TRUST YOUR PILOT

Well? Of course you do – they transport millions of people every year from A to B in perfect safety, don’t they?

Of course there are times it goes tragically wrong for some unlucky ones. Like the 100+ on the elderly Boeing 737, built in 1979, that crashed just after take-off from Cuba a few days ago, cause unknown.

Sadly the cause is now thought to be known for the reason a Boeing 777, flight MH370, disappeared with 239 passengers and crew in 2014. Aviation experts now say that the pilot, Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah deliberately brought his plane down in a remote location to kill himself and everyone on board.The tragedy was repeated in 2015 when co-pilot of Germanwings flight 4U9525, Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed his Airbus A320 into the French Alps, after locking himself into the cockpit, and killed 150.

On a happier note the 300 passengers on BA 2063 from Gatwick to Mauritius in January this year may have had a very lucky escape. Their pilot, Julian Monaghan was suspected of being drunk as he climbed behind the controls of his Boeing 777 ready for take-off. The police were called and Monaghan was taken off the plane, reportedly with 86mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. The drink-drive limit is 80mg but for pilots, who perform rather more complex tasks than driving a car it is 20mg, putting this pilot four times over the aviation limit.

Trust your pilot…

Leave a Reply