Journo "Resigned" Over Emirates Article at Al Arabiya News Website

[Sheikh Your Bootie]

Looks like the "Resigning" syndrome has spread to the journos, interesting.

In a story published on 29 October 2009, Reporters Without Borders discussed the firing of Courtney C. Radsch, a US journalist who recently lost her job at the Al Arabiya news website (???????.?? | ?????? ????????) in the United Arab Emirates for posting information about safety violations by the national air carrier, Emirates Airlines.

The article, which was based in part on information obtained from a Freedom of Information Act request from the FAA, was first published on 4 October 2009 and she took it down about six hours later, in part out of pressure from Al Arabiya and also out fear of being arrested and fined by the government of the UAE. After being fired, she had her work visa canceled, and has subsequently left the UAE.

You can read the full story at her Arab Media blog. The name of the coauthor, who is still working at Al Arabiya, was removed from the story. It is otherwise intact.

The accident that was discussed in Radsch's story was a March 2009 landing accident in Melbourne, Australia involving an Emirates A340. The investigation into that accident was featured in an AirSafeNews.com article last May. The article includes links to the preliminary accident report, as well as to a press conference involving the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

AirSafe.com encourages you to read Radsch's article, and the preliminary findings of the ATSB investigation. Please feel free to leave comments on this article or to contact AirSafe.com with other information that may shed light on the circumstances around the Emirates accident, or about the efforts to keep that story out of the the public eye, especially in the UAE.

Links for your reading.

The AirSafe.com News: Reporter Allegedly Fired for Writing Stories About Emirates Airlines Safety Violations

http://arab-media.blagspot.com/ 2 articles from the top. This is the Journalists own blog. I suspect this maybe blocked in the UAE Unless you have unblocked means of access (Remove the a and insert o to get the link!

Comments please

SyB

[Exit Strategy]

Well of course she was sacked, publishing bad news is illegal in the UAE. She forgot to mention a few other minor incidents such as the other near fatal at JNB, the near CFIT into NBO and the Captain returning to the flight deck to discover the aircraft well below MSA in cloud in the Himalayas. There are probably more that others could add to the list.

[diggybaby]

Missing Information

The article is not very clear and as a reporter she should provide more information. I will ask one question which has pouzzled me all along with this incident: If the Crew had a 24 hour lay over, why did the captain only have 3 hours of sleep? This is something which is worth addressing and investigating.

If the reason for lack of sleep is associated to Bad accomodation/hotel, sickness, ..... which would allow the Captain to refuse flying the return leg and that would be something EK would be responsible for it;

On the other hand if the lack of sleep is associated to party/drinking/shopping..... then this is not EK's responsability and the Captain should have known better.....

[samjetblaster]

Sir Donald,I don't agree with you that Emirates employ highly experience Pilots.Who knows where they come from?Their background?Mostly Coming from Africa,Australia,South America and even Europe claiming to have a lot hours on Cherokees, etc...Because of short of Pilots just to fill the gap,Accepted on A330 or B777 as F/o,takes twice a time to train a normal F/o.Because of the rapid expansion,and having claimed to have thousand of hours (P 51), after 500 hours as F/O promote them to the hot seat.What do you expect?Miracle?......By the way this apply to EY,QR,etc.........

[samjetblaster]

Ok SD,point taken.Cheers

[pool]

If the reason for lack of sleep is associated to Bad accomodation/hotel, sickness, ..... which would allow the Captain to refuse flying the return leg and that would be something EK would be responsible for it;

On the other hand if the lack of sleep is associated to party/drinking/shopping..... then this is not EK's responsability and the Captain should have known better.....

diggybaby

You are obviously a longhaul greenhorn, or management.
The more probable cause, the one plagueing the majority of the longhaul pilots, is the time lag, or jet lag. We are chased around the globe faster than our capacity to adjust our inner clock even minimaly. Even with some 24 hour layovers we sometimes simply can't find sleep.

My sweetest dream is that I could walk into the dicta- ... eehhhr managerial palace one beautiful monday morning, strait into Napoleons office. There he stands nicely rested after a fantastic week-end in his summer resort with his family. Something we as pilots can only dream of. I'd tell him to crawl into a dark torpedo tube right now, at 9am and stay there 7 hours and rest! Then he shall work for another 7h and be ready for a 2 hour trip to the hotel. Breakfast is ready in 2 hours, otherwise no more food, room service is on him, no allocation if you're not hungry when told. He must sleep during the day, the hotel has some renovation works, but it's all under investigation since 6 months and considered a minor issue by the company jerks in the cosy office back home. Dinner is when he feels like breakfast and he just missed the slot, no more coffee but on room service. Just when he could start grabbing some sleep the wake-up call sounds. He is the operating guy for the return flight (well rested, so they say in the palace where everybody goes to the well deserved happy hour after a nice 9 to 5 close to home) because he had 24 hours of rest in a 9 hour different time zone (what a luxury they say over the second beer). Logically enough the transport is during peak traffic, takes more than the 1 hour planned and arriving at the airport the staff is paniking and pressuring for a on time departure. Under such conditions even mighty Napoleon makes a small mistake ..... and the vultures start flying the next morning after they have rested nicely for 16 hours in their own bed, in their time zone with their family.

Napoleon gets sacked, because he is deemed the root of the cause .... and suddenly my dream melts with reality and truth ....

Ahhhhhh, what a nice dream, oh s#!t .... I almost doze off at commands on my beautiful 10h nightshift to MAA and back, the other guy is power napping, completely shattered because the same morning he came back from a 10h ATH turn around.

[Wiley]

pool doesn't exaggerate in his all too accurate summation of an average EK long haul pilot's layover 'rest'.

[Al Fakhem]

As Courtney Radsch points out, it is almost comical how you can't log into websites ending in .ir or phone Israel from the UAE.

But I have yet to see an Arab who refuses to use flash memory cards, an Israeli development.

[samjetblaster]

OW,
CFII you could be one of them

[fractional]

Out of this: http://arab-media.*************/2009...as-forced.html, it is interesting to note this quote:

Investigating
No safety regulator, including Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), is authorized to investigate the complaints as international rules prevent broad-ranging audits of foreign airlines.
But a spokesman for CASA, Peter Gibson, told the paper Australia's aviation authority had no concerns over Emirates safety and was satisfied with the airline’s response to pilot fatigue.
The only organizations authorized to investigate the claims against the Dubai-based airline is the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the United Arab Emirates' General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA).
The chairman of the government-owned airline, Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, is also president of the CAA and on the board of the GCAA.

Therefore, what's the point of Ramp Checks?