Do You guys really want to fly China A/L?

[eltib 54]

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China Airlines sacks drunk pilot

Business Times (Singapore)   10/13/03

author: AFP

© 2003 Singapore Press Holdings Limited

 

 

(TAIPEI) Taiwan's leading air carrier, China Airlines, said a pilot who was found to be legally intoxicated shortly before a flight will be fired as part of the company's efforts to improve flight safety.

 

 

The airline meted out the 'most severe penalty' to the pilot after tests showed he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.087 per cent, more than twice the legal level of 0.04 per cent, shortly ahead of his flight from Anchorage to New York on Sept 25.

 

 

'He has been asked to leave the company soon to maintain the discipline,' Roger Han, the company spokesman, said, without identifying the pilot, who is a Taiwanese national.

 

 

'The pilot has since been grounded while waiting for the result of the investigation,' Mr Han said.

 

 

Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said the pilot might have his licence revoked as his act could have threatened the lives of hundreds of passengers on board the flight

 

 

In a report to the CAA, the pilot admitted to having drunk wine, but he denied breaking company's rules, claiming he consumed the alcohol at least 12 hours before his scheduled flight, a CAA official said.

 

 

The report was a blow to the air carrier, which has been striving to improve its appalling safety record.

 

 

 

 

A CAL passenger plane crashed into the Taiwan Strait in May last year, killing 225 people on board, in the company's third deadly incident in four years. - AFP

[VoxVader 1]

Unlike most people, I'm actually comforted by the fact that the pilots only rarely take any part in the flying or landing of planes anymore (just the take off).

 

I'll be happy when (if) they switch to pilotless planes.

 

-Vox

[partyanimal 0]

I'm a China Air fan.  Bottom line is you're more likely to die on the road from Bangkok to Pattaya than on China Air.

[upena 2]

China Air has the best flight from Hawaii to Bkk.  Leaves about 2 hours earlier than JAL, UAL, NW, and only has a 50 minute layover in TPE.  Arrive at 1545 instead of close to midnight...almost like an extra day in Thailand.

[Taxi 0]

partyanimal.................or a heart attack while showing your Thai lovely how mut you luv her.  Still I'm more a 5 star airline man myself, can forget China airlines in my book, but thats just paranioa I'm sure.

[TURBO 1]

I travelled with China Airlines last month Dublin - Amsterdam - Bangkok & it was the best flight I've ever had . Great connection times , keen price , friendly staff , Amsterdam airport much better than LHR ( my normal connecting airport ) and of course the cute Thai stewardesses  ;D . The only downside was the crap meals but I already knew about that & brought my own stock of Pot Noodles & snacks . There was also the over zealous Customs guy in Dublin airport who picked me out of the returning Amsterdam - Dublin passengers to do a complete search of my luggage  > .

 

 

Derek

[nidnoyham 30]

I understand China Air would like to join the Star Alliance

group of airlines ,but their safety record is a stumbling block so far. p'raps they will improve

[Gus 97]

Eltib

I think it was a China Airlines at Anchorage that departed the airport from the taxiway rather than the runway..........hmmm

[The_Fat_Controller 25]

You are correct about Anchorage, but they DID get away with it.

What about that other respected SE Asian carrier that used a runway under repair at Taipei, and didn't ? Not going to fly with them, are you ?

All airlines have the occasional problem, and China are not the only airline that have pilots that drink !

I have my first flight with China Airlines next Tuesday, and can honestly say I am not worried at all.

Any flight that is taking me to LOS for 4 weeks is going to be good !

[sabaidii2 171]

The following is a true story.  The point being that it's not just foreign airlines to be cautious of...

 

 

Oh, while at Narita airport on the way back home,  one other minor adventure happened:  I nearly died.  The United Airlines plane is on the tarmac waiting for clearance to take off.  All of a sudden:   Bang! accompanied with a vibration.  Two minutes later an announcement:  "Ladies and gentlemen.  We're not sure what just occurred.  If anyone saw something from the windows, please tell us."  This is very reassuring.  Turns out a tire blew.  We ended up getting towed away and sat on the ground for two hours while the problem got fixed.  But I sort of wonder what would the outcome have been had this occurred while taking off?  The young Mormon missionary sitting next to me (returning home after a 2-year stint in Taiwan proselytizing  to the heathens - like the Taiwanese don't have enough to worry about what with mainland China breathing down their necks) says "God is looking out for us."  I respond with "I am really pissed at the airline.  I don't like cutting things this close."   Ah, to be young and insipid.

[The_Fat_Controller 25]

I have now done my trip with China Airlines.

On time both ways.

Food was fine.

Cabin staff great, and toilets kept clean and tidy all the time (BA and QANTAS have lessons to learn).

The Irish golfers drank the plane dry of beer on 28th Oct, but you can't blame the airline for that!

From Glasgow, you can check through to BKK, but the other way, you can check your bag through, but if connecting with KLM have to get your boarding pass for the AMS-GLA flight at the transfer desks at Schipol.

[moby69 6]

The_Fat_Controller,

I'mglad you enjoyed your trip:-) I shall be flying Again with China Air in Feb and am looking forward to it  [smiley=cheers.gif]

 

Just a point a couple of weeks ago B A sacked a flight crew for being drunk when turning up for work :-)

 

Be Nice

 

Moby69

[ting_tong 63]

All my pilot friends are drunks

 

Anyway, China Air just let me change my flight to extend my vacation for a week for FREE ;D  M_H

[torrenova 644]

China Airlines better safety record of late but I'm with Flash2034 on this one. Give me main airlines all the way.

 

Food, toilets, stewardesses and all that have jack shit to do with whether the big metal bird will get you there safely or at all.

 

Paranoid - maybe but the stats stack up.

[toopach 0]

I flew China Air three years ago before I knew about their safety record and it was a very good flight. The stewardess were beautiful and after buzzing them every 5 minutes for some scotch they decided to give us the whole bottle of Johnny Walker, cant think of any better service then that. Been flying United the last two years only because one less stop over. But to all you flying from OZ Never fly Olympic what a shit carrier.

[ting_tong 63]

China air has let me change my return flight 3 times as I decided to extend my vacation, all at no charge  BTW the captain of the plane is a Brit, on my past flights.  M_H

[Top_Cat 16]

China air has let me change my return flight 3 times as I decided to extend my vacation, all at no charge  BTW the captain of the plane is a Brit, on my past flights.  M_H

 

Hope the China Brit captain's are not one of BA or Virgins recently sacked alcoholic piss pots.  ::)

 

Top_Cat

[jimmac 66]

You can throw America West into the list with drunk pilots charged.

[MaiPenRai5555 0]

China Airlines told to pay damages for crash

 

 

Friday 26 December 2003, 10:32 Makka Time, 7:32 GMT  

 

 

The judge said the pilot ignored the most basic duty

 

A Japanese court told Taiwan's China Airlines (CAL) on Friday to pay five billion yen ($46.61 million) in compensation for a 1994 crash in Japan that killed 264 people.

 

 

 

In a ruling at the Nagoya District Court, presiding judge Junko Ikadatsu ordered the airline to pay the compensation to 232 plaintiffs.

 

The court, however, dismissed a damage claim against the European aircraft maker Airbus, despite plaintiffs' claims that the plane had design flaws that led to the fatal crash at Nagoya Airport.

 

The plane, arriving from Taipei with 271 people on board, stalled and crashed during a landing attempt at Nagoya airport on April 26, 1994. The plane disintegrated as it hit the runway, killing all but seven of the people on board.

 

"The pilot ignored the most basic, yet the most important, duty. It was just reckless," Ikadatsu told the court. "The relation of cause and effect is clear. China Airlines ought to compensate for all damages."

 

China Airlines had offered to pay 16.4 million yen compensation per victim, a total of 4.33 billion yen.

 

The plaintiffs, blaming fatal piloting errors and flawed aircraft design for the crash, had sought a total of 19.6 billion yen in compensation from China Airlines and Airbus, the European plane maker.

 

Airbus not guilty

 

Judge Ikadatsu said Airbus should not be held responsible for Japan's second most deadly plane crash.

 

"It cannot be said that Airbus' design concept for the aircraft lacked rationality and that there was actually a flaw in the design," Kyodo news agency quoted Ikadatsu as saying.

 

Airbus is owned 80% by European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co NV (EADS), based in Germany and France, and 20 percent by Britain's BAE Systems Plc.

[yselmike 393]

i like and do fly china.but i do remember after the crash

that one enquiery blamed the pilots, they are or were claimed to be all ex fighter pilots and flew the planes

like top guns and they started a retraining programm

to change the mentality of the fighterjocks,seems to

have worked no crashes lately

[Top_Cat 16]

Fair comment niagrejock (sic?)

 

Good covering off report BUT the crash occurred 9 (almost 10 years ago.)

 

Flying China today so can't agree.  ;D

 

Top_Cat