Snow at LHR - SAA Drug Woes (Merged)

[eticket]

BBC NEWS | UK | Cabin crew held over drug haul (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7840941.stm)

15 cabin crew arrested at LHR after 110lbs of cannabis was found on an SAA aircraft.

Good job it wasn't Dubai!

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update from BBC to say that the 15 include flight crew as well.

[girtbar]

Ha ha, like it, who grassed up......ok i admit it took me awhile, i blame being on an early!

I guess the tip off must have been the cabin crew looked like the really, really enjoyed their job, that must have given the game away!

[SFBdolly]

Correct me if I am wrong.. Does SAA have the highest number of crew in jail around the world...? for such things....

[haughtney1]

Where theres smoke..theres fire...:E

[Conan The Barber]

Don't you normally just get a caution when it's for own use?

[chrisbl]

That amount would be trafficking - never justifiable as personal use.

[eticket]

I wonder if the Police will offer to cut a deal.



----------------------------------
(Remember just like the breath test situations all involved are innocent at this time.)

[Coco_Crew]

(http://www.pprune.org/members/146839-sfbdolly)SFBdolly (http://www.pprune.org/members/146839-sfbdolly)

Correct me if I am wrong.. Does SAA have the highest number of crew in jail around the world...? for such things..

SFB - I am sorry but what kind of comment is that? I have some really good friends working for SAA and they do an extremely wondeful job.

Just because SA has a high crime rate etc does not mean that they have the highest by world standard.
The USA, UK and Australia have a really high crime and drug smugling rate it is just swept under the carpet - it allows these countries to put a not so innocent face:hmm:.
SA is a great country and SAA is one of the worlds premium carriers and they have an exceptional workforce :)

As for the story from BBC - the Crew were just detained because the UK BA found cocaine on the aircraft - they however did not say that the crew are exclusively involved.
You should also note that the BBC and all other news - only tell you what they want you to see - so in future please do not always believe what the media tells you. They are run by the Rothchilds and sick Illuminati occult - who sadly rule the world and we are thier slaves trapped in the matrix - do not believe me - please look it up.

In future please refrain from stereotypes, generalizations and the sorts.

[yaletown]

SAA was approached by the FAA and the CAA being quietly warned for safety issues this past August, stemming from the A340-200 that came back from heavy maintainence with 41 unresolved issues, one of them being a completey rusted out structural cross beam (essentially could have seriously affected the integrity of the hull and possibly broken up mid flight I imagine with any sever turbulance). They used to have over 19 senior maintenance managers with SATC, but now only 6 are left. Some of them have been replaced with people that have only 2 years experience.

It was a great airline, but because of the affirmative action policy, they have stripped the airline of most of its experienced employees, mostly being white, including the cabin crew in 2000 (I think it was in 2000) where they sacked them all, made them re-apply and only took 500 back out of the 2,500. Don't get me wrong, I do believe there should be equal representation of employees, but I do not believe you throw the baby out with the bathwater i.e. getting rid of experienced crew, replacing them with unqualified people for the sake of affirmative action. Change takes time, and I am sick and tired of the racist card flying up to cover up wrong doing and unsafe practice. The promise in 1994 was to be colourblind, and today in SA it is hardly that. Two wrongs do not make a right. I think people need to start being frank about what is going on there and not being so focused on colour.

In terms of pilots, apparently they were unable to pass pilot training in the UK, so Dr. Ngqula has said the training would take place in SA and they would make sure that they were more successful.

This all does not bode well for SAA. Safety is paramount to an airline's successful operation. Today's news is only one more bad issue for the airline to overcome. If issues like these keep cropping up, I would venture to guess that the Star Alliance will soon be approaching them....

[TightSlot]

Hello Coco_Crew

Welcome to PPRuNe - sadly you've chosen to arrive with a load of drivel that exceeds in quality much of the previously memorable drivel that we've read on here. I thought about working through and refuting your various posts point by point, but then I thought - why bother? However, a summary of the salient points would be amusing, neh?

The media is run by the Rothchilds and sick Illuminati occult - who sadly rule the world and we are thier slaves trapped in the matrix
The world drug smugling rate it is just swept under the carpet - it allows these countries to put a not so innocent face
British Airways import sex slaves and tons of drugs daily
World governments own the drug trade


What a jolly jape! What fun! What next? No, No, let us guess - The Roswell incident as a metaphor for crew catering? Southwest Airlines assassinated the Kennedy's? The moon landings were faked by Alitalia? Good game...

I'm sure that SAA is a fine airline Coco_Crew, but your defense of it is the kind of help that I imagine they could well live without. With friends such as you, thy probably don't need enemies. The reason that you've been banned however, is not for all this, but for your abuse of others on this thread - bye bye.

[Tasslehoff]

Nicely said, Yaletown. I am from SA and agree with you completely. I'm glad to see that there are people in this (international) world that see more than just what everyone wants to believe.

SAA used to be a extremely good airline (as most service related businesses in SA were before), but alas... not anymore...

Keep it real!

[indamiddle]

assuming the cameras at the departure airport the crew left from were actually working surely the authorities could quickly identify if any crew checked in/carried on the suspect bag(s). problem solved!

[VAFFPAX]

When I read this I was not surprised. Let's put it like this... having had dealings with SAA before and after Coleman Andrews, this is no surprise. F/A and F/C have been busted before for drug smuggling. 50 kilos is not much. It's split across three suitcases... 2 x 15kg, 1 x 20kg, plus the 4 kilos of Colombia's finest in one of the 15 kilo bags.

It definitely needed people at JNB to let this through (and SA media already reports that a female security guard has been arrested - who confessed - what are the chances that she's been threatened), and then the hope that no-one ever stops cabin crew in London (a misnomer because c/c are just as often and randomly checked as pax are).

Those who are guilty of this are an embarrassment to your profession, but again, it is no surprise in the current climate in South Africa. Crime is rampant, and either people want to escape the townships and elevate themselves to nicer surroundings (by resorting to some on-the-side work), or are simply pressured by gangsters into complying (*eish* We know where your parents live).

I certainly hope it's the latter, but considering it's three bags, it needed more than one person to try and do this.

A real shame to see the flying springbok take such a dive...

S.

[wizo]

According to BBC a new one, £250,000 worth found

[Defruiter]

BBC NEWS | UK | Plane crew held over cocaine haul (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7893759.stm)

[bnt]

Second South African Airways crew arrested over drugs | Top News | Reuters (http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKTRE51F4D720090216)

[CherokeeDriver]

Looks like quite a cottage industry going on there!

[flash8]

First good 'ol Khaya (Mr Ego) is being pushed out the back door (not gracefully though - and pension intact + golden handshake) - now this!

Many of us knew the turning point.... and why expect it will ever get any better?

Godspeed.

[Paradise Lost]

They'll be running out of crews soon! Obviously not the sharpest tacks in the box, or maybe they thought lightning wouldn't strike 3 times in the same place!!!!

[Bubblecopter85]

I am ex police. In the town I worked in most teenagers down the park had more than that. Besides, better a happy criminal who only wants to eat his way through a tube of pringles and watch 'hitchhikers guide to the galaxy', no?

Hmmmm, maybe that's why I'm ex police?!

[crewmeal]

If they were caught going through SIN KUL JED or RUH those responsible would be facing the death penalty.

What is the punishment in the UK these days? Community service?

[johan_jnb]

twice in a space of weeks... symptomatic of our SA society :mad:

too bad the good people left at SAA are being tarnished :ouch:; horrible what this once again does to the image of South Africans around the world :yuk:; pathetic that arrests were made in JNB but again they sneak through :ugh:!

[divinehover]

How embaressing for my airline.

The vast majority of us go to work to do a good job and support a professional operation. It's amazing how few people it takes to f**k it up for everyone.

All criticism of this incident is well deserved. With everyone fighting for the few pax that are left out there these people just don't realise the damage they can cause.

[captainspeaking]

Joint Statement

Special Task Team formed to tackle trafficking of contraband through airports

Johannesburg, 17 February 2009: A special task team comprising representatives from South African Airways (SAA), Airports Company SA (Acsa), customs and the South African Police Service (SAPS) was today formed to identify immediate additional measures aimed at stopping the drug traffic through SAA and any other carriers that operate at SA airports.

The team will review the additional interventions implemented by SAA since the first incident in January 2009 and manage the urgent implementation of additional security measures. The team will also identify potential risk areas involving the trafficking of contraband across airport operations.

Security was stepped up by SAA following the arrests in January. The measures introduced by SAA included changing security systems, physical searches of bags and using dogs airside. These and other measures will now be extended across all SAA international flights.

Further, SAA can confirm that all 15 crew members (3 cockpit and 12 cabin crew) detained by UK authorities in London have now been released. The group, who operated flight SA234 from Johannesburg to London yesterday morning, were detained by authorities in London on Monday after contraband was found in an item of hand luggage on the crew bus at Heathrow Airport.

The crew members have been released on their own cognisance, and will be required to appear back in London on 6th April 2009. Arrangements for their return to South Africa are currently being made.

The airline is co-operating fully with British authorities in an investigation which is currently under way. An investigation in Johannesburg, involving SAA Aviation Security and the SAPS Crime Intelligence Unit, is also under way.

This incident comes after SAA crew members were arrested in London in January 2009 following the discovery of illegal contraband on a crew bus. SAA co-operated closely with authorities in that investigation which resulted in the speedy arrest of an SAA crew member and a security guard employed by the company contracted by SAA to screen crew members’ luggage.

SAA remains committed to a zero tolerance approach towards the use of the airline’s services for any criminal activity and will continue to closely monitor the situation going forward."

Too little, too late, pal. The damage to SAA's brand image has been done. The Press statements coming out of SAA are just band aids on an exit wound.

[Phil1980's]

bust III
Flight crew held after cocaine find - Yahoo! News UK (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090217/tuk-flight-crew-held-after-cocaine-find-dba1618.html)

[rogerk]

Rumour has it that SAA to relocate it's entire fleet and HQ to Bogata.

It will be renamed "CokeAir" and work full time for the South American drug barons !!

:E:E:E:E