Airlink have code share and franchise agreements.
Maybe IATA/IOSA should get involved.
Or maybe the SACAA should monitor the whole situation a bit more.
As the young pilots, I have seen many young pilots that do a much better job than older ones.
Just cause you have 15000 hours and are 58 years old ,does not make you a better pilot!!!!
This is Just my humble opinion.
Appointing someone who is ex SAA will not be very objective. As SAA and Airlink have code share and franchise agreements.
Maybe IATA/IOSA should get involved.
Or maybe the SACAA should monitor the whole situation a bit more.
As the young pilots, I have seen many young pilots that do a much better job than older ones.
Just cause you have 15000 hours and are 58 years old ,does not make you a better pilot!!!!
This is Just my humble opinion.
Last edited by four engine jock; 8th Dec 2009 at 11:08. Reason: spelling
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RF. This comes from far away, as a warning, which many hope you will heed. I have family and good friends working there. The company that you head-up as CEO is on a precarious foothold. You can't carry on treating your pilots in this terrible manner. Your very apparent, absolute and perverse hatred for your pilots is going to result in the demise of that company. No company that alienates its pilots to this extent has ever survived! Why do you believe you can and get away with it? Your recently appointed side-kick (aka JVJ) has your sanction to go ahead and do as much damage to the pilots as what he believes he can get away with, legally.[even that must be pushed to the extreme darker side of the grey areas] This, all under the guise of more profit/competition etc.
You simply fire any and all pilots who resist! What do you think is going to happen when they leave? You have no respect whatsoever for senior pilots in terms of experience.
You utterly believe that any experienced pilot’s work can be fulfilled by brand new pilots.
You have a flying licence yourself. Maybe that has given you a clouded idea of the value of experience in flying?
Are you going to punish them for standing up for the company against you? Will you fly all the aircraft yourself? The end of their tether is within grasp of their hands already. Fix it, before you can no longer call yourself an airline CEO with all its lovely trappings.
(from the little wet island with no history)
You simply fire any and all pilots who resist! What do you think is going to happen when they leave? You have no respect whatsoever for senior pilots in terms of experience.
You utterly believe that any experienced pilot’s work can be fulfilled by brand new pilots.
You have a flying licence yourself. Maybe that has given you a clouded idea of the value of experience in flying?
Are you going to punish them for standing up for the company against you? Will you fly all the aircraft yourself? The end of their tether is within grasp of their hands already. Fix it, before you can no longer call yourself an airline CEO with all its lovely trappings.
(from the little wet island with no history)
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Shut Em Down
If SACAA could shut Nationwide down on a Friday, Why not shut Airlink down tomorrow, pending investigation and remedial action? If there is nothing to hide, they should be flying, safely, by next week.
PS: Kitkatt77 , Nothing wrong with Ndola, IMHO
PS: Kitkatt77 , Nothing wrong with Ndola, IMHO
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the new SOP is not to even try land there if its raining as you're almost certain...
The management at Airlink find it more important to find new ways of making the pilots lives a misery (ie. Data capture after flight, minimum days off with Home reserve for days on end even though there are more pilots on home reserve than they need, rostered to the maximum when they do fly, long splits etc etc.
if there are gaps, then we want to know where they are and we will implement whatever measures are necessary to close them,” stated Airlink CEO and Managing Director, Rodger Foster.
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Interesting to see how many comments there are about the FDP's. If the FDP's comply with law, then the airline isn't doing anything wrong. If any of you can't handle that, then you should fight the law and not the airline, since they are well within their right to do that. As far as sour relations go between the the management and the flight crew...that is indeed unfortunate, but once again it probably stems mostly from the FDP's.
And an earlier post described the average Airlink pilot being 28 years old, and thats below standards around the world. Absolute nonsense!
The recession has put hiring on hold for a while, but in many places across the EU and North America you can find far younger lads/gals strapped to A320's and 737's. The youngest Captain in the UK got his captaincy on the A320 at the age of 25!
And an earlier post described the average Airlink pilot being 28 years old, and thats below standards around the world. Absolute nonsense!
The recession has put hiring on hold for a while, but in many places across the EU and North America you can find far younger lads/gals strapped to A320's and 737's. The youngest Captain in the UK got his captaincy on the A320 at the age of 25!
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I flew the EMB 145 for 2 years this accident is caused to my opinion by:
-Very Bad Ground spoilers on the Embraer
-No thrust reverse on the Embraer
-Long landing maybe?
-Very Bad Ground spoilers on the Embraer
-No thrust reverse on the Embraer
-Long landing maybe?
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Well, the aircraft performance graphs should presumably have allowed it to land on a contaminated runway of the length available at the field in question and the prevailing data.
So perhaps the ILS reference point became a little muddied in the drizzle?
So perhaps the ILS reference point became a little muddied in the drizzle?
Last edited by Der absolute Hammer; 8th Dec 2009 at 16:58.
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I agree with you.. I have landed at Ndola in bad thunderstorms a zillion times and never had any problems or felt uncomfortable whatsoever...
CAA should interview every individual working for Link including the cabin crew to uncover the rot.
CAA should interview every individual working for Link including the cabin crew to uncover the rot.
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Suitcaseman,
I fully agree with you, but keep in mind Nationwide was shutdown because of a personal score to be set by a certain individual who used to work for Nationwide and then got a very high post at the CAA.
As far as I'm concerned there's definitely a problem with AirLink. Indeed like you stated, fix it and get on with it. I know how the employees at Link are feeling, I was at nationwide. I hope for you guys that you'll get your house sorted out and get back to non eventful flying.
I fully agree with you, but keep in mind Nationwide was shutdown because of a personal score to be set by a certain individual who used to work for Nationwide and then got a very high post at the CAA.
As far as I'm concerned there's definitely a problem with AirLink. Indeed like you stated, fix it and get on with it. I know how the employees at Link are feeling, I was at nationwide. I hope for you guys that you'll get your house sorted out and get back to non eventful flying.