Neelam Mathews
March 19, 2014
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The hauling up of budget SpiceJet by DGCA yesterday following its holi(y) flights and suspension of two pilots, doesn't auger well for an industry in the throes of an FAA safety downgrade and in the background of the MH370 disappearance, the cause of which has not been determined as yet.
I'm not sure if this adds to FAA giving more blackmarks to the DGCA in its book, but the fact remains, we in India tend to look at mistakes after we commit them. Time for us to be proactive. What is happening to training? Didn't the pilot have a basic grounding not to leave the cockpit? Can somebody explain to the passengers please?
We had pasted this link below in 2012 when Finnair congratulated India on its Rebublic Day from which SpiceJet may have taken inspiration from. No issues on that. But just a quick thought. Sometimes we might need to align our marketing actions with a cultural sensitivity. Not sure whether all the attendants were really enjoying themselves prancing to the glares of all asundry. But that's a personal issue.
However, that it is time to get a bit of humor and fun back in our lives, nobody can deny. We might just want to check out the time and place for it.
NB- In the spirit of balanced reporting, I have to add that within minutes of posting, have got a tweet from COO Sanjiv Kapoor- "Neelam, please note that all cabin crew who participated volunteered and were specially trained for it. Thanks."
March 19, 2014
I'm not sure if this adds to FAA giving more blackmarks to the DGCA in its book, but the fact remains, we in India tend to look at mistakes after we commit them. Time for us to be proactive. What is happening to training? Didn't the pilot have a basic grounding not to leave the cockpit? Can somebody explain to the passengers please?
We had pasted this link below in 2012 when Finnair congratulated India on its Rebublic Day from which SpiceJet may have taken inspiration from. No issues on that. But just a quick thought. Sometimes we might need to align our marketing actions with a cultural sensitivity. Not sure whether all the attendants were really enjoying themselves prancing to the glares of all asundry. But that's a personal issue.
However, that it is time to get a bit of humor and fun back in our lives, nobody can deny. We might just want to check out the time and place for it.
NB- In the spirit of balanced reporting, I have to add that within minutes of posting, have got a tweet from COO Sanjiv Kapoor- "Neelam, please note that all cabin crew who participated volunteered and were specially trained for it. Thanks."
"We also had extra (augmented) crew on board these flights to ensure forward and rear galleys were adequately manned," says Kapoor. And that is good to hear.
Pls note. The entire crew of the aircraft have responsibilities for safety. Cabin crew have their role to play and pilots have theirs. In the event of an emergency, both cabin crew and pilots have their jobs cut out for them. In extreme events such as decompression or window blowouts, all onboard can get incapacitated within seconds. There are innumerable accidents where crashes have happened since the crew had no time to put on their oxygen masks. Read about Helios Air. Maybe MH370 also faced something similar. Bottomline, pilots and crew are trained and are required to be on the job every min they are in the plane. Seconds can make a difference between life and death. If it was a private plane, no one would care. They do what they want with their lives. However, commercial pilots and airline transport pilots have infinitely greater responsibility and duty cast on them since their actions impact the lives of others. This act is symptomatic of Spicejet's marketing department's breach of flight operations. Flight Ops are considered sacrosanct in commercial aviation, but this is deeply troubling. DGCA is admirably doing its duty despite its action likely to be considered spoilsport by a largely ignorant public. Let DGCA do its job. Spicejets statement that they had backup cabin crew reeks of complete contempt of aviation safety regime in India. They deserve to be penalized heavily. The 2 pilots need to be severely disciplined. Pilots are not mere employees of the airline. They are aviators first and their prime responsibility is for the safety of the flight.
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