The ATR factory is within the very core of St-Martin historical Aerospatiale/Airbus plant.
Actually it’s one of the oldest building in this area, you can spot it by the typical huge tilting/pivoting door with an stiffening arch on it, on the southern end.

go and check there!
http://maps.google.fr/maps?hl=fr&ie=UTF8&ll=43.611001,1.360293&spn=0.002804,0.007124&t=k&z=18&om=0

😉

If they are ‘heroes’ and yes they may well be, then they do indeed deserve “medals as large as frying pans”

I’m always a little bit embarrassed (even though the word is maybe too strong) when considering pilots as heroes in such circonstances. At the end they did their job, the job they are trained for and paid for. If you want to fly a modern aluminium tube without considering this kind of situation then you only need a computer or two. They do the “normal” job maybe better than human/pilots. What is the value of human hands on controls? It’s exactly when things go wrong, when computers/machines are failing and when human reactivity and cognitive power is essential! Pilot and crew training is essentially based on that simple fact. Everyone can fly a plane (or almost everyone) or serve a drink… but only well trained crew can do the job in critical situations. And this is the minimum they are expected to do.
So no, don’t be harsh with me gents but I don’t consider them as heroes, even if medias are fond of these kind of “news”, I consider they did perfectly well their job (at least at the particular moment) and showed great professionnalism. 😉

This accident reminds me the Air France A340 one at Toronto in 2005. In that case, the guys in the cockpit made some mistakes but the cabin crew here again did a tremendous job, struggling with a plane in fire and smoke, people trying to take their hand luggage, not listening to their orders… They were simply great and well trained professionals. The 0-kills performance is their medal.

The first MRTT aircraft is still performing complementary tests in Toulouse (handling qualities…) and offer us opportunities to take some pics of her… 🙂

One can easily see the pods and boom added when the aircraft was in CASA facilities in Madrid,Spain.