Friday, June 30, 2017

More questions about AirAsia X Flight D7 237

FMT - AirAsia flight D7237: Pilot says he did nothing wrong (extracts):


PETALING JAYA: The man behind the controversy over the events surrounding AirAsia X flight D7237 from Perth to Kuala Lumpur last Sunday has finally spoken up, saying there was nothing wrong in asking passengers to pray.

In an interview with Berita Harian today, flight captain Ibrahim Jalaluddin said he had relayed a “may day” signal to the Perth air traffic control after the plane suffered a mid-flight incident that damaged the left engine forcing the crew to shut it down.

When the aircraft was at a normal cruising mode, moving between 38,000 and 40,000 feet, we heard a loud sound like something hitting a metal object."

KT comment: If the aircraft was at a normal cruise mode, what in the world was it moving between 38,000 and 40,000 feet? That's a vertical band of 2,000 feet.

Was that the standard of AirAsia pilot, to porpoise his aircraft like a yo-yo in a 2,000 feet vertical band while in a normal cruise?

It gives me the unpleasant feeling that the pilot was either not cruising, did not even know what a cruise should be or could not fly 'straight and level.'

“I thought we had hit another aircraft, because our plane was swaying left and right."

“Then I realised this was due to the left engine having lost all function. This was also evident when the auto pilot failed to work, because it had been set to turn left but took the aircraft to the right instead,” the Malay daily quoted him as saying.

KT comment: If the aircraft lost operational function of its left engine, and the auto-pilot failed to work, why would the aircraft move to the right?


It should and would have swung to the left, towards the 'dead' engine. Why would the aircraft  swung the other way to the right, unless ... wakakaka ... 

The pilot has given us more questions on what he said to Berita Harian.

He stood by his announcement to passengers in the face of the danger the flight was in, where he was reported to have asked them to pray, and adding that he too was praying the flight would land safely in Perth airport.

“I made that announcement due to my belief in the Almighty."

“I also prayed and I felt it was not wrong to ask the passengers to do the same." [...]

No one is questioning his religious belief but rather, his professional behaviour in calling on the passengers to pray.

Notwithstanding the typical to-be-expected slew of defensive support given by AirAsia management, the Malaysian 'establishment' and so-called local aviation 'experts' who even have the flabbergasting nerve to claim that it's S.O.P (standard operating procedure) for the pilot to call on the passengers to pray, no professional pilot in the world, including the majority of Malaysian pilots, would have done that.

No one is asking the AirAsia pilot to emulate the sterling professional example of the captain of British Airways (BA 9) that was flying to Auckland, New Zealand from London in 1982.

BA 9 experienced a most dire situation in which all four engines of the B747 suffered flameout, meaning all four of its engines stopped working at one point due to ingestion of volcanic ash issued by Mount Galunggung.

Additionally, the volcanic ash caused very poor visibility for the pilots of BA 9. The aircraft was in far more dire conditions.

As MM Online informed us that the following was what the Captain Eric Moody of BA 9 said:


Captain Eric Moody 

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress.”

Eventually the pilots re-started the engines and diverted safely to Jakarta, landing safely with three engines operating. Now, that was aviation professionalism at its acme.

Undeniably the pilot exhibited typical but admirable British understatement, no doubt with a stiff upper lip, wakakaka. Indeed, no one has asked or expected Captain Ibrahim Jalaluddin to be exactly like Captain Eric Moody.

But minimum professional standards? Tolong jaga sedikit lah!

“We then opted to reduce the speed to the approved minimum, and even though it was unsuccessful, we never gave up hope and thankfully found a way to land the aircraft safely.”

What self-inflating pompous but scary cock has he been talking about 
'... we never gave up hope and thankfully ...'?

Professional pilots, whether military, airlines or chartered, don't give up hope, ever!

When they overcome an emergency, no matter how dire, that's because of their skills (from training and experience), initiatives and air/ground support they received, but they don't say stuff like '... thankfully ...'.

I've to say I am totally flabbergastingly fu-lat-ishly f**ked by what I have read of Captain Ibrahim Jalaluddin's statements.

10 comments:

  1. Wakakakaka...must u flabbergastingly fu-lat-ishly f**ked by Captain Ibrahim Jalaluddin's statement???

    This was a well rehearsed interview, with beautiful technical jargons, orchestrated by lawyers (possibly) to cover the a** of Air AsiaX & the pilot.

    Mind u, to one single local newspaper with zilch investigative journalistic sense!

    Unfortunately, the script writer was NOT well versed in airplane operational mechanism. Thus, the play was so full of laughable 'holes', as pointed out by KTkia le!

    BUT, the saddest part was these 'holes' were NOT been corrected by the supposedly knowledgeable pilot.

    He, too, uttered words by words - putting his piloting skill to question le!

    Bolihland minimum professionalism mah..tsk..tsk...sigh...

    Wonder WHY captain Ibrahim was not given interview immediately after the landing in Perth, just like Captain Eric Moody of BA 9?

    Must be due to the wet panties le.

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  2. Translation error of the Berita Harian interview perhaps ?
    A westbound plane (in this case, because the plane is going towards KL from Perth) is normally assigned an Odd Numbered altitude. So he could have been still climbing towards his assigned altitude, perhaps 39,000 feet in this case.

    The A330 is a fly by wire aircraft. Nowadays pilots just set the autopilot after take off, including the intermediate climb and descent points.
    If the computer was suddenly faced with a situation beyond the limits of its control logic, the autopilot just turns itself off, and the pilot must immediately assume manual control.
    Any delay in doing so, the plane starts misbehaving because it is at that point an unpiloted aircraft. Weird things can and do happen.

    Air Asia had already been criticised before by the Indonesian Air Safety authority that its pilots have "insufficient training on flight situations requiring manual control". They have had nearly 2 years to fix the safety problems since the Java Sea crash...maybe Tony has been busy with other things...

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    Replies
    1. Firstly, let's set things correct. AirAsia Indonesia is actually a separate setup from AirAsia Malaysia so the criticism by Indonesian Air Safety authority probably applied to the Indonesian Division regarding the Java Sea crash.

      Fly by wire or otherwise (conventional controls) the auto-pilot could have still handled a mere asymmetric engine situation. I grant that the additional problem of turbine damage and its ensuing turbulent and extra drag might have (only might have) disrupted auto-pilot engagement, but that did not explain the captain's statement that the aircraft turned towards the live engine. That's not correct.

      Then on semicircular IFR rules, if the flight was in cruise at FL390 what the hell was it moving between 38,000 and 40,000 feet, unless the pilot could not even set it to fly straight & level at FL390 on auto-pilot.

      There was a slew of inconsistency and contradictions in that pilot's briefing.

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    2. All AirAsia Indonesia aircraft are 100% leased from Air Asia Berhad, simply reregistered in Indonesia.

      Maintenance and Engineering is still provided by AirAsia Berhad, through their maintenance contractor.

      Air Asia Indonesia pilots, flight crew and skilled technical staff are trained at Air Asia Berhads's training facilities in Sepang.
      AirAsia Indonesia trains its own non-piloting staff such as cabin crew and admin staff.

      Ipso Facto , whatever systemic defects Air Asia Indonesia has in flight crew training, maintenance and engineering basically apply to Air Asia as well.

      These two companies are essentially joined at the hip, though for business structure purposes, they are kept separate to manage the business risk.

      Tony is a really sleek businessman.

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    3. I have never trusted Indonesian-trained pilot (I stress "Indonesia-trained" and not just Indonesian pilots). The Indonesian aviation sector did not enjoy our fortune in having British aviation teachers in both civilian and military training. They had at most Russian ones.

      So even if Air Asia Berhad trained them at Sepang, alas, their Indonesian-trained background sets them back at a humongous disadvantage.

      Delete
  3. Now anyone can fly the aircraft....

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    Replies
    1. but if the pilot is a professional aviator, then I recommend he or she does not ever call on the passengers to pray when there is an emergency. Wakakaka

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    2. KayTeeKia,
      It all boils down to being a Muslim and a non.
      For Muslims invoking Allah is a norm.
      For the nons... so eeriee...

      Delete
    3. This is either a sarcastic remark &/or an ignorant jerk!

      Muslims invoking Allah is a norm in a given circumstances. Just like ANY religious pot-heads of any faith.

      But when u r in command & a situation calls for utilising yr years of professional trainings & experience, u abscond & pass the responsibility to yr god. Then it's a BIG no-go!

      Unless there is no brain power, experience but just Paplovian memorized procedures that cannot salvage the emergency bcoz the memorized routine can't deal with adnormal demands!

      Yr god WOULDN'T be pleased for u have wasted the brain power, trainings & experience he has bestowed upon u. U jeapordise the safety/life of those under yr watch!

      There r better personss to response to than yr last minute praying le!

      Delete
  4. so lying is far more professional then?

    ReplyDelete