BRITISH SCAREWAYS

  

Air France who also operate their own Concorde fleet have confirmed,"We have had no incidents at all ".
 
 

UPDATE.  MAY 26th 1998. Reports of part of wing becoming detached from New York bound BA Concorde soon after take-off from London.

OCTOBER 1998.  A second reported section of rudder lost  on a tran-atlantic BA Concorde flight.

The increasing number of incidents involving the worlds' airlines is of no surprise to British pilot and light aircraft owner Brian Corbett of Andover Hampshire. For over 5 years Mr. Corbett has suffered the repercussions of faulty aircraft maintenance procedures by British Airways subsidiary,Airways Aero Association of Booker Airfield High Wycombe.

 Despite the illegal maintenance procedures being proved and admitted by a British CountyCourt Judge the British Airways company has refused to correct the maintenance records as required by statutory laws. This conflicts with the findings of the UK Civil Aviation Authority who confirmed the illegal maintenance procedures and ordered Mr. Corbett to have maintenance records corrected.

Apart from several documented incidents involving their own aircraft, British Airways have been involved in other incidents following maintenance carried out by them to aircraft of other airlines. These include reports of an escape hatch and chute dropping into London suburbs from a Virgin Airlines aircraft soon after take off.

 A fully loaded A320 Airbus of Excalibur Airways became almost uncontrollable after take off from London Gatwick requiring extreme handling by the pilot to maintain control including an immediate landing at higher than normal speed. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch report criticized BA engineers and supervisors for not complying and enforcing maintenance procedures.

Despite becoming aware of a control problem seconds after take off from Heathrow the crew of a Boeing 747 not only continued to complete the flight to Australia but returned without the fault being investigated. BA did not report the incident to the AAIB for 6 days. The subsequent investigation found a design fault and recommended a world-wide modification.

 Assembled dignitaries of French airline Corsair were dismayed to see their newly serviced craft collapse onto the tarmac due to an undercarriage fault minutes before ceremonial hand over after a 17 day service by British Airways engineers. British Airways are just as careless with their own aircraft,severe damage was sustained to a BA 747 being towed at Heathrow. Both incidents probably caused by undercarriage ground locking procedures not being carried out.

March 1998. Manchester Airport closed. Passengers flee stricken British Airways aircraft following nosewheel collapse after landing.

Despite British Airways assurances of improving standards, serious incidents continue to be revealed. As recent as May 1997 a published AAIB report describes a BA Boeing 747 passenger door becoming insecure at high altitude on a Nairobi bound flight soon after take off, due to unavailability of necessary tools during previous maintenance. Engineers not only cleared the aircraft for service but advised flight to continue even when notified of the fault by radio report from the aircrew. This resulted in cabin staff having to lash the door in position with the help of seat belts during a passenger carrying flight. The report stated that the engineer did not ground the aircraft because of operational pressures. David Hyde, BA Directorof Safety when interviewed on May 12th agreed that there were "Always operational pressures".
 

UK media reports on June 28th 1997 describe a transatlantic flight to New York having to return to Heathrow 45 minutes after take off due to a cargo door problem. During its unscheduled rerouting the aircraft received a lightning strike. Media speculation that British Airways might set up a "no-frills" operation to compete with the cut-price operators received a cynical reaction, the announcement coinciding with the August 1997 disclosure of large financial losses following the July 1997 strike. Observers commented that such a move could only increase operational pressures.
 

A UK television report on May 14th 1997 announced an investigation by AAIB to probe as to why a British Airways 747 was allowed to returnto UK with a full load of passengers after damaging engine and fuselage following a landing incident at Malawi. Subsequent investigation at Gatwick resulted in the aircraft being taken out of service.
 
 

UK national TV report on July 7th 1997 describes a build up of vapour in an empty fuselage fuel tank as the probable cause of the much publicized TWA 800 Boeing 747 disaster.Earlier this year crew on a British Airways 747-400 New York - London flight were alarmed by an intense smell of aviation fuel in the passenger area10 minutes after take off. Advice from the BA operational centre at NewYork suggested this was caused by undrained fuel in a spare Concorde engine in the cargo hold. Although the captain would have preferred to have made an immediate return to New York for proper investigation, ground engineers advised the captain it was safe to carry on with the rest of the journey.
 
 

British Airways Chairman, Sir Colin  Marshall has declared of his subsidiary company -" maintains standards reflected by British Airways"
 
 

Mr. Corbett comments, "From my experience of maintenance by a BA company I am not at all surprised at the increase in serious incidents in aviation. Although I had suspicions of faulty maintenance procedures by the BA company prior to the court case I was inclined to regard this as a classic financial"dirty trick". However the court case records and subsequent admissions indicate that BA have now graduated from "dirty tricks" to "dangerous tricks."
 
 

My confidence is not boosted by my experience of the CAA. I will be interested to see the result of their investigation into the recent Caledonian Tristar incident where a large panel approximately 1 meter square became detached in flight. After an emergency landing a temporary repair ( which eye witnesses described as, primitive ) was carried out which included large amounts of sticky tape. The reluctant passengers were given no option but to continue their journey in the same aircraft.
 
 

IS IT SAFE TO FLY? Concerned management of British Airways have recently become aware of a subversive group operating within the company. Known as "CHAOS", the organization distributes sinister advice to BA staff, this includes instructions on how to disable aircraft and how to poison pilots. It is suspected that this organization was activated following unpopular cost cutting measures introduced by "Macho" management procedures.
 
 

IS IT SAFE TO FLY? I'm not sure says Mr. Corbett, My experience with the worlds Favourite Airline indicates that financial gain is always the dominant criteria. I hope that airline pilots are not subjected to similar severe financial intimidation such as I have experienced. The AAIB reportsof a pilot of Maersk Air ( A company with British Airways associations) having to hand over to his co-pilot following a sudden nervous breakdown during a passenger carrying flight.
 
 

IS IT SAFE TO FLY? Recent reports claim British Airways aim to achieve One Billion Pound sterling savings. At the same time they are proposing 5.000 staff redundancies and the transferring of various services to thirdworld countries. With the increasing trend towards aircraft with only 2 engines it is essential that reliability and security are not compromised in the pursuit of greater profits.
 
 

Other recently reported events relating to reduced aircraft security include stowaways in the undercarriage compartments and illegal hazardous materials in the cargo hold, this type of event can easily lead to catastrophic failure. Such incidents continue to be uncovered, UK newspaper reportson 21.8.97 describe the frozen body of a stowaway dropping 2000 feet into a south London gasworks when the British Airways Boeing 747 undercarriage was lowered for landing at Heathrow. Passengers have expressed concern that the aircrews pre-flight inspection did not detect this prior to take off from Delhi. Another "Stowaway" on a British Airways flight caused the passengers to disembark for 24 hours while the aircraft was fumigated, the news reporton 23.9.97. did not record whether the stowaway (a rat!) was apprehended.Apart from health and hygiene implications concern has been expressed as to the problems which could result from the popular rodent pastime of wire gnawing.

*FEBRUARY 1998. Another dead Asian is found in a BA Boeing767 undercarriage bay following arrival at London..
 
 

IS IT SAFE TO FLY?  April 1998 reports revealed that British Airwayscrews were being pressurized into reducing fuel loads to the absolute minimum requirements.  Combined with reduced efficiency of the UK air traffic system ( due to premature staff cuts ahead of the subsequently greatly delayed introduction of  a  new computerized control  centre)  has resulted in a number of recorded emergency landings and diversions of  BA flights.
 
 

IS IT SAFE TO FLY? Even the British Royal Family are potentially at risk. A Royal Air Force BAe 146, one of  3 reserved for Government and Royalty use recently made an emergency landing when 3 engines progressively failed soon after leaving its base at RAF Northolt, London's military airfield in the Heathrow Zone. The crew of the descending aircraft were forced to run the remaining suspect engine at full power to reach its emergency destination.Preliminary investigations reveal faulty maintenance by recently appointed civilian contractors. Defence chiefs are concerned that the lowering maintenance standards apparently accepted by the UK Civil Aviation Authority will affect the effectiveness of the RAF.
 
 

IS IT SAFE TO FLY? Southampton the UK airport which has seen controversial development and operational expansion in recent years recently experienced the ridiculous spectacle of a airline captain ordering 30 passengers to disembark and travel 25 miles by bus to Bournemouth Airport where they then reboarded the aircraft for a safe takeoff  from one the longer runways available.  Although the captain is to be congratulated on his correct action concern exists as to why the aircraft was ever allowed to attempt operations under such marginal conditions from the small international airport with only a single short north/south runway surrounded by intense residential and industrial area. Airport management confirm that this type of event is a regular occurrence.
 
 

IS IT SAFE TO FLY? Media reports on 24.8.97. describe the suspension of aircrew for allowing a group of children under 12 years of age onto the flight deck of a British Airways operational flight and a 5 year old child being allowed to operate control buttons. A similar situation with a Russian airliner in 1995 resulted in 75 deaths following a crash when a child on the flight deck switched off the Automatic pilot control. Recently announced cost cutting by British Airways includes reduced training for cabin crew - such action could result in less supervision of passengers and possible repeat of such incidents.

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