Risks Involved In Aviation

AS aviators we fly through the wind and unlike cars and similar means of transport, if something major should go wrong we have nothing to hold on to.

That’s simply why redundancy is of vital significance in the aeronautic perspective. To make sure I clarify my point, let’s look at one recent Air Namibia incident that took place on March 12 2009 and analyse it. In reference to an aviation website, The Aviation Herald: An Air Namibia Airbus A340-300, registration V5-NME performing flight SW-286 from Frankfurt/Main (Germany) to Windhoek (Namibia), returned to Frankfurt/Main after an engine failed shortly after takeoff. The landing 20 minutes after takeoff was safe.The engine reportedly caught fire as result of the failure; the fire was extinguished with the engine fire bottles.Air Namibia interrupted the rotation Windhoek to London Gatwick (SW-385 dep Mar 12th/SW-386 dep Mar 13th) in London the following day, cancelled the return leg SW-386 and SW-385 (both dep Mar 13th) back to London and ferried their second A340-300, V5-NMF over to Frankfurt (flight SW-9386), which resumed flight 286 and brought the passengers from Frankfurt to Windhoek with a total delay of 28 hours and returned to Frankfurt as regular (delayed) flight SW-285 from Windhoek to Frankfurt arriving on Mar 14th. Subsequently V5-NMF was ferried to London Gatwick as flight SW-9286 and resumed the London rotation (SW-386), while V5-NME resumed the Frankfurt rotation with flight SW-286 after the failed engine had been replaced.First and foremost let me advise you that it’s not my duty to discuss what caused the fire but what I can really tell you is that it is something common and there are a number of contributing factors. This scenario can be considered as minor considering the fact that the aircraft has four engines. But nevertheless that is not the subject matter.Decisions: The most feared role simply because of its repercussions. Who was the decision maker in this scenario? Obviously the pilot in charge or in command in some cases the Captain. The pilot had two choices, to either continue with his flight or simply to jettison (get rid of the fuel) and return to the airport. Theoretically the aircraft should be safe enough to complete the flight with the remaining three engines but obviously with some compromise. I personally think the pilot made a very good choice. I remember a pilot who decided to resume his flight with the landing gear down after several failed attempts and he unfortunately never made it home. This could have been with the influence of the ‘Go-home-Syndrome’ or he just wanted to please his bosses, thanks to the ICAO for the introduction of the Safety Management System (SMS) which intends to tackle this kind of influence.Now let’s discuss these two choices more in detail and outline all the consequences involved. We should always bear in mind that an error is always valueless or meaningless unless it results in a negative consequence. Should the pilot continue to his destination, there is a fair chance that he would reach his destination, but he has a price to pay. He has to compensate for the power loss on that one engine which will be a burden, let alone the amount of drag he will be subjected to as a result of the engine loss. In addition to that, the high fuel consumption. Due to the above factors, the aircraft’s safety margin is lower simply because the redundancy is degraded and all this compromises the safety of the passengers. Should anything catastrophic have happened, the excellent Air Namibia Safety record would have been tarnished and also bearing in mind that statistically there’s an aircraft accident every week.Now, on the other hand if he (pilot) reached home safely, he would have been a hero and his erroneous decision would not have been accounted for. All the Air Namibia flights would have been on time let alone the customer satisfaction. Never compromise safety with customer’s comfort and satisfaction. The good decision was the one the pilot made, unfortunately there was an interruption in some other flights and my wife could not take her flight on time but it could have been worse, should it have been the other way round. Passengers always moan about their late luggage, delayed flights and excess luggage without considering or with perhaps no knowledge about the fragility of the industry. It’s about time my fellow Namibians become more involved in aviation and understood the nature and technicality behind it. And trust me on this one fellow Namibians, all these decisions are strictly made in the interest of your safety. Each time I sign an aircraft release to service, I have a sleepless night, just because of your safety. Be proud of your airline, it is flying your flag where some other major airlines are banned simply because of lack of competence in safety issues. Should anything happen, it’s Murphy’s Law. Let’s start to have some confidence in our own people. Aviation is not rocket science. An error is something embedded within a human and no matter how hard we try we can never eliminate them.Petty TjitemisaVia e-mail