Dutch TV reports on 'Ryanair pilots denominated alarm over safety'

[1stspotter]

Michael O'Leary visited Maastricht Aachen Airport today, one of the new bases of Ryanair. They have been operating for a while from this airport in the south of the Netherlands.

O'Leary announced Ryanair will take legal action against the Dutch TV programme KRO Reporter. Reporter spent two episodes on Ryanair. As well as a item in the regular news programme Brandpunt.

A small part of the press conference of MOL can be watched online. As usual all critics are rubbish. "KLM Pilots talk rubbish. If you are a big airline there will always someone against you"

[video] Baas Ryanair: 'we blijven in Maastricht en de KRO is rubbish' - Maastricht - dichtbij.nl - Maastricht

Big part of the press conference was about the statements done by KRO Reporter. MOL showed a slide and the content is this:

False claims:
Ryanair planes operate with "unsafe amount of fuel" False
Ryanair pilots are "victims of a strict cost save policy which leads to a decrease to safety. False
Ryanair pilots fly when unfit to fly, risking passengers' lives" . False
Valencia 26 Jul "three distress calls due to lack of fuel " False

Facts
Irish and Spain Govts confirm Ryanair's safetly is "on par with the safest airlines in Europe"
No pressure on Ryanair pilots - Captain decides & takes as much file as they need
Pilots routinely call in sick and replace by stand-bys
No.1 priority is safety - 28 year outstanding & unblemsihed safety record

I am wondering why " Valencia 26 Jul three distress calls due to lack of fuel " is stated false by Ryanair.
There *were* three mayday calls by Ryanair. And a forth by LAN Chile not mentioned in the programme.

Some more info from Dutch newspaper Telegraaf
Ryanair neemt juridische stappen tegen KRO - Binnenland | Het laatste nieuws uit Nederland leest u op Telegraaf.nl [binnenland]

MOL requested the four pilots who were anonymous to make known their names. MOL guarantees they will not be sanctioned. Using their names MOL can prove they were allowed to call sick and ahd enough fuel in their aircraft.

According to MOL Ryanair's image has been damaged because of the news of KRO Reporter. But the passengers did not run away from the airline.

[Piltdown Man]

Just don't mention this one!

[LLuke]

I am not familiar with the exact in and outs of Ryanair, but isn't there somewhere a union or other legal vehicle that represents Ryanair pilots, but is fully independent from Ryanair, and can backup or deny the claims? Compare differences with other airliners?

I agree with Ryanair that the opinion of one anonymous pilot about safety doesn't mean anything... Proving claims true or false will be difficult.

[Aldente]

I see in the video clip of the press conference at Maastricht Michael O'Leary complains that Ryanair weren't given a chance to respond before the programme was broadcast.

Emails between KRO (the Dutch TV company) and Ryanair clearly show that not to be the case:-

http://content1d.omroep.nl/e6ccf2413...er_ryanair.pdf

[BEagle]

According to MOL Ryanair's image has been damaged because of the news of KRO Reporter.

Perhaps if he looked in the mirror, he might find other reasons?

[luoto]

Just how "independent" is the IAA and how well regarded is it by similar bodies? I don't know but I could see how in a small country where many interests are involved there can be "invisible pressures" and people perhaps putting a better shine on things than they might admit. Heck it happens in this country too... we have no corruption (or low corruption) officially but we all know that things are not as they always seem.

Note, for the avoidance of doubt, I make no assertions concerning RYR and the IAA, but am interested in just how robust the IAA is. To use a UK example, in the financial industry, the FSA is hardly viewed as a shining example of regulatory competence.

[Aldente]

About as "robust" as a chocolate fire guard.

[Sober Lark]

Reading between the lines, Ryanair have stated they have not been harmed by this TV report. Therefore their choice to let the publicity run out of steam of its own accord rather than the alternative of going to court to unmask the anonymous pilots and make them responsible for what they say makes perfect sense.

[1stspotter]

KRO had an interview with Michael O'Leary last Wednesday. The interview will be about the claim by Reporter that Ryanair puts pressure on pilots to take as less fuel as possible.

The interview can be seen at the Dutch tv this Sunday (January 20) in KRO Brandpunt at 22:15.
Shortly thereafter the programme will be available on internet. As the Dutch have subtitles the interview is understanble by english speakers.

Today Ryanair published their part of the story of email correspondance between them and KRO Reporter.
emails can be read here
Ryanair Publishes All Of Its Correspondence With KRO

Ryanair Publishes All Of Its Correspondence With KRO


LETTERS CONFIRM KRO PROGRAMME 'COVER UP' OF EVIDENCE OF RYANAIR’S SAFETY AND FUEL COMPLIANCE


Ryanair, Europe’s only ultra-low cost airline, today (18 Jan) published all of its correspondence with Dutch TV station KRO after KRO falsely claimed that Ryanair failed to respond to queries from the KRO REPORTER TV show.


Ryanair now calls on KRO to explain why over the course of two 1 hour TV programmes it:


1.failed to highlight the joint Irish and Spanish Aviation Authority statement (18th Sept) which confirmed that Ryanair’s safety “ is on a par with the safest airlines in Europe” and


2.failed to quote from the official IAA Report into the 3 Valencia weather diversions on the 26th July last, which confirmed that each of the 3 aircraft: a.took extra fuel,
b.flew for 1 hour more than planned, and
c.each of the 3 pilots fully complied with EU operating and safety regulations.

Ryanair believes that KRO provided no evidence to support the false claims made by unidentified individuals, and KRO should now explain why two 1 hour television programmes failed to provide any balance or fairness, and covered up the above evidence of Ryanair’s long standing and continuing safety compliance.

Ryanair has instructed its Dutch lawyers to initiate legal proceedings against these two KRO television programmes which fell well short of any normal standard of journalistic fairness, balance or objectivity.

[Sober Lark]

Just in passing. Tonight I was booking with KLM and they invited me to complete a survey after I had finished. One of the questions - "The following list of statements describes different attitudes towards travelling. For each statement please indicate how strong you agree or disagree.

I think low-cost airlines cannot provide the same safety standards as the major airlines"

I found the layout of the questionnaire made it easier to tick the box 'agree completely' rather than 'disagree completely'. Seems a bit double dutch but what a question to be asking passengers.

[1stspotter]

Quite a few statements made by Ryanair in the past can easily be identified as false:

One of the statements is that the airline stated KRO Reporter did not give Ryanair a chance to respond to the accusations of anonymous pilots.

Well, the airline revealed today their own rubbish. On the Ryanair website is clearly seen Stephen McNamara does to respond to two requests by KRO Reporter for an interview. Also the email correspondance shows the airline did have the opportunity to respond. Also the response was shown in the programme.
The same email correspondance is available since December 28 on the KRO Reporter website.

Sad way to do your PR.

[Aldente]

Strange how MOL is protesting that Ryanair had not been given a chance to take part in the programme when (as previously mentioned) emails show otherwise.

http://content1a.omroep.nl/7ba674acf...er_ryanair.pdf

Relevant extracts from emails sent to Ryanair by one of KRO’sproduction team clearly gives Ryanair several opportunities to take part in the programme. I think they were more than fair:-

13th Dec

As you requested,hereby a description of the topics we would like to discuss with Mr.O’Leary.

With regards to Mr.O’Leary’s time, we would of course be coming to him, so it would not cost him more than half an hour.

17th Dec

We hope you are willing to react to these issues in an interview. If you choose not to, we will give you the possibility to react by e-mail to the specific statements later on, before we broadcast our documentary.

19th Dec

Of course, we still offer you the possibility to react to the pilot's statements in an official interview.

21st Dec

Unfortunately,Ryanair did not want to react to our documentary in a television interview.As promised, we give you the opportunity to react to our program by e-mail.

Another own goal by Mr McNamara!

[Hunting 4 Airbridge]

I remember the Ryr rep going mad when we tried to taxi his 737-200 to the compass space for engine runs, we had to tow it there and then were allowed on 15 mins fuel after a C check, we literally threw him out and carried on...horrible airline even back then and nothing had changed

[RAT 5]

I have an acquaintance who is obsessed with cost cutting in their house and life in general. It's not much fun over there. It has become like an eating disorder; it is addictive. Cost cutting can be like that; it becomes the total focus and is often only good in the short term. Sometimes it ends up costing you more than it saves, but that might become apparent a short while in the future. However, with some intelligent forethought, it could have been anticipated and avoided. One other trouble with manic cost cutting is it is often perpetuated by the very top man who holds the power reigns. They go unchallenged and those around then watch as the body of the business starts to wither on the vine. The obsessive cost cutting reaped rewards and the profit curve rose upwards. It then started to turn over and downwards, but was not yet ringing any alarm bells. Those who could see the trend remained silent. When the bubble burst it was too late. The times when increased investment would have bought increased gains went un-noticed in the fog of cuts and more cuts. An addiction does that and then it's too late.
Will this happen here? The market will tell us in the future. It's more than sad that any company making continuing large annual profit over a 5 year period can see it as equitable not to increase its staff's remuneration over the same period. What will be required to spread some of the wealth amongst the workers? When will enough be enough in profit? An addict never knows that answer.

[1stspotter]

Even the members of the board of Ryanair do not like the way Michael O'Leary communicates with others.

Ryanair raps O'Leary for 'pathetic personal abuse' after branding aviation commissioner a 'village idiot' - National News - Independent.ie

[1stspotter]

Just saw a very interesting interview between KRO Reporter and Michael O'Leary. MOL accepted the interview on the condition KRO would do no cutting in the interview.

The interview can be watched here. It is in english language with Dutch subtitles
Brandpunt - Confrontatie met Ryanair

The winner was clearly MOL. Lots of Tweets saying MOL was Mike Tyson versus some schoolboy.

MOL said those four anonymous pilots were not his pilots. He said there were four mayday calls at Valencia and said LAN Chile landed with 10 minutes of remaining fuel.
<edit: not true. Lan Chile aircraft had 2100 kg of remaining fuel after landing, final fuel reserve is 2800 kg. Makes a remaining fuel of around 22 minutes. >

He said the fuel league lists do not show how much fuel a captain loads but shows the fuelburn over a month period.
He told about a letter to pilots in which they are encouraged to take extra fuel for weather and diversions.

He said there is no law which says an aircraft must have at landing at least 30 minutes of fuel.

KRO Brandpunt published this evening two new documents on their site:
first a document showing European aviation law proving 30 minutes of fuel must be available after landing.
Secondly an internal document made by the Spanish ATC about the situation in Valencia. The document is available in Dutch and Spanish language

Brandpunt - Documenten bij uitzendingen Ryanair

[Sober Lark]

Code:

Methinks he doth protest too much

I'd say hell is empty and all the devils are here David.

[RAT 5]

IMHO the problem is perception. It is difficult to divert & reverse, quickly, deep seated perception with facts: it takes a concerted campaign of PR and insistent factual presentation to overturn a strong perception. This difficulty can be enforced if the person involved cries wolf too often and is perceived, or worse, to be economic with the truth on a regular basis. When they are telling the truth no-one believes them and it is an uphill struggle of their own making to get the message across.
What goes around..............

[BOAC]

At the time of the occurrence, many airlines REQUIRED their crew to declare an emergency (PAN) if they anticipated landing with less than reserve fuel. It is really not sensible to wait until you are! Now (wef 15 Nov 2012) PAN has changed in ICAO to a 'Minimum Fuel" call.

[Juan Tugoh]

While the above may be true for the letter of the JAR ops law, company rules may override this, eg rules that state that should a commander thinks that they are in danger of landing with less than reserve they shall declare a PAN, when they know they will land with less than reserve then they shall declare a MAYDAY. So you make an approach expecting to land with reserve +5 minutes fuel, do you have to declare an emergency? If you go-around from this approach do you then wait until you hit reserve before declaring a MAYDAY or say something earlier to gain some priority and avoid making a poor situation worse. Letter of the law or airmanship?

This post refers to a previous post that quoted JAR Ops that has now been erased.