Is this a way to run an airline ?

Hi all.

Have a read of this which I found in the Cyprus Mail, it makes you wonder who to believe !

Regards

Nordjet415

Safety feud erupts between pilots and airline [/U]
By John Leonidou

CYPRUS Airways (CY) pilots yesterday hit back at critics of their impromptu strike on Friday, saying the airline’s “tyranny” was putting CY flights at serious risk.

Speaking to the Sunday Mail yesterday, a CY pilot – who wished to remain anonymous – said the company’s decision to suspend a colleague was potentially putting passengers at risk by making pilots think twice about basic safety decisions.

But the pilot’s claim was condemned by CY Spokesman Kyriakos Kyriakou, who told the Sunday Mail yesterday that pilots could not be above authority and sling mud at the airline to cover their own mistakes.

On Friday, 2,000 passengers were left stranded in Cyprus and abroad after CY pilots’ union PASYPI staged a six-hour strike in protest at the suspension of a fellow captain on suspicion of misconduct.

The airline described the strike as “unacceptable”, claiming that tourism and passenger welfare had been comprised over an internal matter, which could have been protested differently.

But one CY pilot told the Sunday Mail the matter was not as black and white as the airline was making out, adding their decision to call a strike had been taken to avert a possible tragedy in the future.

According to the pilot, the captain was suspended because he ordered a safety check on the aircraft he was set to fly from Paphos to the UK, causing a three-hour delay.

“After this incident I feel very isolated when having to do my job because I feel I have no backing when it comes to delaying a flight on grounds concerning possible problems,” the CY captain said yesterday. “How can our job not be affected when having to work under these tyrannical conditions? How can a pilot feel easy when having to check this or check that or to make entries into the tech-log again after what happened to our colleague?”

CY pilots are allowed to perform shifts no longer than 12 hours, and the delay from Paphos meant the return flight would have exceeded that limit, forcing the airline to send out a replacement crew, while the captain and his crew stayed in a hotel until the following day.

The delay came about because the captain had entered a minor problem over tyre pressurises into the technical log of the plane. This resulted in a technician being driven from Limassol to Paphos to examine the aircraft before giving it the all-clear for take off some three hours later.

When the captain returned to Paphos the following day, he received a phone call from a CY official informing that he was being suspended with immediate effect.

A PASYPI statement yesterday insisted safety was the union’s prime motivation.

“PASYPI does not wish to clash with international safety regulations and create a violation that could possibly repeat a tragedy similar to the one of Helios. PASYPI would rather see all its members dismissed rather than compromise matters concerning safety which could lead to hundreds of people losing their lives.”

The suspension, the captain’s colleague told the Sunday Mail, was because of a “mis-entry into the technical log”, which resulted in financial damages to the airline.

The Sunday Mail understands the airline’s enquiry is centred around whether the pilot insisted on calling a check on the aircraft after being informed by the pilot who had flown the plane to Paphos from Larnaca that the wheels had already been seen in Larnaca and that the plane was OK to fly.

The pilot, however, insists the captain was within his rights: “This was a clear direct intrusion into the work that needs to be done by the captain,” he said. “Direct safety issues are beyond any limit or industrial regulations. Such an issue has never been meddled in before, at the least in the last 20 years. A captain should be free to put whatever matters he feels need to be entered into the technical log.

“How can I, as a pilot, do my job properly if I am to be liable for a delay? How are things going to be for pilots now?”

And he warned that pilots could take further industrial action either tomorrow or on Tuesday, “until our colleague is reinstated”.

The CY spokesman yesterday hit back at the claims, saying the airline would never
jeopardise safety. “The investigation has absolutely nothing to do with matters of safety,” said Kyriacou.

“If the pilots think they are above authority then they can forget it,” he added. “If a member of the airline, whether he may be a pilot, technician or messenger, is deemed to have done something wrong which cost the airline money, then we have the right to investigate the matter and even place that individual under suspension. If he has done nothing wrong, then both he and the union have nothing to worry about.”

Commenting on the safety claims, Kyriakou said: “The company never cuts corners on matters concerning the safety of the passengers and crew members. Despite our known financial problems, we have spent millions of pounds to guarantee all the necessary conditions for the best safety to our travellers.”

The Head of the Pancyprian Union for Consumers and Quality of Life, Loucas Aristodemou, said yesterday his union could take the pilots to court over the 2,000 passengers affected by the strike.

Aristodemou described the strike as “unacceptable”, saying “it violated the rights of the travellers”.

He said they would launch lawsuits and called on passengers that were affected by the strike to file a complaint with the union.

Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2007