The blue Rapide passed south over Oxford Sewrvices/M40 at approx 10:00am Saturday (1st Oct) – presumably en route to Blackbushe. Stood and watched it rumble over after swigging my cappucino en route to West Midlands.
Paul F

Getting audited to FDA standards is one thing (been there got the tee shirt) but to be actually audited by the FDA is another ball park (would not wish to be there)

Hi nJayM,

Been there done that a few times, as I have been in tech/quality area of pharma (or allied) industry for 25 years 🙁 . Indeed, the incident will prompt a thorough review of procedures and controls at the manufacturing/packing site involved, and prompt a wider review of risks/controls elsewhere.

However, while “accidental” cross-contamination (i.e. inadvertant and genuine “mistakes” made on the line) can largely be overcome/avoided by good procedures and cross checks, DELIBERATE contamination/adulteration is far harder to engineer out of a process.

Short of opening and testing every single pack that has been assembled (thus leaving nothing unopened to sell), deliberate contamination/ adulteration of this nature will always be hard to stop. Employee training and pre-employment screening is about all you can do to ensure staff can be trusted to behave in an acceptable manner, plus all the usual “pocket free” garment rules etc that make it so much harder to take unnecessary/unwanted articles into the packing/production areas etc.

The issue of widescale deliberate counterfeiting/adulteration of pharmaceuticals and their active components is a different issue, and a major concern, especially when API (active pharmaceutical ingredients) are sourced from countries where “less professional” business procedures are a part of the established culture. (No names, no pack-drill 😉 ). That said, I have visited production sites in parts of Asia that many consumers might feel are a quality risk that I would happily recommend to anyone… as with any business
/site, reputation and trustworthiness can only be assessed by building a relationship with the people involved. Indeed I have also visited a number of pharma-approved sites in Western Europe that I would never place business with, as although they have been auditted by EU Medicines agencies, I felt the “business culture” and mindset was all wrong. Anyone can show endless reams of “perfect” procedures and documentary evidence to an auditor – it’s getting under the operation’s skin, and understanding the mindset that really identifies the quality culture that operates on a day-to-day basis, that tells me whether a site/company meets our expectations.

Standing quietly by and watching an operation function often yields far more valuable info than an active “box ticking” audit……

I sum up my approach by saying that I believe quality must be “built in” at every stage of the operation rather than just bolted on afterwards (QA vs QC!). QC tests may often fail to identify a case of deliberate contamination (such as this appears to be), it is far better to have built/nurtured a quality culture into properly motivated and committed staff, thereby meaning deliberate contamination is far less likely to occur in the first place (hopefully!).

Regards
Paul F

Two with burns

BBC Radio news 2pm reports the houses the ‘plane hit were empty, but that the two persons aboard the plane have been taken to hospital with 70% and 90% burns respectively :-(.

Heres hoping they have swift recoveries.

Paul F

Born too let eh…?

That was the perimeter fence?

Indeed it was. Being born in 1960, and living about twenty miles form LHR until the mid 80’s, I was a regular visitor with my Dad, or with friends’ parents through the seventies. There was a grass covered “spectators car park” across the perimeter road from the 10L touchdown point. A couple of bob (= 2 shillings = 10p ;)) got your car in, and you could sit there and watch the arrivals (or 28R departures) without being moved on by the infrequent and unarmed “plods”who would patrol occasionally. Not a can of pepper spray or a gun to be seen.

The Roof terrace, shop and restaurant of the Queens Building – ah yes, many many hours spent up there with a notebook, pen, CAM and my trusty “Prinz” (= Dixons own-label) 10 x 50′ ‘noculars. The “spotters shop” provided welcome respite from the exposed upper observation decks on damp or windy days.

Hours spent looking at Tridents (logged them all eventually, G-AWZC was the last to be “ticked off” – funny how trivia like that sticks in the mind), 727’s, DC-9s, Viscounts, Vanguards, Caravelles, and 1-11’s from the likes of BEA, Northeast, Air France, Lufthansa, Aer Lingus, KLM, Swissair, SAS, JAT, Sabena, Cyprus Airways, Cambrian..all those “classic” flag carrier colour schemes…. Not a LoCo operator in sight.

And Terminal 3 was where the exotic intercontinental stuff was, 707s, DC-8s, VC-10s of BOAC, Pan Am, TWA. Harder to see from T2/QB, but the crackling speaker commentary kept you informed of what was arriving on the runways.

If you were lucky you’d see an Il-62 or Tu-154 arrive from further afield. On one of our visits we saw a Tradewinds CL-44 arrive. And if my memory is correct the shorter north east/south westerly runway to the east of the terminals was still used occasionally? You’d even see a few GA types like Apaches or twin beeches arrive. Executive jets were early LearJets or good old HS.125’s of Ford, Distillers and so on might be seen using Field Aviation’s facility.

Then the 747s arrived and “White City” was built, and 737s started to appear at T1 and T2…the start of the slippery slope as Mr Boeings products started to dominate…. and then airbus arrived, and “type-wise” things went downhill:diablo:. Vanguards became “Mechantmen”. BEA’s red square became a part union jack…. BOAC soldierd on, then BA schemes started to appear.

Later on Tristars and DC-10s arrived…. then 757’s and the newer 7373 with big round fans rather than those long thin noisy turbojets….

Concorde wasn’t yet in service, or was only flying to the Middle East, T4 wasn’t even at the build stage, and T5 wasn’t even a dream….

And, as few people had the opportunity/funds to fly very often (if at all), the “glamour” factor of actually visiting a major airport and standing in the terminal was still there.

I remember the Manchester and Glasgow shuttle flights by BA in the early-mid 80’s, where you could literally turn up without booking, buy a ticket at the departure gate (IIRC), and walk straight onto the plane, not a security check or an indentity document needed. I had afew trips to Manchestr and one to Glasgow before they disappeared. I even knew people who carried half gallon (sorry 2.5l!;)) cans of solvent based paint aboard (from my first employer in the late 70’s)- against the rules on your multipage (with waxy-duplicating leaves) ticket, but you knew you woudn’t get stopped so long as you hid it in a holdall.

Nowadays at the big hubs even to fly within UK you need to turn up an hour (if not more) beforehand to get through departure checks, ticket already booked, you have to provide DNA samples to prove you are who you say you are, strip naked to get through security, leave all “in flight” drink behind and then pay exorbitant “departure lounge” prices for a bottle of water…… commercial flying is no fun any more :-(.

At LHR in the mid 70’s you could get away with driving round the roads through the cargo area if you knew the way, as there were few security barriers. Fences were less obstructive, and you could even ask your Dad to stop if you felt brave enough to try and snatch a quick photo through the fence. None of the miles of “obscuring” screens that adorn the fences these days.

Vee One, sorry to hijack the thread slightly, don’t think I remeber visiting LHR in the mid sixties, but the QB roof, with the earsplitting roar of turbojets, trails of black part-burnt avtur, and wafts of same, was certainly part of my youth five – ten years later! Great photo!

Puma down in Andover

See here with photo:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-14034511

Paul F

Oops someone beat me to it as I was copying the link…

Same message received here too!
Paul F

Glad i’m not the only one who feels the loss of the 2018 World Cup is getting far too high a profile.

Given we will still be paying off the debts from 2012 Olympics we couldn’t afford to host it any way :diablo:

As pageno1 says I too hope no public funding went into the bid, we haven’t got cash to waste on such a frivolous matter.

Glad to see the England 2018 bid perfectly matched England’s world cup campaign this summer – full of over-confidence to start with, and totally blown out at the first round 😀 :D.

RAF Club Piccadilly

I visit the RAF club regularly as a member of our trade association is ex-RAF and so can hire meeting rooms there. Its always difficult to remain focussed on the meeting agenda when surrounded by so many great pictures.

As JDK says all the walls are covered with original artwork covering various aspects of RAF history – just ensure you allow plenty of time to wander round to look at them – cracking painting of a Lanc over Peenemunde on one of the stairwells, and a delightful study of a yellow Tiger Moth taking off from a South African training base in the meeting room I am normally in.

And try to find the Frank Wooton Triptych “1939 – 1945″…

Every time I visit I seem to come across a painting I have not spotted before.

Paul F

P.S. Beware they operate a fairly strict dress code – all gentlemen must wear jackets when in the communal areas, and I think one is expected to wear a tie in the club restaurant…. good to see ‘standards’ are being maintained in some places 🙂