The note may not be good PR, but there is nothing wrong with the temporary repair. That notching of the flap corner is an approved temporary repair for damage riverwalk hotels in san antonio in this area. There is no problem dispatching the airplane in this condition.
Because of the location in view of the passengers it was urgent to repair the flap permanently or to replace it altogether. This temporary repair would have been acceptable, with no writing, in order to bring the airplane back to its home base where it would have been repaired permanently, or replaced, during it overnight stay. But it looks like they were waiting for the next C Check.
Temporary repairs (or, more properly called time-limited repairs ) have approved legal limits on their applicability. This capability from the SRM, combined with other capability in the MEL and CDL, permit an operator to dispatch a less-than-perfect airplane. These are critical capability for an airline to survive. No airline makes a policy of fixing an item like this at the first opportunity it would mean holding way too many parts in inventory. The closest you could come to a policy on not dispatching anything other than a clean airplane is ANA; ANA will not dispatch the first flight of the day with anything on MEL. However, even ANA would fly a 737 with a notched flap for an extended period of time. To do so is certainly not stupid as you have indicated.
We are not only talking about safety here. It is a question of common sense also. Out of respect for the passengers, riverwalk hotels in san antonio evereything should be done not only to keep the airplane safe, but to also make it LOOK safe. The latter has nothing to do with regulations. It s all about perception.
I agree; the writing was poor judgement. I may have misunderstood your point I thought you were saying AS should not have kept flying the airplane with this repair, due to the fact pax could see it. That I can t agree with.
With the information we have I would say there is an obvious lack of professionalism on the part of the Ryanair crew (flight attendant and captain). It could also have something to do with the go go go LCC mentality.
another case of woman driving .. sorry couldn t help but saying it, evil , I know. That said, the captain admitted she knew it would be close, even got out of her seat to check but decided to continue even after the cabin crew called to warn her!
Once upon a time, I (as an airline dispatcher) released a 737-200 that had one of the engine thrust reverser actuators removed. It was all perfectly safe and legal, as flying without it was completely permissible as per the aircraft s configuration deviation list (CDL), which is both Boeing- and FAA-approved. The missing item was quite noticeable from the cabin, and at every one of the aircraft s many stops, various riverwalk hotels in san antonio passengers throughout the day noticed it and brought it to a crewmember s attention. Maybe we should have had our MX folks write something similar riverwalk hotels in san antonio on the engine cowling to allay anyone s concerns in advance. That s not to say passengers should never be shy about voicing their observations (a previous passenger on Aloha 243 noticed the crack that would later fracture and turn that 737 into a convertible), but that maybe airlines should consider labeling missing items that are within view so that passengers can be assured that it s a known condition and not an oversight.
In the case of the AS incident the writing only aggravated the situation because it attracted the attention. Had the repair been intended for a short duration, the writing would have been unnecessary because it was there for the maintenance personnel, not the passengers.
In regards to the reverser actuator it is a different story. It was much more obvious, but it was like that for a day only. They probably replaced the actuator during the overnight stay and that was the end of it.
The previously-mentioned thrust reverser actuator fairing deferral (as per the CDL) was carried for more than just a single day it was more like 2 weeks. With all due respect, the only urgency to have the item in the photo repaired resides within your own perception(s), and I d likewise respectfully submit to you that those perceptions don t coincide with the reality of operating an airline.
I ll presume that you re in the turbo-widget business, and as such, any opinion that I (as an outsider) have regarding the detailed inner workings of the turbo-widget business may well be my rightful opinion, but that doesn t necessarily make my opinion an -informed- opinion. To quote Clint Eastwood from one of his Dirt Harry movies, A man has to know his limitations..
Rest easy. There are plenty of professional, FAA-certificated personnel all involved with the process pilots, dispatchers, and maintenance folks and our system (outside perceptions aside) works well.
The regulations are standardized across the world. But the operational standards, over and above the regulations, still vary from one operator to the other. For example some airlines riverwalk hotels in san antonio would not tolerate a dirty flap like the one we see in the picture. And would prefer to make a permanent repair or replacement if the part could be seen by passengers.
Many of them, if not most, don t care anymore since the 1978 deregulation because they can no longer afford to go the extra length to preserve the image. I miss the days when aviation was special and highly regarded riverwalk hotels in san antonio from the inside as well as from the outside. There was enormous pride, or envy, depending on which side you were.
The price AA is a reflection of the situation Boeing has positioned itself in july 2011. IMO these prices, the statement riverwalk hotels in san antonio Boeing riverwalk hotels in san antonio made weeks before in Paris and the amount of options AA placed for the NEO tell the story.
Obviously there were many people frightened because AS had to make an apology. Personally riverwalk hotels in san antonio if I had been on board I would not have been afraid one bit because it looks like a perfectly executed SRM repair. I must have seen hundreds of those repairs in my career. Some looked a lot worst than this one, believe me.
Take the China Airlines 747 that blew up in the sky ten years ago. The inflight disintegration was caused by a botched repair that was carried out following a tail strike. riverwalk hotels in san antonio It must be one of the most awful repair I have ever seen in my life. They took pictures of it every year for monitoring purposes and you could see huge quantity of nicotine coming out of the strike patch. They did nothing futher for years but take pictures of the repair. The passengers never noticed anything until the explosive decompression took place. The damage was underneath the tail and passengers don t have access to this area. But they can see the flaps coming down on landing
I agree. I also think this (perfectly acceptable) repair must have caused repeated questions and someone decided to leave a slightly silly note to let passengers know it was okay. I don t see anything wrong with it and I don t see the need for an apology.
I don t know if the note was intended for querying passengers or other maintenance personnel. But if it was meant to reassure riverwalk hotels in san antonio passengers it would also mean that some passengers were worried, if not alarmed. In which case the sensible thing to do would be to replace the flap or make a permanent repair. It is not a technical issue. It is a basic public relations issue.
I was on a recent Alaska flight out of ATL that was delayed for an hour and a half due to a maintenance issue (discovered after we had pushed back from the gate by half a plane length). The Pilot and Flight Attendants kept us all notified of exactly what was happening (with humorous running commentary) so that no one was concerned to see a mechanic lying on the floor of the cockpit wrenching the First Officer s seat apart.
I am a status holder with AS, and have spent a lot of time in their care over the years. I can recall a certain Alaska/Horizon riverwalk hotels in san antonio FA that used to sing the safety briefings. I ve run across many Alaska riverwalk hotels in san antonio gate agents and ticketing personnel with great senses of humor in dealing with the inevitable issues that crop up in the airline biz. My point being that, if this was not a safety of flight issue, and a was an acceptable temporary repair, We know about this seems right up their alley.
Sorry if you interpreted it that way, as that certainly wasn t my intent. My point, perhaps inelegantly made, was that the operational realities of actually running an airline don t necessarily sync with the perceptions of those who are not actually involved with running an airline. As I said, there s a difference between one having a personal riverwalk hotels in san antonio opinion riverwalk hotels in san antonio (as an outsider) and an informed opinion (as an insider), and if my merely making such an observation is somehow deemed as being condescending, well, then that s unfortunate.
I once crossed the Atlantic in a CO B757-200 riverwalk hotels in san antonio that couldn t fully retract the right hand flaps. Apparently CO didn t care too much about it. I as engineer was only concerned that the aircraft needed to refuel, a common occurance for west-bound flights of the naughty B757. (the flight was HAM-EWR ~3300nm). I had a connection. And a date in Los Angeles.
Aloha Airlines Flight 243 is a textbook example that spectacularly demonstrates just the opposite: a woman passenger had noted and reported a skin crack aft of the forward entry door while boarding the airplane.
It appears you did not get the full (or correct) story from the crew of what happened on your flight, as there are several problems with what you have written. Here are the major issues with your story:
1. Flap/Slat skew and asymmetry protection will not permit riverwalk hotels in san antonio the asymmetric configuration you are describing. riverwalk hotels in san antonio In other words, it is not realistically feasible that you flew on an airplane with the left flaps retracted but not the right.
3. Assuming somehow the airplane remained controllable in the asymmetric configuration you described, flap placard speeds and aerodynamic performance of the dirty wing would have prevented the airplane from ever reaching cruise sped or altitu
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