Falklands Air Bridge
 

I know it's the Daily Mail

Drunken British soldiers arrested for ?brawling in their underwear | Daily Mail Online

but surely this bit cannot be correct....can it?

Slight thread drift but who provided the best air bridge prior to the RAF taking it back in house with the Voyager ? My vote goes to the Air Atlanta 747 . . they always had the extra capacity for cargo / goodies and never had to offload the much needed mail bags. Loads of room on board too �� ��

Maybe not the whole story, and written for outrage. However, the Military are always vulnerable to bad behaviour when groups of servicemen have a hooley. Troops on flights can be difficult to control. These days, I would expect the penalties for causing bad press like this to attract heavy sentences. :=

OAP

Come back Timmy, all is forgiven :cool:

The RAF Voyager does not operate the Air Bridge. Air Tanker operate it with a civilian registered A330 and civilian cabin crew, although the aircraft does form one one the 9 that are leased to the MoD.

Idle Reverse - my vote goes to Air Seychelles - much better than many of the others.

As for the squaddies - not the greatest surprise that they get p*ssed and kick off when they find themselves somewhere much nicer than their intended destination. I have seen some pretty p*ss poor behaviour from the RIC (resident infantry coy) inbound and outbound to the FI over the years.

All they're doing is reflecting the behavior of their mates at home heading to Benidorm etc

Where's the discipline....were there no officers or SNCO's around? Mind you, why am I surprised.....from what my son told me about the Army Foundation College in Harrogate when he passed through.....and we know what happened about the bullying case recently! I remember returning from Lionheart....OK, not quite the same as a 6 month "jolly" to the FI's.....on a BA Tristar.....you could've heard a pin drop (if you discounted the RB211's!).....everyone was dog tired and asleep! Seriously, what's going on?? It must be me? :ugh:

Double the time of the posting for everyone on the aircraft - that'll get their attention

mopardave and Heathrow Harry, I agree entirely!

RIC behaviour at MPA was often very poor indeed - except when the Ghurkas had the commitment. Smart, disciplined and very good soldiers.

I was told that one RIC bunch came back to the Deathstar after a session out in the field and caused mayhem in the NAAFI - so the very next day they were sent out for another week in the field. I never knew if it was true, but it certainly should have been!

OK Beagle.....you were an officer. Why does it appear to be difficult to impose discipline? Where did it all go wrong? MD junior described the AFC Harrogate as a zoo....and the NCO's were non existent at night! Actually, I'm inclined to blame the SNCO's. I know retention is a problem but examples should be made of these idiots. They give the other, fine young men and women in the forces such a bad name. I'd have died of shame if I'd been holidaying in that resort!! I spend a fair amount of time in Ripon....in fairness, I've never seen any misbehaviour from the R.E. based there.
Rant over....I'm off to the coast!:ugh:

:ok:True, I was there although I can't remember which regt - they were sent back to the ISO's on Onion range - their Sgt Mjr (a good chap) was very un-amused. :=

Seconded the Gurkhas comment :ok:

You are all quick to blame the Army but one of those arrested was actually an RAF Flt Lt!!.

Something RAF PR did well to keep out of the spotlight. Nice one.

Thank God someone was keeping the side up.

Do RAFAT go u/s more than civvie air?
I can't recall any airline having to divert and put me up in a hotel. Only on one occasion have I experienced them "crewing out" on a see-off but had a spare jet within minutes.

We've always joked how long rafat takes to get you on det. We've had some ridiculous check-in times so many hours before the flight, that you wouldn't get with civair.
On the plus side, the Gateway at Brize has better transit rooms than the permanent junior ranks accom at Lossie !

I fully support the laudatory comments re. Gurkhas (Above).
In 1983 I think it was, I was in Fleet (NE Hampshire) when the town turned out to welcome the Gurkhas on their return from the Falklands and took these photos as they paraded through town on their way to their barracks in nearby Church Crookham.
A three-Chinook flypast from Odiham welcomed them back too.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...psllvw4a3z.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...pspxrojjbr.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...psyzjw58yd.jpg

TBH don't know the stats, but given the equipment involved here would hope rates wouldn't be grossly different.

Oh, it happens, certainly in Long Haul and no doubt in occasions in Short haul.....

Difference I suspect (i.e. I am guessing) between "us" civvies and this case in particular is that in the civvy world you may have the option of dispersing/rerouting some of your pax using your other flights departing that day to the same destination or use other carriers flight operating out of the same airport, and quite possibly do this within hours...

I suspect ( but happily open to correction) those weren't options that were available in this case, so I'd guess recovery options would be fix the aircraft, or get another another (e.g. company back up or a wet lease).....any of which might take time.

Whilst ASI not available for Voyager operations currently, Cape Verde is the route for the air-bridge and has been for a fair while now.
With regards the all inclusive mentioned the crews have specific non alcoholic wrist bands issued.(at greater expense !!!)

I've certainly been delayed on long haul by 12 hours for a u/s aircraft. As is pointed out above, the difference is usually the ability to source a spare. In this case the spare was found but it went u/s as well! Finally crewed into the original jet, got told it was still u/s, got off, got it fixed and got back on again. A right kefuffle, but sadly it was the Newark departure lounge, not a 5 star hotel. 15USD for food (thanks United) and 400USD voucher compensation for arriving on a different day to the one I was meant to!