Blink risk AOC with record passenger flight

[challengerboy]

I was at Farnborough airport on the 30/5/11 and a Blink aircraft arrived, and I saw 6 pax get off. I queried this with the girls on reception and they confirmed that it was a commercial flight inbound from Le Castellet. I thought this was a strange number of pax for the so I did a bit of research. It turns out that when queried the ops manager apparently told the crew to proceed with the flight, with the apparent alleged quote 'say it's a private flight if we get pulled up'.

Now this breaks a number of rules:

1) you can't just switch an AOC op to private on a whim for fare paying pax.

2) where is the duty of care to the 6th passenger on the flight with only 4 oxy masks plus a fifth supplemental.

Now I've heard of commercial pressure in getting a flight done but this is illegal and must be investigated by the authorities.

[flybypilot]

Does a Mustang have the ability under EU-OPS with that payload to make carry the fuel load without being overweight or out of balance?

FBP

[cldrvr]

A phonecall to the CAA with a follow up letter is in order if you have any information that adversely affects flight safety. If you can take the effort to spread gossip here, you can make the effort to do the right thing.

[sovereign680]

Do you mean 6 adult passengers plus 2 crew in a Mustang?

[challengerboy]

Authorities been contacted and they will be following up.!!!!

[cldrvr]

Well done, challenger, that is the only way to weed out the cowboys. There is no room for any of them. More here should take necessary steps when they observe something out of the norm and not just complain about it over a pint.

[Tallguy]

As a bit of a thread drift is it not slightly bad form to jump on a website such as pprune naming a charter operator, giving their aircraft reg and supposed misdemeanor whilst also touting points such as the ops manager, who no doubt plenty of people on here know who that is, 'apparently told the crew to proceed with the flight, with the apparent alleged quote 'say it's a private flight if we get pulled up'.'

Don't get me wrong I am all for taking action when people take the proverbial but surely approach the relevant authorities first, when they have done their bit and IF they find guilt then have your day on pprune if you really must, but I can't imagine that within a day the CAA has investigated and published their findings on your report and as such if I was the ops manager I would be on the war path, but then maybe I'm wrong, what do I know?!

[challengerboy]

I saw what I saw and it's not right. No one is having their day, this is a Proffesional Pilot Network exactly for highlighting this kind of thing. You've got lost in the mists of in-decision. A poor passenger could have been up sh%t creek. You can't wait for findings, it needs to be highlighted to tighten up the ship.

[learjet50]

If yourfacts are right report them

There are/Have been 2 may cowboys in the past doing these illegal charters whilst everbody else has to abide the rules Cowboys dont

They underquote on jobs to get the booking then its private if anybody asks

Le Castellet is miles from Monaco however they probably know there will be no Ramp checks unlike Cannes/\Nice

They tell un truthes like NO Slots at at Nice or Cannes so Le Castellet will have to do

Nail there Fxxckxxg Hats on with the CAA Companies like this take the PxSS out of everbody else that tries to do it Right

They are ***** and they know it However some Smarmmie git with his Saville Row Suit on is walking around thinking another Illlegal charter done and dusted*** the opposion I ve done it right(The wrong way)



Gerry

Edit: No matter how you disguise it - swearing is swearing. Please - not again otherwise the penalty will go up.

[cldrvr]

No need for any of that Gerry.

[proceeding outbound]

It sounds very out of character to me. Blink may have p###ed off the brokers but as far as I know the flight operations are very professionally run (and I work for Blink's opposition).

There are not that many seats in a Mustang and not nearly that many seatbelts. With 4 "standard" males on board the Mustang is at max ZFW so I cannot believe any captain would carry 6 pax, AOC, private, or at all.
I just find it hard to believe but if it has been reported to the CAA, and its true the CAA will without a doubt pull the AOC. Again, hard to believe any captain would risk the entire company for one flight.

[S Midgeon]

Hi,
I know the skipper of that particular flight and the Ops Manager and had the pleasure of working with them both in my past life. Regardless of what is written here I have absolutely no doubts whatsover about the personal integrity and professionalism of the skipper and the Ops Manager and find it very hard to believe they would bow to "commercial pressures" after 35 years in command, and 30 years working ground operations

Something about what is being written here from the opening statement to the recent rant doesnt quite sound right to me, especially the foul mouthed abuse.
If this is a Professional Pilots forum, then lets behave like it and not revert to mob rule.
If there needs to be an investigation, then Im sure that the author of the original message will have passed all the details to the Authority and the relevant FOI will ask the relevant questions...until then why dont you stop the personal abuse and wild speculation it does none of us any favours

[Tallguy]

Challengerboy, I'm not disputing you saw what you saw so fine whilst you feel you must just write about that. But seemingly you don't know for a fact what the Ops Manager said do you, you are going on hearsay for that so why not leave that out. And really you think coming on Pprune shouting the odds is the way to tighten the ship up do you? Believe me I'm not lost in anything.

[G-SPOTs Lost]

These sort of outings behind a screen of anonymity carry little credence....there's just as much evidence of the letter having been sent as there is the flight took place in the first place....None

At worst it's mischief making by the OP

If the allegations are true then it ****cans the reputation of every other AOC operator who trade on the back of AOC safety and oversight by the authority. When you see bottom feeder operators getting slated you can apply there's no smoke without fire test with a positive result ......

But with Blink, supposedly professionally run and operated with the gucci website and suited high IQ management......

It in effect reduces the AOC to a license to legitimise dodgy charters and operators, it counts for nothing and if it's true anytime the usual suspects come on here alluding to AOC safety they'll get pointed right back to here. :yuk:

[Chicken Leg]

I saw what I saw and it's not right. No one is having their day, this is a Proffesional Pilot Network exactly for highlighting this kind of thing. You've got lost in the mists of in-decision. A poor passenger could have been up sh%t creek. You can't wait for findings, it needs to be highlighted to tighten up the ship

I agree with the concerns of other posters. If you did indeed see what you said you saw (I don't dispute it), then do as you've said you've done and notified the authorities. I think the suspicion surrounds why you feel the need to post an accusation on here, before it has had the chance to be investigated properly.

If it is found that (?) have done nothing wrong (possible), then I'm sure that they will do all they can to find out who the anonymous poster is, that is spreading damaging accusations about their operation.

Now that you have decided to post here, prior to any form of proper investigation, I guess you had better be correct......

[4HolerPoler]

There's a bit of flak flying over this thread. It's a contentious issue but what's done is done. Debate the issue by all means but keep it gentlemanly (the debate, not the already demonstrated tactics) please.

It's a tough world out there. Dog eat dog.

4HP

[challengerboy]

Look we're all trying to get bums on seats but this latest escapade is taking it to the extreme and needs highlighting. Anyone disagree then you need to question your own morals.
Apart from this mis use of trust the Blink crew regularly use and are encouraged to use their BA staff travel for Blink positioning flights. How can any business compete with that?

[Tallguy]

sadly I suspect you have completely missed the point that myself and a number of the other posters were making/potentially discussing, however as you are now throwing in other bits which smack of grasping at straws and some vendetta against the operator I am, as they say, out.

[challengerboy]

Look Tallguy it's obvious from your posts that you work or are connected to this operator. There's no vendetta, why get so personal?. Ok defend your company but other operators need a level playing field. So sadly you missed the point. But ultimately when safety is questioned, then answers need to be forthcoming.

[PPRuNe Pop]

Cease!!

The borders of libel are not far away.

The subject is closed.