Aviation Forum / Country Specific / Australian Group / October 2007

Ned <nednot@aioe.org> said:

How would the Government be able to force the Indonesian Government
to release evidence?

I am more of a beige kinda fellah myself --------- what ever
The subject is this awful and needless prang  and what amounts to
criminal negligence on the part of the Captain who was flying this
Gecas hull (yep another lease paid out by insurance in Asia )  But
This aspect alone could get interesting in the land of Litigation
(USA)

In fact one way is for the Lenders to new airlines piloted by noddy's
is to put draconian trigger clauses  in at the finance stage :) My
favourite trigger clause is   "at my/our absolute and unfettered
discretion" Put it in a slightlt larger type or in Italics  then get
the lessees and sub lessees to initial that page (near the clause
<grin> ) Then at  time of signing mention it again and obtain a
required wavers (to later allow you to arrest aircraft in
Jurisdictions that are never happy when you arrive to chain the thing
to the ground)

When I was in finance land used this more than once to keep
recalcitrant borrowers on the straight & narrow  One Asian airline in
Particular  and the odd ships owners ------- but we kept our losses to
a minimum by keeping eyes on the Chief pilots and the companies
operations and service procedures  ( another finance device was fine
attention to detail on all matters MEL  (including the galleys and
toilets )  If you read this report  I picked up in my quick scan  that
they were certainly in breach on service  by not having the FDR and
CVR  broken pins fixed (I recall they replaced a part with an
incorrect part ) thus hobbling all the data collection which proves
that this particular golliwog airline  did not know in service areas
their bum from their elbow in the electronics testing area .

Given that the financiers are custodians not only of their
shareholders funds but required by law to protect their own assets in
a vigorous and fiduciary manner .
This is just one way (of many)  that Governments who wish outcomes can
use  methods available to them  in a manner that does not involve
other government diplomacy  avenues .

Given that Mac bank and NAB Westpac and ANZ  to name a few in oz have
exposure via syndicated loans via GECAS ( a syndicated loan is where
the prome lessor in effect lays of part of the risk on total
exposure ) We in oz if concerned can rattle certain cages via that
Avenue -------- However, other playes such as Singapore aircraft
leasing ,Moscow Novotney, Polaris investements, Trade CC and the like
would not give a rats  whether the hulls pranged or not as long as
they could ensure they were paid out after the fires died down and the
victims buried . Example to this contention are recent former soviet
states  writing off and killing heaps in AN12.s recently

Hopefully  ICAO professional pilots and Travel industry  groups said
to have some form of oversight (to various degrees) could influence
change by boycots as just one example  . Lenders could  hold off until
Garuda and its even more worrisome  new comer airlines  and some TRULY
worrisome  events in India & China   are playing with the same fire

Its  about finance and risk  right across the board . Example is the
Lenders as oppsoed to the beneficial owner operators of the aircraft
get (or should get by law) all  A D "s from the MFG's  a few  don't
and even more when they do  the   clerical dweebs  have not a clue
what to do or even worse the paperwork is overly broad at best or
totally useless by its ambiguity  at worst  -thus some operators this
very day are flying deficient aircraft or suffering deficient systems
(such as dud ops and service manuals)  and a lot of these aircraft fly
into Australia  Garuda  TG MH United  Chinese carriers (all of them)
just to name a few .

Also Qantas and others could in extreme instances be captured  by a
spot audit ( at least happily they are probably the bench mark along
with FinAir SAS and Royal Brunei) on paying  diligent attention to all
detail  there may be others but I have not been exposed to them when
in finance and other lands :)

One cheap Carrier that was truly impressive on attention to detail
given the lack of resources was Ryan air  pretty switched on mob and
good culture in some aspects
compared to others we had to deal with :(

One major airline we had "relations" with only bought new aircraft and
turned them over before D checks arrived  But the Chinese bean
counters run that airline and some very "interesting" glitches in the
servicing of aircraft  came to light  -example  screw jacks  NEVER
EVER greased  by the ground mechanics  if it meant indenting for
grease over the allotted allowance to that cost/ profit centre .
This translated to a pilot  grounding the aircraft in USA when he
spotted this fault
the poor bugger got carpeted BIG TIME when he arrived back at base ---
this particular airline still today  "chastises" such pilots  who
bring red ink into the equation
by fiddling with their rosters and bidding slots to  as one bean
counter in this airline said to us  ( keep them aware where the money
that goes into the pilots pocket comes from )        .

That particular pilot  now no longer flies for them  --- we in finance
land however, after we became aware of this type of practice  wrote
into loan docs  methods to
A -discover such practices  and B used them with vigour  to straighten
out the three main pencil necks who were more interested in their own
bonuses than the safe and efficient running  of this airline .

The industry imo is in a higher  degree  of risk  mainly because of
immature and and rapidly growing trends and less than robust oversight
or even awarness in many jurisdictions .

I sincerely hope that all who have any degree of influence  in the
industry  right down to the refuel bodies ramp rats and up to the
travel industry  THEN Governments all  adopt  that now is the time to
draw  a line in the sand (or across the tarmac) and re-examine how
their respective cultures can force less than competent or judicious
parties to improve this situation before it really gets out of hand
by its startling  growth

End of rant

To Paraphrase woody Allen in an aviation sense  I do not worry about
death (by an aircraft accident) I just do not want to be there when it
happens :)

Phil