Panic aboard SAA flights

Geoff.D said:
Well said!

SAA and the crew in these reported instances did the absolute correct thing. We should all be grateful instead of speculating about things most us know nothing or very little. At least we got a response from a few members that are able to set the facts right.

BTW, there is another forum where I had the expectation that there would be less speculation going dealing with Airline matters.

I was unfortunately rudely made aware that speculation is now an incurable disease on just about every social media forum even highly specialised ones.
Click to expand...

That's just speculation on your part.
 
kat06sa said:
There was a dude in this thread who watched a few air crash investigations on natgeo and now questions the work done by SAAT without any facts whatsoever. Hence why I don't like commenting here.
Click to expand...

People letting their prejudices get the better of them.
 
Make it a race issue, problem solved .......


I wouldn't trust a company like them myself, that's just a feeling toward a sketchy company.
 
ForceFate said:
Visit avherald to see how many other airlines have "malfunctions". They're not unigue to SAA (Not Myeni fan btw). Credit to hardworking engineers and technicians working hard to keep people safe every mile of the journey.
Click to expand...

I have to say the same for Eskom. The rot at the top is an extremely poor reflection of (SOME OF) the hard working technical staff.

a mate of mine in NZ told me that almost the entire tech crew of the one substation is run by ex Eskom staff. So I really feel for SAA tech crews and pilots.
 
I think I'm more likely to die from a road accident driving to work, driving to the airport, stray bullet at a shopping mall, hijacking than flying itself. I consider flying safer for now.
 
dlk001 said:
I think I'm more likely to die from a road accident driving to work, driving to the airport, stray bullet at a shopping mall, hijacking than flying itself. I consider flying safer for now.
Click to expand...
Definitely! The thing with driving though is that people feel "in control" vs flying where you're trusting a glorified bus driver to keep you alive (OK, that's a joke). The other thing about air accidents is that they make headline news.

In-flight incidents is a different ball game. I've had in-flight incidents where no passengers knew about it and incidents where they were acutely aware of what's going on. There's just something about hurtling through the air in a high speed tube that makes a flat tire seem worse than it is
 
Idiosyncratic said:
Definitely! The thing with driving though is that people feel "in control" vs flying where you're trusting a glorified bus driver to keep you alive (OK, that's a joke). The other thing about air accidents is that they make headline news.

I've had in-flight incidents where no passengers knew about it and incidents where they were acutely aware of what's going on.
Click to expand...

+1

I also fly twice a week on private charter airlines and SAA AirLink The pilots usually share details of these incidents because at work we do risk assessments on every activity including business travelling.
 
Aviation headlines , drama because easy drama, where there is none.
 
Fly to the US every two months, will never fly SAA - has had great track record yes, but Africa and maintenance are two words that should not go together - looking at SAA financial mess, I dont see them keeping maintenance costs up and cutting back on the Benz's
 
ponder said:
That's just speculation on your part.
Click to expand...

Nope, I will find the forum and post the link. And you see that the moderators on that forum, regularly ban members and lock threads to try and control speculation. I belong to another forum where there is zero tolerance for speculation. Any speculation is met an immediate suspension and 3 infringements leads to a complete ban. All debates about bannings and suspensions leads to an immediate ban of those participating in the debates.

Here is the forum I was referring to. http://www.pprune.org/

Even the section of this forum reserved for "rumours" gets out of hand at times.

just look at how wild this thread on myBB became. http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...iro-MS804-crash-investigation?highlight=MH370
 
Last edited:
FatBoySlim said:
Fly to the US every two months, will never fly SAA - has had great track record yes, but Africa and maintenance are two words that should not go together - looking at SAA financial mess, I dont see them keeping maintenance costs up and cutting back on the Benz's
Click to expand...
I wouldn't be awfully concerned for now. As long as tax payer money keeps the ship afloat, no standards should degrade. Not to mention SAAT itself makes good money keeping other airlines in the air also. Again, keep in mind everyone is scared of the CAA. The Americans are more relaxed when it comes to their maintenance than what we are. To a hammer, every problem seems like a nail - that's the case with the CAA. Besides, the airline you fly with (whichever airline it is) likely utilizes SAAT from time to time. If it's Emirates, for example, you're better off flying SAA. Not because their maintenance is trash, but because the best safety component of an aircraft is it's pilots. Emirates treats their pilots like mechanical parts - they obey the rules of their CAA (which if I recall correctly is run by the same guy who is in charge of Emirates itself) and stretch their pilots to their absolute limits. It's a topic of major discussion among flying communities. There are no unions to stand up to the airline, and the voluntary pilot reports are not only discouraged, it may result in the pilot losing his job. Emirates pay well though, and thus pilots are drawn to the sandpit with hopes that they'll earn enough to either move on, or get to a position where conditions improve. It was only a matter of time before the recent DXB and FlyDubai accidents. If they don't change, more will come. They have two man crews for operations where SAA and other mainstream airlines require three to five (this is not referring to the olden days use of 4 members in the cockpit - this means the pilots can be rotated to avoid insanely long shifts). SAA pilots are still fantastic and they'll remain so for the next 6 years - after that the current lot of skilled seniors will likely be retired (retirement age at SAA is 63). The global pilot shortage will set in and then things will get interesting. How SAA will respond remains to be seen - there are 160+ white pilots willing and able to fly for them, but they are refused employment. We live in interesting times.
 
News stories like this anger me. I am no fan of SAA by any means, however, these types of issues happen all the time and SAA handled it perfectly well.

Obviously some passengers were upset, probably more as a result of the waiting time than actual concern for their safety.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X