Nik H.

Al Fatihah.

Is this true? i thought the B777 has an alarm if it senses no activity by the crew for 45 minutes. The pilots gotta be dead to miss all the 'bells and whistles and klaxon' that the B777 will make.....

Sharp MAR, very sharp, correct general direction, almost there, but not quite. We must have some Teh Tarik sometime........ A number of experiences professionally makes me ponder; "God help me from my friends, From my enemies i know what to expect"

There's an old saying.... Sell Fish, but don't teach them how to fish, coz you may end up buying fish from them..... IF only.............SIGH.....

Lucky Lindy's Ryan Monoplane. Length 27ft x span 46ft. This has got to be the shortest plane to fly non-stop across the Atlantic. He did it with less horsepower than a B737 APU.

There won't be any incident report as it was not an incident. But, obviously there will be a proper documented Comprehensive Crash Accident Report that will cover all aspects of leading to and until post accident. Diagrams and photographs will also be included. But it is meant for the consumption of relevant people and not for the casually curious.

Well said SV.

Cool Timothy....very perceptive. But more than that, the B707 was cable operated, and yoke input to flight control surfaces are fairly direct with no computer interaction. The Pilot was able to do many and any maneuvers that would now be prohibited by today's aircraft such as the Airbuses and the B777. The Boeing Test Pilot even barreled rolled the B707 during a flypast in view of Boeing bigwigs. The Airbus and the B777 and to a larger extent almost all other jets would have bled the hydraulics dry; the computers will start to 'fly' the airplane within its 'flight envelope' and the Pilots will be reduced to a paid passenger status.

Same situation, same damage circumstances; if it happened to an Airbus, especially A320 onwards, the airplane would have gone down in flames. Similarly if it was a B777. Less so if it was a B747. The Boeing 707 can take some serious damage to the airframe before it becomes uncontrollable. In fact, almost all big planes pre B707 were built the same way, and hence more robust than what we have in our skies now. Then economists and accountants screwed this technical philosophy up.

BC, I am just being very careful with my words with the intent of sharing what little i know of the system that is not based on assumptions, and flee's response is indeed gratifying. I am not defending nor justifying any perceived abuse, if you know how much income tax I paid last year, you'd appreciate my concern on where the money I paid to the Gahmen goes to. I look with dismay at how rakyat's money were/are being used. Its just that my personal expression of such concern is misplaced at this aviation enthusiasts' website. The Minister of Transport cannot declare an audit flight at his whims and fancies as these decisions are the domain of bona fide licensed and qualified pilots. Not by pretenders who claim to be experts in a complicated, regulated and diverse field such as aviation by virtue of soaking knowledge from a computer screen, or by the (mis)fortune of being voted into the position. It won't come to a point where the TPM's ofice would ask to tumpang. But, the Air Force does have a utilisation chart for their aircraft, and can smartly plan to build in this kind of flights so there can be added value to the whole plot. There are still some fairly smart people even in the worst Gahmen department/ services. Anyway, its gone way of topic. This thread is about the piece of news about the DPM's Chopper making an unscheduled stop to avoid weather, something that is an airmanship decision. And a wise one at that. Along the way, opinions based on assumptions about the technical issues related to the Nuri, procurement, abuse, MACC, politics, etc etc came into the picture. Even wishing for harm to befall those on board!!! All unrelated to aviation. Better to think small and keep to topic. Which is about how good the Pilots' decision were, their assessment of weather, possible degradation of NavAids in stormy weather at the lower altitudes the Helis operate at, the terrain they are flying over, aircraft performance with the deluge of water ingestion, consideration towards the 'precious' cargo in the form of human lives on board irregardless if VVIP or not. More befitting of this website's intent, NO?

You think wrongly. There are various types of training flights, and these kinds of flights also includes audit flights. On many of these flights for VIPs, trainees are utilised as another pair of eyes for the crew, augmentation cruise duties for long haul multi sector operations etc etc. Just the other day I met a friend from DCA who flew the PM to Kuching on the ACJ. By all intent and purpose, that can be considered a training flight as an audit was also carried out on the operations of Jet Premier One. Certainly the RMAF will not put VIPS on endorsement, aerobatic and/or airworks flights.

I think it was a precautionary landing. Good decision by the Pilot to wait for weather improvement. No big deal at all. Don't know much about the related political issues and the MACC etc etc. But I'd dare a guess that the DPM and the PM and to a smaller extent the Cabinet Ministers does have some allocated hours for use of RMAF Transport equipment. These flights could have been programmed into or around Pilot Training Navex and general handling exercises for pilot profiency. In other words, instead of just flying around the training flights empty, these flights are also used to carry these VIPs around. Quite normal in times of peace. Seems like there are some trigger happy forummers here just as there are in the Gomen. Both sides occasionally shooting own foot

Tailstrike repaired aircraft has a way of haunting flght safety years later....sometimes to devastating effect. The JAL B747 and the China Airlines B747 comes to mind.

USD176M. Very cheap. In fact, very very cheap. Thought ex factory green aircraft was more than USD 200 - 220 million. Good clue as to whether this is real or just to get the knowledgables excited.

Very big possibility that the aircraft suffered multiple failures possibly related to the thunderstorm activities. Apparently prior to the aircraft losing total communications, the ACARS sent a number of component failure reports to AF maintenance. The fact that no distress signals were sent out indicates some form of catastrophic electrical/control failure. A lot of speculation points out to lightning involvement as one of the contributory cause of electrical problems. Whatever the case it could not have happened at a worse time and place....at night, in a storm area, remote area of the Atlantic....etc etc. If such a scenario took place, the FDR and the CVR can only confirm events relating to the failures as total loss of electrics will cause the FDR and the CVR to stop recording. The chances of this accident being a survivable one gets slimmer by the minute.

Strange........I'd expect more takers from MW. Now's the time to teach him how to run MAS and improve everything.

You're absolutely sure about that KK? I am absolutely sure that you are not absolutely right. Dig deeper and maybe the truth may emerge. You may be surprised. Shocked even. There are some wonderful stories I wish I can share but can't........

So entertaining.................

1.For scheduled B747 Mh provides an aisle wheelchair and MH groundstaff will assist from check-in to arrival. Pax will be given a slip for handling of pax wheelchair into and out of the cargo compartment. Wheelchair pax on Haj flights are common and we have specific processes laid down to handle these pax with ease and dignity. Aisle wheelchairs are available on these flights and wheelchair pax will normally board the aircraft first. Fitri has pictures of wheelchair pax handling on his TGG Haj story. 2. For B737 and other flights where the aisle is too narrow to accomodate the aisle wheelchair, MH will provide ground staff to bring the pax right up to the aircraft door, and the wheelchair will be placed into the cargo compartment. On arrival the wheelchair will be brought to the door from the cargo compartment and the aircraft door. Depending on the ambulatory state of the pax, the ground staff will assist or carry the pax to/from his/her seat. Never heard of any complaint of pax having to crawl......

Amsterdam....we ised to stay at teh Sonaesta Hotel, smack in the middle of the city, everyrthing from history, heritage, technology and sex within 10 minutes walking distance. Amsterdam in my opinion has got to be the best European city in the world. and the B747 is dying a slow death everywhere.....

Very Very true. What we see in the papers are happy faces and enthusiastic employees. So AK management should be praised instead as they ,managed to do so without a Union.

You're absolutely right.

Wrong airport for landing is not uncommon. An airliner from a neighbouring country once did an approach into Brunei thinking it as Runway 02 BKI. I as at the holding point waiting for him to land. This happened years ago. Wrong runway for landing has also occured but this is more common. Wrong runay take off is also not unheard off. You may remember the SQ Jumbo in Taipei.

Air crashes are seldom caused by just one single component. Other causal factors must4 also be weighed out, and while the pilot should be canned for what he did, serious in depth studies should also be done to ascertain that there is no management link which may cause a systemic problem that eventually caused the crash. If there is then blame should be accordingly apportioned, and remedial and corrective steps made, not just to ensure justice is done but also for future avoidance of reoccurance. There have been a number of fatal accidents in recent years where the pilot has been solely blamed while those linked to the contributary factors get away cleanly. I hope the lawyers has done their best in providing defense for the pilot.

Well done AK. Salute.