Rough ride for AEGEAN !

[Darkjet]

Hi ,

I heard yesterday on the news that an Aegean Airlines Avro RJ 100 flight from Athens to the island of Mittilini went through severe turbulence (3 flight attendants and 2 pax injured ), coulnd't land in Mittilini because of low clouds ( VOR DME approach) and came back to Athens . Flight attendants and injured pax sent to the hospital . Anybodyelse heard anything / more infos ....
Hope they are all ok .

DJ.

[gonso]

Apparently everybody ok.
3 pax and 2 c/a hospitalized minor injuries (one c/a bit more serious with broken ribs).

Athens to Mitilini can be a pretty rough sector in the winter. Journos made it seem quite serious with the a/c loosing several thousand feet in the recovery process. You can believe them if you want (I usually don’t!).

What I found quite interesting was that the crew (according to the journos) elected to return back to Athens and in the same report the air traffic controller in Mitilini said when asked that the a/c approached the island, commenced the approach but due to low cloud had no visual contact, and went around and eventually diverted to Athens.

So the crew was forced to return rather than “decided” to return.
Finally, the pax were not very happy with the silence from the flight deck. More than a few of them complained for the lack of information of what’s happening (is the a/c still in one piece, reassurance that everything is under control etc etc).
A little lesson to all of us I think. Silence from us can be scarier to the punters than any thud, smell, bang, shimmy, bump….

[Waspy]

Indeed, communication to the cabin and passengers plays a more and more important role in civil tranport.
However, from personal experience, one bunch of pax is not the other and the way turbulence is handeled by cabin crew is not always the same.
In my company, any sort of "rougher than normal" turbulence will be treated by cabin crew as serious. CA1 will first stop service and stow his/her trolleys and then call Cockpit to see if normal ops may be continued. It is also a part of the briefing I give the cabin crew in the crew room before flight (sometimes a good reminder to check Wx info during summertime, by the way).
At the same time, FSB will come on from my part and if turbulence lasts more than just a few minutes or agravates I make a PA.

On the other hand I ususally avoid talking about foressen turbulence as Wx forecast remains a Wx forecast. I trust PIREPS when airborne and then make a PA.

Any body with other practices, speaches, etc...?:hmm: