fired while on duty
 

April 25th - Blue Panorama B767 - La Romana LRM to MXP

I arrived in LRM on the 27th and the story was, as by one of the mechanics involved, that the Captain, after having twice taxied out and twice returned to the stand because of an inoperative CDU, decided to aoc the aircraft awaiting repairs.
While still in the disembarking process the Blue Panorama owner calls from Italy and fires the crew on the spot.
On top he forbids them to return home on board any BPA plane. As a fact the two pilots were trying to hitch a ride back with Lauda.


I am trying to get more info. Has anyone more details?

Yes, heard the same story too by one of the crew involved. Not surprised anyway, because it's not the first time "El Presidente" fires people guilty of reporting tech problems and sticking to the MEL. He's well known for his despise of pilots, at the point that he forbids them Business class while deadheading before/after duty.
Got a call by a friend some 10 days ago. His crew was due to deadhead from Bologna to Brindisi. Flight canceled, only other flight from Forli airport. Captain requested to pay with his own credit card for tickets for all crew. Captain refuses, because to get the money back he'd have to go to FCO at his own expenses on one of his days off. Crew then sent to BDS by bus (8 hour journey) to operate a BDS-SSH-BLQ on duty right away. Total duty time around 26 hours (of course not mentioned on voyage report).

Enforcement.
 

And where are the Italian regulatory authorities while all of this is going on ?

Rosbif, in reply to your question, the owner of BPA Mr Pecci has friends in high places.
I believe he is related to the Pope! (nephew or grand-nephew or something like that)

Sounds as if BPA is an accident waiting to happen. The $hit will then hit the fan but too late for the victims. :*

Is there no CHIRP or similar operating in Italy? BTW Hector, the Pope's name is Karel Wojtyla - he's Polish!

BLU PANORAMA DUX
 

Hi Guys

I have worked For Mr Pecci the Dux of the company , he is entitled to :

Upgrade pilots from f\o to captain
Increase or decrease your salary

etc etc

Yes Nineiron, I would assume the relationship is through some female member of the Pope's family whose married name is obviously not Wojtyla.

Blue banana
 

It was Pecci's Great Uncle who was Pope around 1903
I suppose this makes him well connected
Join the club ....I was fired by the Prez for refusing to accept an aircraft which had an illegal repair done in Havana!!!
If the station manager is reading this I hope his escape attempts out of Cuba are successful
Maybe the Italian CAA will investigate his airlines crew records but I doubt it
Regards
Twonky

>>It was Pecci's Great Uncle who was Pope around 1903<<

Would that be Pope Leo XIII, aka Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci?

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0829414.html

Fired on duty?
 

planoramix says it was April 25th. I guess that was 2003 was it?

Anyone care to guess how much has racked up in parking charges since then?

I am assuming that no-one has flown it out of LRM have they?

All for one, and one for all.

As I have proposed before:the Italian commercial (civil) aviation should be run by non-Italians,people with at least some sense of legality and responsability to an entity outside the reach of italian politics.I see no other solution.

No, that was February 2004, probably a mistake by planoramix.

I spent a summer on contract at Blue Paranoia and it is an accident waiting to happen. There is zero maintenance done during the busy summer season, we flew a whole season with a leaking centre fuel tank which Boeing told us not to use. Didn’t stop the company dispatching the aeroplane on MXP-SSH trips with no tech stop though. At the same time we had an aeroplane loose a main wheel on takeoff not to mention a host of pressurisation, flap, avionics and flight control problems for the same reason of no maintenance.

The permanent crews where not much better. Two of the captains there were scared of flying (I know this is getting unbelievable now but I kid you not). Actually, given the condition of the aircraft if you were the nervous type you could see their problem. Nevertheless they were terrified every time on duty and the flight deck is not the place! One just lived terrified the other got around the problem by turning up drunk, Not having had a drink mind you but drunk. I noticed this on a MXP-SSH trip with the leaking tank and he sobered up over Athens, left the flight deck for about thirty minutes to top up.

The management have already been touched on and I can certainly confirm that there are problems. One of the management pilots would pass any pilot on a line check as long as he signed up to the Herbal Life pyramid selling scheme. A nice guy but in the wrong job. Another trainer was so bad that even the airline recognised that he was a problem. His brother was in the Italian CAA however which was the only reason the airline could get anything done, so he stayed.

There is more but you get the idea. I am not blowing the whistle because I have any axe to grind but this airline is a real accident waiting to happen, another Flash.

The above sounds incredible but it’s all true.

Kirk out…

Interesting side note Blue Panorama is advertising for cabin staff and command pilots on their web site.

What travel agency is using them and why? Perhaps this thread should be e-mailed to all concerned. That should stop things in a hurry.

Twonky,

Thank you for clearing up the issue of Mr Pecci's papal connections. I had originally heard the story about 3rd hand so was'nt to sure if it was true or not.

That "illegal repair done in Havana" that you refer to. Was that as a result of the 767 that went agricultural there about a year ago per chance?

Re illegal repair ...it wasn,t the agricultural one ....this one was a fan blade

twonky

false pretences...
 

Airbubba, hector, twonky,

Yes it’s true, Mr Franco Pecci is well connected with the present (
:yuk: ) Italian politicians.

No, by no means Mr. Franco Pecci is connected to the old and noble Pecci-Blunt family (those with Papa Leone XIII and the filosopher Giuseppe Pecci amongst their ancestors) it is a simple case of “partial” homonymy (check the Roma Telephone Directory and you will see that Pecci is a widespread name…).

I’m saying “partial” because the name of the aristocratic (Earls or Counts) descendants of Papa Leone XIII is now “Pecci-Blunt”.

I don’t know how this “metropolitan legend” was started, maybe it was Franco Pecci himself (the :mad:guy has a huge ego...).

interesting...you can reach the italian flight safety agency with the whole thread to the below e-mails:
[email protected]
[email protected]

just to clarifies some of the event

when the captain saw the U/S cdu he left the plane with all the crew leaving the passengers onboard without calling the dispatch.he went straight back to the hotel.
in 30 min the problem was solved by the technicians
the incoming crew brought back the plane after a minimum rest with the previous crew on board
only the captain was fired in this case.when he arrived in MXP
i agree that blue pan is not the best one but you can't start that kind of threat without knowing the facts.