Thanks to GoWEB Caribbean for sending the images. Recently we witnessed the spectacular but scary pictures of an American Airlines flight broken into pieces like a child would a stick of macaroni. According to other news American Airlines has suffered two other mishaps although not as serious as AA Flight 311. Should would be passengers…
Recently we witnessed the spectacular but scary pictures of an American Airlines flight broken into pieces like a child would a stick of macaroni. According to other news American Airlines has suffered two other mishaps although not as serious as AA Flight 311.
Should would be passengers be concerned? AA is a major carrier in the Caribbean for inbound and outbound traffic.
IATA and other International agencies respnsible for safety measures should ensure that American Arlines be held heavily accountable for any breach of passengers welfare . AA has had a good reputation but some of the ‘unreported’ near misses need to be seriously addressed.It reall was amazing too see its aircraft like a paper toy ripped like that in Jamaica.I am sure that its passengers are still counting their lucky stars! I remember the days of Guy America Airlines.Hum!! So much things to say!!! AA please reel and come again! Safety First!
Some reports we have read cite pilot error on flight 311, has AA made a statement yet?
Just got this link in the mail:
The following link is very interesting. If we read the stats correctly the climb and the landing remains the dangerous part of pilot operation where fatalities occur from crashes.
Having observed the above the odds of an airline accident remains a long shot event.
Hope that this is not the same AA pilot who scared the pants off the Rendezvous folks a few moths ago ,when he reportedly just cleared the top of houses there.
Hope that this is not the same AA pilot who scared the pants off the Rendezvous folks a few moths ago ,when he reportedly just cleared the top of houses there.
It is not the same pilot…..AA flies 757s to Barbados. The aircraft in Jamaica was a 737. Different aircraft type requiring a different pilot rating and different crews. A pilot cant fly any aircraft the airline owns unless he is “rated” to do so and pilots are rated by aircraft type
Maybe a pilot can give us an answer:
Wouldn’t the Grantley Adams authorities have known before loading passengers that the airspace would have been saturated?
Sitting in limbo on the GAIA tarmac
Published on: 1/3/2010.
FOR MORE THAN three hours yesterday, it appeared as is time stood still at the Grantley Adams International Airport.
Staff at the Christ Church facility had extra persons on their hands, as at one stage 17 planes were on the airport’s tarmac, unable to move.
But it wasn’t anyone’s fault at Grantley Adams.
Because of a lack of air-space in the usual fly-zones used by pilots leaving Barbados, the planes were forced to sit in limbo, until clearance came from air-traffic controllers in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
Clearance
Clearance needs to come from those countries, since nearly all flights leaving Barbados use up air-space controlled by Trinidad and Tobago and Puerto Rico, and planes simply can’t just fly through the air space of other countries.
"This doesn’t happen very often, but there is nothing we in Barbados could do about it," Grantley Adams’ Corporate Communications Officer, Keith Goddard told the SUNDAY SUN last night.
According to Goddard, the flights most affected were ones heading to North America, and in one instance, one flight which remained on the tarmac for more than two hours had to be cancelled.
"As soon as space becomes available near those two destinations, then the aircraft here will be given permission to take off.
Space in the sky
"Obviously at this time of the year, with many people coming back to the Caribbean for the holidays, there are more flights on the ground and in the air, but no more space in the sky. The controllers can’t offer space until it becomes available, since to do so would put people’s lives in jeopardy," Goddard said.
He noted that the problem has seldom arisen in Barbados, but local officials had no control over it happening, and could only deal with it as space slowly became available near Puerto Rico and Trinidad.
"We had some challenges, but we let the travellers know what the problem was, so they could understand why they were on the ground and not moving," Goddard said. (BA)
It is so Ten4…clearly the story you posted is a freak exception, which I am sure will be investigated by the UK authorities…..that is why it made news in the first place….
David..unfortunately there is little that Barbados can do when it comes to international airspace “clearances” the airspace above Barbados (>21,000ft) is controlled by Piarco Control i.e. Trinidad. It extends all the way to Antigua in the North and almost as far as Guyana in the South. Beyond Antigua, Puerto Rico and New York then control the airspace for flights bound for North America and Europe. So as the article correctly states…any northbound aircraft leaving Barbados, have to request and receive permission from the owners of the airspace above and beyond barbados before the flight is allowed to depart. Unfortunately this request is not made too far in advance of the flight’s departure as the Captain has to be certain the aircraft is flight ready and all systems are go for the departure from Barbados. Better to hold the aircraft on the ground and await a clearance through Piarco, San Juan and NY airspace than to burn fuel drilling holes in the sky
@Bajeabroad
Bear with us, why does T&T control the airspace above Barbados?
@ David
Don’t know the reason WHY T&T has control of the upper level airspace in the eastern Caribbean, but I suspect it goes way back to their influence in the early or first oil boom…..It is not uncommon though for a small island to control large swaths of airspace, as the same thing happens in the western Caribbean with Jamaica controlling a large portion of airspace (mostly geography). The delays experienced by those flights are 99% caused by North America ATC flow control restrictions which ripples through other feeder airspaces e.g. San Juan and Piarco. North American ATC ground stops flights destined for popular US airports e.g. NY, PHL, DC, BOS, CHI because there are simply too many flights scheduled to arrive in a finite airspace/airport at a particular point in time. This is not the first time it has happened, as flow control is commonly used across the US regularly. Even if Barbados were to “own” the airspace, the directive to ground stop flights still would come from NY Center for the east coast bound flights with the same result
Experts seem to be suggesting there was pilot error.
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