UP FROM THE RABBIT HOLE, a hint of spring in the air, let's lose Brazil again for a while and trot out some off-hand observations, the formula courtesy of sports columnist Jimmy Cannon's occasional and classic "Nobody Asked Me, But ..." columns. Cannon died in 1973, but Joe Brancatelli has kept the formula alive, and I steal it here thinly disguised:
All's I'm Sayin' Is ...
--I don't know how I feel about about the pending passengers' bill of rights federal legislation. That would be a federal law to address recent fiascos when passengers on numerous airlines -- most prominently American on Dec. 29 and JetBlue on Feb. 14 -- were stranded on board planes for up to 10 hours, unable to get to a gate. The last time it came around, in 1999, after a similar Northwest Airlines fiasco during a blizzard, that proposed passengers' bill of rights collapsed under its own weight in Congress after too many interest-groups hopped on board, adding trivial provisions and afterthoughts and sounding like the squabbling Judean people's revolutionary groups bickering and equivocating over grievances against Rome in Monty Python's "The Life of Brian." The problem is fairly simple, it seems to me: The pilot should be able to decide, after, say, 4 hours, whether to go back to the gate and let people off. (It's actually more complicated, but we won't get into that right now). Anyway, someone recently posted this on Flyertalk.com: "I traded in some of my miles for a 'Get Out of the Plane Free' card."
-- GIULIANI TIME -- Check out the text of Rudy Giuliani's standard travel-contract rider for giving a speech, on Thesmokinggun.com (click on "archives" and the item is dated Feb. 15. ) Rudy gets $100,000 for a 45-minute talk, plus private jet transportation for up to five people. The plane "MUST BE a Gulfstream IV or bigger" [caps theirs]. Plus the mark, uh, client must supply a two-bedroom hotel suite "with a balcony and view if applicable," plus four additional single rooms for Rudy's squad. All meals and expenses for all of the Giuliani party are to be paid, and "one sedan and one large SUV," with drivers, must be available on call, all the time. Among other universities, Oklahoma State coughed up the dough, just in case you're wondering about why annual tuition costs what you used to pay for a nice three-bedroom house.
--'TEN HUT -- How do they get away with this stuff? Wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center say the brass has told them not to talk to the media after the Washington Post ran a hell of a story last week showing how some recovering vets, badly wounded in combat, are neglected and consigned to squalid quarters during long stays at the hospital. The follow-up on the brass's chicken s--- reaction is in Army Times, which has been doing an admirable job itself on both the war and the wounded vets, via a link on Huffingtonpost.com. The brass also told the recovering troops at the hospital that they have to be up at 6 each morning, with beds and lockers ready for daily inspection by 7 -- which, as Army Times points out, isn't something soldiers, marines or sailors usually have to endure after boot camp, let alone while recovering from major combat wounds. Gives new meaning, I say, to the term "brass balls."
[Note appended March 2: I was remiss above in not saying that the scandals at Walter Reed and other military recuperation centers for wounded vets were first exposed in a series of very hard-hitting articles by Mark Benjamin starting two years ago on Salon.com].
--I am happy to read that Vice President "Deferral" Dick Cheney heroically survived being a scant mile away from a terrorist bomb the other day outside a U.S. base in Kabul. "I heard a loud boom," Deferral Dick said afterwards, according to various breathless media accounts. Yeah, a loud boom -- that's what the 19 or more people who were actually KILLED in the explosion heard -- only louder. (That is also, now that I think of it, what the guy who Deferral Dick accidentally shot in the face while duck-hunting must have heard).
--I love those giddy headlines on the Drudge Report. There's one today, "Video: Insane Man Disrupts Live Newscast!" My question: How could they tell?
--The startling archaeological news on television purporting that Jesus Christ's earthly remains have been found in a tomb in Jerusalem inspired me to commemorate the event with verse that reactivated my Catholic school basic Latin (and reminded me of why the nuns found reason to smack me around so much). To wit:
Dominus vobiscum, pax!
You're saying WHO is in that box?
Yes, please pray for me to whomever is left in your pantheon.
-----
--And finally, some friendly advice to the marketing people promoting Mississippi as a travel destination (from someone who knew Biloxi when a good hotel room cost $40 a night).
A Mississippi marketing agency is promoting a new campaign designed to "combat the negative stereotypes often associated with the state of Mississippi" and to focus on the "many positive attributes."
It seems some boosters in Mississippi seem to be overreacting a bit to snotty comments made by U.S. Rep. Charley Rangle, of New York, who was quoted as saying: "Who wants to live in Mississippi?"
The new "Mississippi, Believe It!" marketing campaign was devised by the Jackson, Mississippi-based Cirlot Agency, which has for some reason obtained a trademark for that phrase, and started a promotional drive to "dismantle negative Mississippi stereotypes." Rick Looser, who runs the agency, was quoted as saying he sent Rangle a tee-shirt from the online store at www.mississippibelieveit.com. The tee-shirt says, "Yes We Can Read. A Few of Us Can Even Write." To log onto the Web site, by the way, you must be able to spell Mississippi.
Now, I am not making the following up. The press release cites as famous Mississippi natives these people, and these people alone: Hartley Peavey, founder of Peavey Electronics, and Chief Philip Martin "of the Mississippi band of Choctaw Indians." Also Dr. Arthur Guyton, who wrote a classic physiology textbook -- in 1956 at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Bathing in the accomplishments of its native son, the press release gushes, "Mississippi: When It Comes to Modern Medicine, We Wrote the Book." (Not sure if they've trademarked that slogan.)
Hartley Peavey, Chief Martin and the renowned author of a modern 1956 physiology classic aside, let me suggest just a few famous Mississippi natives whose names inexplicably are missing from the boasting:
William Faulkner, Elvis Presley, Leontyne Price, Tennessee Williams, Jimmy Buffett, Red Barber, Oprah Winfrey, Eudora Welty ... the list goes on.
--end
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Monday, February 26, 2007
LOST IN TRANSLATION
For those of you (and there are a few) following the Brazil transcripts imbroglio very, very carefully, herewith the following translator's note, via the ever-diligent Richard Pedicini, chief of our Sao Paulo bureau. (Which happens to be our only foreign bureau, but it's one more than 99.9 percent of American news organizations have).
Translator's Note:
"Recent media storms about the Gol Flight 1907 crash investigation have centered on leaked transcripts of conversations between the Legacy pilots. The transcripts are translated - and very badly. That has misled press coverage. It may also mislead the Federal Police investigation, and possibly the Air Force investigation as well.
I'm going to give two examples of where the translation is unquestionably faulty, then look at how the translation was produced, and where it's being used.
On the question of the translation quality, the Brazilian press has retreated to its usual "he said/she said" stance, the notion that there are "two versions" to every story. And of course I can't compare the English and the Portuguese - I've only got the Portuguese, which I've translated back. But that is enough by itself to prove that the Federal Police translation has serious flaws.
Let's look first at a stretch of dialog reported in the Folha on February 18. In the printed paper, the equivalent of a full newspaper page is taken up with transcripts of dialogs. Two phrases are set apart, in bigger, bolder letters, above and below a diagram of the aircrafts' wings colliding. The first, labeled "Before the collision", says:
"Hot 2- Céu a 2.500. Eu não sei o que TX 35 significa... TN 25. Eu preciso aprender essa porra internacional. Merda."
"Hot 2 - Sky at 2,500. I don't know what TX 35 means... TN 25. I need to learn this International crap. Shit."
The same dialog with a bit more context appears again on the same page under the heading "Problems with the Radio".
But what does it mean?
On the PPRUNE Internet board, poster George Rock, an air transport pilot from Rio, says,
"The pilots were talking about Terminal Aerodrome Forecast - TAF. There was no relation to aircraft Radio Equipment. TX means Forecast Maximum Temperature and TN means Forecast Minimum Temperature."
Google provides us with the means of getting Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts online. If we go to http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/taf.shtml and give the four-character ICAO Location code for Manaus's Eduardo Gomes airport, SBEG, and then hit the button, we can get the current TAF. We get alphabet soup, but significantly including TX and TN.
Let's try a less official source than weather.noaa.gov . The display at
http://www.flightsimaviation.com/db/airports/SBEG tells us we're looking at the data for Eduardo Gomes airport, alright, but the TAF itself is still cryptic, but with TX and TN right at the end:
Certainly there should be a means of finding out just what TAF would have provided for Eduardo Gomes on 18:51 GMT on September 29, and comparing it with the values in the dialogue.
So Captain Rock, rocks: he can recognize what was being talked about. Eliane Cantanhêde, can't.
But even so - doesn't it show that the pilots were unfamiliar with the craft? Isn't it the smoking gun?
Well, no. What is shows is that one of the pilots can't translate Celsius to Fahrenheit in his head. Which, living in Brazil for fifteen years, I can't do either. If you tell me you took your temperature and it's 101 degrees, I know you have a significant but not dangerous fever; if you say you've got a 38.3 Celsius fever I haven't a clue. If you tell me 'the weather forecast is for a high of 35 and a low of 25, well, "I don't know what TX 35 means... TN 25. I need to learn this International crap. Shit."
A transcript leaked to Veja in December had the dialog just after the collision. The translated dialog can be found at: http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Brasil/0,,AA1428315-5598,00.html
Two of the entries clearly show translation problems. One is:
"Tudo bem. Nós estamos descendo. Declarando uma emergência. Senta." Which is, literally, "All right. We're descending. Declaring an emergency. Sit."
That last one-word sentence is telling. "Senta", or "Sit." What a strange thing to say. "Sit tight" seems to fit the situation far better. An equivalent phrase in Portuguese would be "Segure aí", "Hang on."
Also, both "We're descending" and "We're going down" translate as the phrase given in Portuguese. There are contexts in which they are equivalent; a pilot in normal flight could say "We're descending to 30,000 feet" or "We're going down to 30,000 feet". In the context of a plane that has just suffered a collision, the difference between the phrases is enormous.
The other phrase in the Veja dialogues, is the one most quoted. "É, o TCAS está desligado." "É" is a complete one-syllable sentence; it means "It is." There is no English phrase that translates best as "É". "Yes" or "Yeah" are better as "Sim". Even "It is" - which would make no sense in the context - would be better as "Ele é."
Another difficulty is the word "desligado". The English "off" and "turned off" both translate as "desligado", but difference in meaning between the two is significant: "off" merely means not functioning at the moment, while "turned off" implies some normal action was taken to place it in that condition.
[Federal Police] Chief Sayão gave his view to the Folha, at "http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/cotidiano/ult95u130878.shtml :
Without seeing the original English it's impossible to be certain, ... but on the limited available evidence, the translation is not good. Certainly not good enough for investigating an accident that took the lives of 154 people, and certainly not good enough to be "fundamental" to accusing two men of causing it.
Who made the translations? Catanhêde responded to criticism of the translations by dodging the question, in an article in the February 21 Folha. She says that the transcriptions were made by the National Transportation Safely Board (NTSB) in Washington, and further that they "are included, in the simultaneous investigations by the Air Force and the Federal Police, already translated to Portuguese. The Folha copied the principal segments from the version in the hands of Brazilian investigators, already translated into Portuguese."
In a February 23 interview in O Estado, Sayão explains where the translations come from:
This is not the worst translation in the history of Brazilian aviation: that distinction belongs to the Brazilian Air Force's translation of the French accident report on the July 11, 1973, crash of a Varig airline near Orly. That translation actually added and removed paragraphs to reduce Varig's fault, and its indemnifications. It was not merely bad, it was intentionally wrong.
An additional concern is that the Air Force investigation may be relying upon the Federal Police's translation, and that it as well wind up viewing one of the principal sources of information on the crash not directly, but in the fogged mirror of a bad translation. It may not be a fun-house mirror like the Orly crash, but it will make the truth harder to see.
A problem the Brazilian press faces is that the Federal Police translation is an "official translation." An American might feel that a bad translation with an official stamp on it is still a bad translation. Brazilians give official seals, and official sources, and official accusations, far more credibility than they deserve. If everything official were correct and well done, a free press would be unnecessary. But the press here never questions an official version that tells them what they want to hear."
--end of translator's note
Joe Sharkey's Note:
Regarding translation challenges in Brazil, all I can say myself is that I was struck by certain translating oddities during our all-night interrogation session at Federal Police headquarters in Cuiaba two nights after the crash. I was questioned for about one hour by a police commander. Here's how he worked. He asked questions in Portuguese. A very nice woman who apologized to me for her English then translated the questions to me (in what I nevertheless regarded as pretty good English). I answered her in English. She then translated my replies to the Federal Police commander in Portuguese. HE, in turn, dictated, in Portuguese, his own version, presumably a summary, of my replies to a man sitting at a big teletype-looking machine with a keyboard. The man typed away laboriously.
When my questioning was finally over, the transcript was printed out in Portuguese, and I was given the lengthy copy to look over and sign. At the suggestion of the military adjunct to the U.S. consul, who was in the room, I (and all of the other survivors who were questioned that night, including the two American pilots) signed as ordered, but added the words: "I neither speak nor understand Portuguese."
That was the last I ever saw of my transcript, which has of course now become a part of the criminal investigative file. I was not given a copy of it, which struck me as odd. For all I know, I confessed in Portuguese to kidnapping the Lindbergh baby.
Which I absolutely deny.
But that was my own personal experience with the, let's say, casual attitude the police authorities seemed to have toward translation, at the very start of what would soon become a very serious criminal investigation.
--end
Translator's Note:
"Recent media storms about the Gol Flight 1907 crash investigation have centered on leaked transcripts of conversations between the Legacy pilots. The transcripts are translated - and very badly. That has misled press coverage. It may also mislead the Federal Police investigation, and possibly the Air Force investigation as well.
I'm going to give two examples of where the translation is unquestionably faulty, then look at how the translation was produced, and where it's being used.
On the question of the translation quality, the Brazilian press has retreated to its usual "he said/she said" stance, the notion that there are "two versions" to every story. And of course I can't compare the English and the Portuguese - I've only got the Portuguese, which I've translated back. But that is enough by itself to prove that the Federal Police translation has serious flaws.
Let's look first at a stretch of dialog reported in the Folha on February 18. In the printed paper, the equivalent of a full newspaper page is taken up with transcripts of dialogs. Two phrases are set apart, in bigger, bolder letters, above and below a diagram of the aircrafts' wings colliding. The first, labeled "Before the collision", says:
"Hot 2- Céu a 2.500. Eu não sei o que TX 35 significa... TN 25. Eu preciso aprender essa porra internacional. Merda."
"Hot 2 - Sky at 2,500. I don't know what TX 35 means... TN 25. I need to learn this International crap. Shit."
The same dialog with a bit more context appears again on the same page under the heading "Problems with the Radio".
But what does it mean?
On the PPRUNE Internet board, poster George Rock, an air transport pilot from Rio, says,
"The pilots were talking about Terminal Aerodrome Forecast - TAF. There was no relation to aircraft Radio Equipment. TX means Forecast Maximum Temperature and TN means Forecast Minimum Temperature."
Google provides us with the means of getting Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts online. If we go to http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/taf.shtml and give the four-character ICAO Location code for Manaus's Eduardo Gomes airport, SBEG, and then hit the button, we can get the current TAF. We get alphabet soup, but significantly including TX and TN.
Let's try a less official source than weather.noaa.gov . The display at
http://www.flightsimaviation.com/db/airports/SBEG tells us we're looking at the data for Eduardo Gomes airport, alright, but the TAF itself is still cryptic, but with TX and TN right at the end:
Fortunately for those of us who only ride in airplanes, there's an "Explain these data..." button. It calls a program at http://adds.aviationweather.gov/metars/index.php which translates all the raw data into English, including:
"TAF: SBEG 261100Z 261212 00000KT 9999 SCT008 PROB40 TEMPO 1216 09010KT
1000 TSRA BKN006 FEW025CB BECMG 1618 09007KT 9999 SCT015
BECMG 2224 00000KT FEW010 TX32/17Z TN24/07Z"
" Ceiling: 600 feet AGL"
Which seems to be what "BNK0006" means - broken clouds at flight level 6 - and at the end:"Temperature: minimum 24.0°C (75°F) expected at 0700 UTC, maximum 32.0°C (90°F) expected at 1700 UTC"
Those of course are easy to match to the TN and TX in the raw data.Certainly there should be a means of finding out just what TAF would have provided for Eduardo Gomes on 18:51 GMT on September 29, and comparing it with the values in the dialogue.
So Captain Rock, rocks: he can recognize what was being talked about. Eliane Cantanhêde, can't.
But even so - doesn't it show that the pilots were unfamiliar with the craft? Isn't it the smoking gun?
Well, no. What is shows is that one of the pilots can't translate Celsius to Fahrenheit in his head. Which, living in Brazil for fifteen years, I can't do either. If you tell me you took your temperature and it's 101 degrees, I know you have a significant but not dangerous fever; if you say you've got a 38.3 Celsius fever I haven't a clue. If you tell me 'the weather forecast is for a high of 35 and a low of 25, well, "I don't know what TX 35 means... TN 25. I need to learn this International crap. Shit."
A transcript leaked to Veja in December had the dialog just after the collision. The translated dialog can be found at: http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Brasil/0,,AA1428315-5598,00.html
Two of the entries clearly show translation problems. One is:
"Tudo bem. Nós estamos descendo. Declarando uma emergência. Senta." Which is, literally, "All right. We're descending. Declaring an emergency. Sit."
That last one-word sentence is telling. "Senta", or "Sit." What a strange thing to say. "Sit tight" seems to fit the situation far better. An equivalent phrase in Portuguese would be "Segure aí", "Hang on."
Also, both "We're descending" and "We're going down" translate as the phrase given in Portuguese. There are contexts in which they are equivalent; a pilot in normal flight could say "We're descending to 30,000 feet" or "We're going down to 30,000 feet". In the context of a plane that has just suffered a collision, the difference between the phrases is enormous.
The other phrase in the Veja dialogues, is the one most quoted. "É, o TCAS está desligado." "É" is a complete one-syllable sentence; it means "It is." There is no English phrase that translates best as "É". "Yes" or "Yeah" are better as "Sim". Even "It is" - which would make no sense in the context - would be better as "Ele é."
Another difficulty is the word "desligado". The English "off" and "turned off" both translate as "desligado", but difference in meaning between the two is significant: "off" merely means not functioning at the moment, while "turned off" implies some normal action was taken to place it in that condition.
[Federal Police] Chief Sayão gave his view to the Folha, at "http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/cotidiano/ult95u130878.shtml :
"The dialogs were fundamental to establish that the [anticollision] equipment was turned off. The truth is that [the conversation] was translated [in the inquiry] in the same way it was in 'Veja' magazine. It is a faithful translation. 'Off', in English, is 'desligado', there is no other translation", affirmed Sayão.
Without seeing the original English it's impossible to be certain, ... but on the limited available evidence, the translation is not good. Certainly not good enough for investigating an accident that took the lives of 154 people, and certainly not good enough to be "fundamental" to accusing two men of causing it.
Who made the translations? Catanhêde responded to criticism of the translations by dodging the question, in an article in the February 21 Folha. She says that the transcriptions were made by the National Transportation Safely Board (NTSB) in Washington, and further that they "are included, in the simultaneous investigations by the Air Force and the Federal Police, already translated to Portuguese. The Folha copied the principal segments from the version in the hands of Brazilian investigators, already translated into Portuguese."
In a February 23 interview in O Estado, Sayão explains where the translations come from:
When did the transcript reach your hands?
In English, in November. Translated (by experts of the superintendency in Cuiabá), in December.
So the Portuguese translations were done by the Federal Police's staff in Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, population 542,861. In all fairness, it's no doubt a better English-Portuguese translation than the FBI office in Little Rock could produce with its in-house talent. But it is not good enough.In English, in November. Translated (by experts of the superintendency in Cuiabá), in December.
This is not the worst translation in the history of Brazilian aviation: that distinction belongs to the Brazilian Air Force's translation of the French accident report on the July 11, 1973, crash of a Varig airline near Orly. That translation actually added and removed paragraphs to reduce Varig's fault, and its indemnifications. It was not merely bad, it was intentionally wrong.
An additional concern is that the Air Force investigation may be relying upon the Federal Police's translation, and that it as well wind up viewing one of the principal sources of information on the crash not directly, but in the fogged mirror of a bad translation. It may not be a fun-house mirror like the Orly crash, but it will make the truth harder to see.
A problem the Brazilian press faces is that the Federal Police translation is an "official translation." An American might feel that a bad translation with an official stamp on it is still a bad translation. Brazilians give official seals, and official sources, and official accusations, far more credibility than they deserve. If everything official were correct and well done, a free press would be unnecessary. But the press here never questions an official version that tells them what they want to hear."
--end of translator's note
Joe Sharkey's Note:
Regarding translation challenges in Brazil, all I can say myself is that I was struck by certain translating oddities during our all-night interrogation session at Federal Police headquarters in Cuiaba two nights after the crash. I was questioned for about one hour by a police commander. Here's how he worked. He asked questions in Portuguese. A very nice woman who apologized to me for her English then translated the questions to me (in what I nevertheless regarded as pretty good English). I answered her in English. She then translated my replies to the Federal Police commander in Portuguese. HE, in turn, dictated, in Portuguese, his own version, presumably a summary, of my replies to a man sitting at a big teletype-looking machine with a keyboard. The man typed away laboriously.
When my questioning was finally over, the transcript was printed out in Portuguese, and I was given the lengthy copy to look over and sign. At the suggestion of the military adjunct to the U.S. consul, who was in the room, I (and all of the other survivors who were questioned that night, including the two American pilots) signed as ordered, but added the words: "I neither speak nor understand Portuguese."
That was the last I ever saw of my transcript, which has of course now become a part of the criminal investigative file. I was not given a copy of it, which struck me as odd. For all I know, I confessed in Portuguese to kidnapping the Lindbergh baby.
Which I absolutely deny.
But that was my own personal experience with the, let's say, casual attitude the police authorities seemed to have toward translation, at the very start of what would soon become a very serious criminal investigation.
--end
Saturday, February 24, 2007
WITHOUT COMMENT
Yeah, I know I said I'd rested my case. Just by way of keeping you up to date on what's going on down the rabbit hole, here's a link followed by a translation.
http://oglobo.globo.com/pais/mat/2007/02/23/294687932.asp
Chief is convinced of Legacy pilots' blame in accident
Published on 23/02/2007 at 19:05
by Anselmo Carvalho Pinto - O Globo
CUIABÁ - Federal police chief Renato Sayão, who is investigating the causes of the accident with the Gol plane in September of last year, no longer has any doubts that the pilots of the Legacy jet,
The chief, however, is still trying to understand how the jet's transponder and TCAS were disconnected. The first is the electronic communication device responsible for emitting the plane's data. The TCAS is the anti-collision system.
"We still need to know details about the operation of this equipment", Sayão said.
In two questions which he sent to the experts at the National Criminalistic Institute, Sayão asks for responses to a doubt which he considers essential: if the commands which activate the two devices are similar to each other or if they are near the keys that operate the radio or any other apparatus frequently handled during cruising flight. In another question, he asks what sequence of actions is necessary for the turning off of the transponder, and of the TCAS. He has doubts about the necessary order of commands which permit deactivating the equipment.
"With these answers, we can have certainty as to whether the turning off was voluntary or involuntary", the chief affirmed.
Chief says that no controller will be accused
The information can add little to the inquiry, since Lepore and Paladino are already accused of the crime of involuntarily exposing a vessel or aircraft to risk. But it could be an aggravating factor in the calculation of an eventual penalty. The chief guarantees that he will not accuse them of any other crime.
In the period of the investigation that still remains, Sayão is waiting only for the results of expert examinations requisitioned from the Center for the Investigation and Prevention of Aeronautic Accidents (Cenipa), of the Department of Air Space Control (Decea) and from Embraer, manufacturer of the Legacy. From the first, the experts will evaluate the complete content of the black boxes of the two planes.
For Decea, the request includes more images of the screens of the radars in the
As soon as he receives the results of the expert examinations, the chief will make a final report on the inquiry, in which the only ones incriminated will be the pilots. Sayão understands that, even if some inadequate conduct by the
"My understanding is that it is up to the Air Force to investigate eventual military crimes", he affirmed.
In the case of suspicion of blame on the part of the Brazilian controllers, the Federal Police will request that the Federal Prosecutors' Office send the inquiry to the Military Prosecutors' Office recommending the opening of a new investigation. The controllers in São José dos
BLAME IT ON RIO
Yeah, I know I said I had rested my case in the matter of the Sept. 29 mid-air collision, and I have, to the extent that I won't engage in debating facts that are no longer in dispute.
The evidence for the defense is overwhelming, except to the authorities involved in the coverup, one of the chief of whom, incidentally, has the professional distinction of once having been locked in the trunk of his car by four under-aged prostitutes.
We know who was responsible for the accident. But as I've said from the beginning -- from the first day in the jungle, in fact -- I'm pretty sure the fix is in.
I remain interested in Brazil as a travel destination (remember, the only Brazil I actually saw consisted of an airplane manufacturing plant, an air strip and military barracks in the middle of the Amazon, a police station in Cuiaba, and a hotel in San Jose dos Compos where I was under police surveillance till I managed to get out of the country).
So, the Carnaval festivities having just ended, I've been intrigued reading recent travel stories about Brazil. What a swell place Rio is to frolic, they enthuse! Yet there's nary a mention in most of this frilly travel-writing about one of the most notable characteristics of Brazilian tourist-destination cities: shockingly high crime rates.
Travelers deserve better information. Rio and Sao Paulo are dangerous cities. Period. As the United States State Department warned the other day in a very strongly worded advisory: "Crime throughout Brazil has reached very high levels." (Excerpts from the full advisory are printed below).
Even top government officials are getting mugged and kidnapped.
In today's Brazzil.com, is a story about Brazil's Finance Minister, Guido Mantega being taken hostage and held at gunpoint while visiting a friend's ranch in Ibiúna, interior of the southeastern state of São Paulo, during Carnaval. Also held were his wife and two children, from Friday night, February 16 to Wednesday, February 21. They were otherwise unharmed.
Here are the key aspects of the recent State Department travel advisory on Brazil:
"CRIME: Crime throughout Brazil has reached very high levels. The Brazilian police and the Brazilian press report that the rate of crime continues to rise, especially in the major urban centers – though it is also spreading in rural areas. Brazil’s murder rate is several times higher than that of the U.S. Rates for other crimes are similarly high. The majority of crimes are not solved. There were several reported rapes against American citizens in 2006.
RIO DE JANEIRO: The city continues to experience a high incidence of crime. Tourists are particularly vulnerable to street thefts and robberies on and in areas adjacent to major tourist attractions and the main beaches in the city. Walking on the beaches is very dangerous at night. During the day, travelers are advised not to take possessions of value to the beach. Incidents affecting tourists in 2006 included the robbery of cars and a tourist bus going into the city from the airport and the murder of a Portuguese tourist at 8:30 a.m. on Copacabana beach. Drug gangs are often responsible for destruction of property and other violence, such as the burning of public buses at the end of 2005 caused the deaths of some passengers . ... While most police officials are honest, in 2006, there were several cases of corrupt police officials extorting money from American tourists. ...
The evidence for the defense is overwhelming, except to the authorities involved in the coverup, one of the chief of whom, incidentally, has the professional distinction of once having been locked in the trunk of his car by four under-aged prostitutes.
We know who was responsible for the accident. But as I've said from the beginning -- from the first day in the jungle, in fact -- I'm pretty sure the fix is in.
I remain interested in Brazil as a travel destination (remember, the only Brazil I actually saw consisted of an airplane manufacturing plant, an air strip and military barracks in the middle of the Amazon, a police station in Cuiaba, and a hotel in San Jose dos Compos where I was under police surveillance till I managed to get out of the country).
So, the Carnaval festivities having just ended, I've been intrigued reading recent travel stories about Brazil. What a swell place Rio is to frolic, they enthuse! Yet there's nary a mention in most of this frilly travel-writing about one of the most notable characteristics of Brazilian tourist-destination cities: shockingly high crime rates.
Travelers deserve better information. Rio and Sao Paulo are dangerous cities. Period. As the United States State Department warned the other day in a very strongly worded advisory: "Crime throughout Brazil has reached very high levels." (Excerpts from the full advisory are printed below).
Even top government officials are getting mugged and kidnapped.
In today's Brazzil.com, is a story about Brazil's Finance Minister, Guido Mantega being taken hostage and held at gunpoint while visiting a friend's ranch in Ibiúna, interior of the southeastern state of São Paulo, during Carnaval. Also held were his wife and two children, from Friday night, February 16 to Wednesday, February 21. They were otherwise unharmed.
Last December, you might recall, Brazil's Chief Justice, Ellen Gracie Northfleet, was carjacked in Rio by six armed men. She and a passenger in her car, the Brazilian Supreme Court vice president, were dragged out of the car at gunpoint and robbed while, Brazzil.com reported then , "the policemen in charge of the security, driving in two other cars, watched the whole scene without reacting."
And let's not forget about the several recent incidents in which gunmen have hijacked airport shuttle buses carrying tourists from the airport to their hotels in Rio and robbed them all, sometimes with pistol-whipping.Here are the key aspects of the recent State Department travel advisory on Brazil:
"CRIME: Crime throughout Brazil has reached very high levels. The Brazilian police and the Brazilian press report that the rate of crime continues to rise, especially in the major urban centers – though it is also spreading in rural areas. Brazil’s murder rate is several times higher than that of the U.S. Rates for other crimes are similarly high. The majority of crimes are not solved. There were several reported rapes against American citizens in 2006.
Street crime remains a problem for visitors and local residents alike, especially in the evenings and late at night. Foreign tourists are often targets of crime and Americans are not exempt. This targeting occurs in all tourist areas but is especially problematic in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador.
Caution is advised with regard to nighttime travel through more rural areas and satellite cities due to reported incidents of roadside robberies that randomly target passing vehicles. Robbery and “quicknapping” outside of banks and ATM machines are common. In a “quicknapping,” criminals abduct victims for a short time in order to receive a quick payoff from the family, business or the victim’s ATM card. Some victims have been beaten and/or raped.
The incidence of crime against tourists is greater in areas surrounding beaches, hotels, discotheques, bars, nightclubs, and other similar establishments that cater to visitors. This type of crime is especially prevalent during Carnaval (Brazilian Mardi Gras) ...
At airports, hotel lobbies, bus stations and other public places, incidents of pick pocketing, theft of hand carried luggage, and laptop computers are common. Travelers should "dress down" when outside and avoid carrying valuables or wearing jewelry or expensive watches. "Good Samaritan" scams are common. If a tourist looks lost or seems to be having trouble communicating, a seemingly innocent bystander offering help may victimize them. Care should be taken at and around banks and internationally connected automatic teller machines that take U.S. credit or debit cards. ... Carjacking is on the increase in Sao Paulo, Recife and other cities.
Travelers using personal ATMs or credit cards sometimes receive billing statements with non-authorized charges after returning from a visit to Brazil. The Embassy and Consulates have received numerous reports from both official Americans and tourists who have had their cards cloned or duplicated without their knowledge. Those using such payment methods should carefully monitor their banking online for the duration of their visit. ...RIO DE JANEIRO: The city continues to experience a high incidence of crime. Tourists are particularly vulnerable to street thefts and robberies on and in areas adjacent to major tourist attractions and the main beaches in the city. Walking on the beaches is very dangerous at night. During the day, travelers are advised not to take possessions of value to the beach. Incidents affecting tourists in 2006 included the robbery of cars and a tourist bus going into the city from the airport and the murder of a Portuguese tourist at 8:30 a.m. on Copacabana beach. Drug gangs are often responsible for destruction of property and other violence, such as the burning of public buses at the end of 2005 caused the deaths of some passengers . ... While most police officials are honest, in 2006, there were several cases of corrupt police officials extorting money from American tourists. ...
SAO PAULO: While similar incidents may occur elsewhere, all areas of Sao Paulo have a high rate of armed robbery of pedestrians at stoplights. There is a particularly high incidence of robberies and pick pocketing in the Praca da Se section of Sao Paulo and in the eastern part of the city. As is true of "red light districts" in other cities, the areas of Sao Paulo on Rua Augusta north of Avenida Paulista and the Estacao de Luz metro area are especially dangerous. There are regular reports of young women slipping knockout drops in men's drinks and robbing them of all their belongings while they are unconscious. Armed holdups of pedestrians and motorists by young men on motorcycles (“motoboys”) are an increasingly common occurrence in some parts of Sao Paulo. Victims who resist risk being shot. The number one item of choice by robbers in Sao Paulo, especially with regards to business travelers, is laptop computers. Recent efforts of incarcerated drug lords to exert their power outside of their jail cells have resulted in sporadic disruptions in the city, violence directed at the authorities, bus burnings and vandalism at ATM machines. These occurrences have not resulted in any injuries to U.S. citizens. Visitors and residents should respect police roadblocks and be aware that some municipal services may be disrupted."
--end |
Friday, February 23, 2007
CHENEY NEAR VIETNAM!
To me the most important travel news of the day is that Dick ("Five Deferrals") Cheney is on a state visit to Australia, which was at least relatively close enough to Vietnam (well, about 4,500 miles) to serve as the most popular R&R destination for those of us who were actually hauled off to Southeast Asia 'way back when, on a mission to defend the domino theory.
Back then, Deferral Dick, you might recall, claimed he had "other priorities" that argued against his going 0ff to a war that, as a patriot, he nevertheless, of course, fully supported -- though about 40 years later he claimed no impediment to helping start a war, again from his usual safe distance.
And this one in Iraq -- hey that's working out real well, huh? The insurgents are using chlorine gas now, just like good old World War I.
Ah, war. It has run in my family, so let me digress on that subject.
Both my grandfathers served in World War I, one coming home with serious injuries from being gassed. I had a great-grandfather in the Union Army in the Civil War. My Dad, who died shortly after I got back from Brazil, was an Army officer in World War II (North Africa, Italy, France, Germany). My Mother was in the Navy's women's branch, the WAVES , during World War II.
I went to Vietnam, in the Navy, on the ground, in Saigon, in early 1968. My brother was a Marine. Another brother was in the Army. I have a nephew who graduated from the Naval Academy. Guess where he could be headed if Cowboy Bush (you know, the self-styled Texas cowpoke and Vietnam-dodger who can't ride a horse and is said to be actually afraid of them?) decides to go to do more surging using other people's children in the Middle East?
I have a son. And I will allow no one to drag my boy off to a war.
I have a friend who is in the National Guard -- and sincerely believes he's going to be sent to Iraq by the summer. The man is 57 and is required to do as many push-ups and run as many miles as the 25 year olds he supervises at his unit. And he expects to be sent into combat this year. He's an optician.
A Washington Post last Sunday on squalid physical and professional conditions at Washington's Walter Reed Hospital, where hundreds of disabled, disoriented and otherwise grievously injured Iraq War veterans appear to have been left to basically fend for themselves, is a must read, by the way. It was written by Dana Priest and Anne Hull. Another must-read is today's New York Times piece by Lizette Alvarez on what this interminable, senseless war and its impossible demands on our troops, is doing to military family lives.
Perhaps Deferral Dick can find time among his priorities to read both stories on his luxury jet ride home.
Or perhaps not.
On my personal e-mail the other day, from Australia, there arrived an invitation from some think tank to interview a certain expert there on the implications of vice-president Cheney's visit to Australia.
I gave that one a silent pass, and resisted the impulse to reply, "Keep him there."
Later on today, I'll get off my high horse for a more mundane subject:
The airline industry gets seriously worried about the traction the proposed Passengers' Bill of Rights is gaining.
---end
Back then, Deferral Dick, you might recall, claimed he had "other priorities" that argued against his going 0ff to a war that, as a patriot, he nevertheless, of course, fully supported -- though about 40 years later he claimed no impediment to helping start a war, again from his usual safe distance.
And this one in Iraq -- hey that's working out real well, huh? The insurgents are using chlorine gas now, just like good old World War I.
Ah, war. It has run in my family, so let me digress on that subject.
Both my grandfathers served in World War I, one coming home with serious injuries from being gassed. I had a great-grandfather in the Union Army in the Civil War. My Dad, who died shortly after I got back from Brazil, was an Army officer in World War II (North Africa, Italy, France, Germany). My Mother was in the Navy's women's branch, the WAVES , during World War II.
I went to Vietnam, in the Navy, on the ground, in Saigon, in early 1968. My brother was a Marine. Another brother was in the Army. I have a nephew who graduated from the Naval Academy. Guess where he could be headed if Cowboy Bush (you know, the self-styled Texas cowpoke and Vietnam-dodger who can't ride a horse and is said to be actually afraid of them?) decides to go to do more surging using other people's children in the Middle East?
I have a son. And I will allow no one to drag my boy off to a war.
I have a friend who is in the National Guard -- and sincerely believes he's going to be sent to Iraq by the summer. The man is 57 and is required to do as many push-ups and run as many miles as the 25 year olds he supervises at his unit. And he expects to be sent into combat this year. He's an optician.
A Washington Post last Sunday on squalid physical and professional conditions at Washington's Walter Reed Hospital, where hundreds of disabled, disoriented and otherwise grievously injured Iraq War veterans appear to have been left to basically fend for themselves, is a must read, by the way. It was written by Dana Priest and Anne Hull. Another must-read is today's New York Times piece by Lizette Alvarez on what this interminable, senseless war and its impossible demands on our troops, is doing to military family lives.
Perhaps Deferral Dick can find time among his priorities to read both stories on his luxury jet ride home.
Or perhaps not.
On my personal e-mail the other day, from Australia, there arrived an invitation from some think tank to interview a certain expert there on the implications of vice-president Cheney's visit to Australia.
I gave that one a silent pass, and resisted the impulse to reply, "Keep him there."
Later on today, I'll get off my high horse for a more mundane subject:
The airline industry gets seriously worried about the traction the proposed Passengers' Bill of Rights is gaining.
---end
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
IN 'PLANE' ENGLISH, THE DEFENSE RESTS ITS CASE
Trying to reason with some elements of the Brazilian media is a little like working the reception desk by the security gate at the lunatic asylum on visitors' day, with the Three Stooges and the remaining Star Trek performers doing a benefit appearance in the auditorium.
Plus the pay, zero, is lousy.
So I hereby quit. Or as the suits say, "I am moving on to pursue new exciting interests and spend more time with my family."
For many months, I have been reporting on this blog, in regard to the horrible tragedy of Sept. 29, while employing an honorable form of journalism known as advocacy journalism. It was right and necessary to do this, in this case, because I was a witness, because 154 people died through error and misfeasance, if not malfeasance -- and because I was the only one of the seven who survived who was legally free to talk without constraint. Giving witness was a journalistic obligation, but more importantly it was an ethical and a moral one.
But I am not cut out for the long haul in the lonely and godforsaken pursuit of advocacy journalism, though I vastly admire the honest and courageous advocacy journalists who work long and hard and, usually, on their own, rowing against the current with nothing more than the truth keeping them going.
There comes a time to say my points have now been made on this blog since early October -- accurately, if admittedly garrulously. It is time to rest my case.
Motivated only by an impulse to publish the truth against a barrage from
I no longer have a dog in this fight.
In fact, I do not even have a dog.
I do have two parrots, one a brilliant, extremely talkative African grey. The other is a splendid American-born blue-and-gold macaw, a species of parrot that is native to
Being American-born, he probably has no Portuguese language skills. He is a magnificent creature, adored by my wife and me, and every time I get fed up with the craziness from Brazil, I commune with Petey and realize through some spiritual bond that beauty, intelligence, irony, kindness, dignity and great rollicking humor blossom in abundance, in him and in the Brazil and the Brazilian character I see in his visage.
Alas, for too long I have had to pay too too much attention to cuckoos shrieking in the trees.
Meanwhile, Brazilian media, please take your meds, fight it out amongst yourselves, and try not to break the furniture.
Also, try to put the truth, now that it's all out there, in honest context. You owe it to the dead and to the future safety of your fellow Brazilians and those who fly your skies. Stop kowtowing to the Authorities.
Now, to wrap things up, let us consider matter of the English language and aviation.
Though Brazilian e-mail correspondents accuse me of being a xenophobe and worse for stating this, English is the mandated language of air-traffic control the world over. Without an agreed-upon lingua franca, international air travel would be impossible. We could change the requirement to French, Serbo-Croatian, Mandarin Chinese or Maltese if we could all agree on a substitute and on learning it -- but right now the requirement in world aviation is you have to communicate in understandable English.
Just as Brazilian authorities finally were forced to concede that the Amazon air space is riddled with radar and radio blind zones and that the Legacy business jet was flying at the collision course of 37,000 feet on orders from air-traffic control and not doing stunt maneuvers, there now appears to be growing acceptance of the fact that many of Brazil's overworked, underpaid air-traffic controllers – nearly all of them military personnel – often cannot communicate in English beyond a few memorized words and phrases. In an emergency, I would argue, this can (and did) cause, uh, complications.
On Feb. 13, a post on this blog under the headline: "Caution:
Gleaned from today's Brazzil.com:
"Brazil's worst air accident ever, on September 29, 2006, when an executive Legacy jet piloted by two Americans collided with a Boeing 737 over the Brazilian Amazon resulting in the death of 154 people, might have been prevented if only the Brazilian flight controllers who were monitoring the smaller plane had command of the English language.
This is the understanding of Ulisses Fontenele, the former president of the ABCTA (Associação Brasileira dos Controladores de Tráfego Aéreo - Brazilian Air Traffic Controllers Association). He has called attention to the fact that less than 10% of the about 2,500 flight controllers working in
He believes that the
"If there was no trouble with the English when they took off there would be no accident. But there was an endless number of errors. If only one of them had been eliminated we wouldn't have any accident," he stated.
Fontenele says that nowadays Brazilian flight controllers have a six-month course where they learn some English language phraseology. The classes, which are part of what people learn to become a flight controller, teach typical terms of air control and some lingo and jargon.
"After that, depending on where the professional is going to work, he doesn't get any recycling or refreshing course. In six months there is very little you can learn. You learn the basic of the basic. This is a very big flaw in controllers' training."
The former controller believes that the little knowledge of English is not enough when a flight controller has to deal with an abnormal situation as the one with the Legacy. "If something out of the ordinary happens, the flight controller may not be able to communicate in English. After all, all he learned were typical and basic flight control phrases for when everything is normal in the air." ... Air Force will create transponder alarm and give English course
Air traffic controllers will take English classes and have an alert against signal disappearance
From Estado
SÃO PAULO - The Air Force will install a type of sound and visual alarm on the the radar screens in the Integrated Centers for Air Defense and Air Traffic Control (Cindactas) to alert flight controller in case of the disappearance of the transponder number that identifies a plane. The decision occurred because, in the evaluation of the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), the basic cause of the tragedy with the Gol Boeing was the fact the that Legacy jet's transponder was not functioning. Another measure adopted will be to enroll controllers in English classes.
The FAB believes that the operator on duty in Cindacta-1, the Brasilia control center, on the afternoon of September 29 - when the collision occurred which left 154 dead - could have avoided the tragedy, still more if he had been able to rely on the resource of the alarm. After the Legacy passed over
Another change in the software which is being taken care of is the indication, on the controller's screen, of the aircraft's effective altitude. Today it's done automatically, according to the flight plan. On the day of the accident, when the Legacy passed over
The FAB command did not comment on the release of the aircraft's black box dialogs. "The Air Force considers that the leaking of information is prejudicial to the progress of the investigations", it informed, clarifying that all of the data of the investigation is "under seal". The official prediction is that the inquiry will be concluded in September. …
And from the Gazeta de Cuiabá:
Controllers will have English to avoid other tragedies
"Enroll the flight controller in an English course was one of the measures announced by the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) to avoid tragedies like that of the collision between Gol Flight 1907 and the Legacy, which killed 149 passengers last year. "
--end
Monday, February 19, 2007
VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE BY THE NUMBERS
First, a 7 p.m. update:
Here, in a statement released by JetBlue, is an example of PR crisis management the way it should be done, once you've said you screwed up and said you're sorry:
JetBlue is planning a conference call tomorrow, Tuesday, "announcing details of its customer bill of rights program to provide better information to customers facing delays; more tools and resources for crew members, and better procedures for handling operations disruptions."
Attn other airlines: That's called getting ahead of a problem.
Meanwhile, just for the record, and just to show that JetBlue was not the only airline with a fiasco on its hands that day (just the one most upfront about telling the truth), are some of the statistics for air travel last Wednesday, Feb. 14, for major airlines with the worst performance that day. They're from a great source of airline performance data, FlightStats.com
JetBlue -- Total flights scheduled: 523
Flights cancelled: 362
Cancellations at JFK: 139 out of 157 scheduled
Cancellations at Boston: 40 out of 53 scheduled.
------------------
US Airways: -- Total flight scheduled 1,309. Cancelled, 377
Cancellations at Boston: 50 out of 61 scheduled
Cancellations at Philadelphia: 70 out of 166 scheduled
Cancellations at DCA: 60 out of 61 scheduled
-------------------
American Airlines: Total flights scheduled: 2,274. Cancelled: 388
Cancellations at LaGuardia: 52 out of 64 scheduled
Cancellations at JFK: 50 out of 61
--------------
Delta: Total flights scheduled: 1,539. Cancelled: 182.
Cancellations at JFK" 23 out of 58
Cancellations at Boston: 38 out of 50.
-------------------------------------------------
Also, during the similar American Airlines fiasco in Texas on Dec. 29, I now know of at least four planes that sat on ramps in Austin, San Antonio and Tulsa for over eight hours with passengers unable to get off. Of 121 American Airlines planes diverted from Dallas by thunderstorms that day, 67 were stopped on ramps with passengers unable to get off for three or more hours.
-------------------------------------------------
Reasons for these events:
F.A.A. is a mess.
Domestic system has slashed capacity, with no slack in schedules. A cancelled flight means an airplane isn't in position for its next use.
The number of airline workers is down 25 percent since 2000, while domestic airline passengers traffic is at all-time level -- more than 700 million passengers expected this year.
Airline middle management and operations and counter workers have been beaten into submission and are afraid to make sensible calls -- say, when it's clear that passengers confined for long hours to stinky planes with fouled toilets are being subjected to cruel and ununsual punishment, and need to be gotten off.
Fear that using wheeled stairways to offload passengers can lead to liability, especially in bad weather.
Passenger expectation that you can run a system at virtually loss-leader prices and still handle the unexpected.
--end
Here, in a statement released by JetBlue, is an example of PR crisis management the way it should be done, once you've said you screwed up and said you're sorry:
JetBlue is planning a conference call tomorrow, Tuesday, "announcing details of its customer bill of rights program to provide better information to customers facing delays; more tools and resources for crew members, and better procedures for handling operations disruptions."
Attn other airlines: That's called getting ahead of a problem.
Meanwhile, just for the record, and just to show that JetBlue was not the only airline with a fiasco on its hands that day (just the one most upfront about telling the truth), are some of the statistics for air travel last Wednesday, Feb. 14, for major airlines with the worst performance that day. They're from a great source of airline performance data, FlightStats.com
JetBlue -- Total flights scheduled: 523
Flights cancelled: 362
Cancellations at JFK: 139 out of 157 scheduled
Cancellations at Boston: 40 out of 53 scheduled.
------------------
US Airways: -- Total flight scheduled 1,309. Cancelled, 377
Cancellations at Boston: 50 out of 61 scheduled
Cancellations at Philadelphia: 70 out of 166 scheduled
Cancellations at DCA: 60 out of 61 scheduled
-------------------
American Airlines: Total flights scheduled: 2,274. Cancelled: 388
Cancellations at LaGuardia: 52 out of 64 scheduled
Cancellations at JFK: 50 out of 61
--------------
Delta: Total flights scheduled: 1,539. Cancelled: 182.
Cancellations at JFK" 23 out of 58
Cancellations at Boston: 38 out of 50.
-------------------------------------------------
Also, during the similar American Airlines fiasco in Texas on Dec. 29, I now know of at least four planes that sat on ramps in Austin, San Antonio and Tulsa for over eight hours with passengers unable to get off. Of 121 American Airlines planes diverted from Dallas by thunderstorms that day, 67 were stopped on ramps with passengers unable to get off for three or more hours.
-------------------------------------------------
Reasons for these events:
F.A.A. is a mess.
Domestic system has slashed capacity, with no slack in schedules. A cancelled flight means an airplane isn't in position for its next use.
The number of airline workers is down 25 percent since 2000, while domestic airline passengers traffic is at all-time level -- more than 700 million passengers expected this year.
Airline middle management and operations and counter workers have been beaten into submission and are afraid to make sensible calls -- say, when it's clear that passengers confined for long hours to stinky planes with fouled toilets are being subjected to cruel and ununsual punishment, and need to be gotten off.
Fear that using wheeled stairways to offload passengers can lead to liability, especially in bad weather.
Passenger expectation that you can run a system at virtually loss-leader prices and still handle the unexpected.
--end
Sunday, February 18, 2007
BACK DOWN THAT RABBIT HOLE!
Maybe it's the Carnaval hangover, but they're back at it in Brazil, with newspapers today reporting fragments from cockpit recorder transcripts (which they shouldn't even have while the investigation continues), in the never-ending quest to scapegoat two American pilots while covering up the manifest faults of Brazil's air traffic control system and the underpaid, undertrained air traffic controllers who were on duty Sept. 29 as two aircraft were on a collision course over the Amazon that ultimately killed 154 people.
Here's a sample, with some comment from me appended, from Sao Paulo's Folha newspaper today. Thanks, as usual, to correspondent Richard Pedicini for the translation:
Tapes reveal errors in plane crash
Pilots of Legacy that collided with Gol Boeing had problems with jet, radio, and speaking with tower
By Elaine Catanhêde, Folha columnist
The 290 pages with the transcriptions of the Legacy jet pilots' conversations and of the Brazilian controllers', obtained by the Folha, show that a succession of errors and misunderstandings caused the crash of the Gol Boeing, on September 29, 2006, causing the deaths of 154 people.
The recordings confirm that the tower in São José dos Campos (state of São Paulo), from where the [Legacy] jet took off, liberated the flight citing 37,000 feet, without detailing the three altitudes in the original plan. It was the first error of a series.
[THIS MEANS THE LEGACY WAS TOLD BY AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL AT DEPARTURE TO REMAIN AT 37,000 FEET ALL THE WAY TO MANAUS, OVERRIDING THE FORMAL FLIGHT PLAN, AS THE PILOTS HAVE SAID ALL ALONG]
The Legacy's North American pilots, Joe Lepore and Jan Paladino, had difficulties with the jet, the radio, the aeronautic map, and the controllers' English. Besides this, the anti-collision system was off.
[MY COMMENT: AIR CRASHES USUALLY ARE CAUSED BY A SERIES OF ERRORS AND WE DON'T KNOW THE FULL STORY YET. BUT ONE REASON THE AMERICAN PILOTS MIGHT HAVE HAD 'DIFFICULTIES' IS THAT THERE ARE NOTORIOUS ZONES OVER THE AMAZON WHERE RADIO AND RADAR CONTACT ARE UNRELIABLE. SEE MY FEB 13 POST WITH THE STATEMENT FROM THE INTERNATIONAL AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION (ALPA) TO THAT EXACT EFFECT.
ALSO, I GOT TO KNOW JOE AND JAN FAIRLY WELL DURING OUR DETAINMENT IN THE JUNGLE AND DURING AN ALL NIGHT POLICE INTERROGATION THE NEXT NIGHT AND AFTERWARDS.
I AM HERE TO TELL YOU, THEY SPEAK VERY GOOD ENGLISH! IF THEY HAD "DIFFICULTIES" WITH THE "CONTROLLERS' ENGLISH" IT'S BECAUSE, AS EVERY INTERNATIONAL PILOT WHO FLIES OVER BRAZIL KNOWS, SOME BRAZILIAN CONTROLLERS' ENGLISH SKILLS ARE POOR. MANY OF THEM ONLY KNOW A HALF DOZEN PHRASES, LEARNED PHONETICALLY. THE RECENT ALPA STATEMENT WARNING INTERNATIONAL PILOTS ABOUT FLYING OVER BRAZIL ALSO ADDRESSES THAT.
Back to Folha: "The controllers were unaware that the two planes were traveling at the same altitude. When Brasilia called Manaus to ask why the Boeing didn't appear, the response was "Hey! What Gol 1907 is that?"
MY COMMENT: THEY DIDN'T KNOW THE COMMERCIAL GOL 737 WITH 154 ABOARD WAS IN THE SKIES, LET ALONE AT THE SAME ALTITUDE? ????
More from Folha's Ms. Catanhêde:
"The 290 pages with the transcriptions of the Legacy jet pilots' conversations and of the Brazilian controllers', reinforce that a succession of errors, misunderstandings, and a certain inexperience or incompetence caused the worst accident in the history of Brazilian aviation: the crash of the Gol Boeing, on September 29 of last year, with 154 people aboard.
...Seen together, the transcriptions make it evident that the pilots and the controller in São José, subofficial João Batista da Silva, whose name isn't cited, had communications difficulties. He spoke of 37,000 feet and the [American] pilots tried three times to clarify, without success.
In testimony to the Federal Police, Silva said that he knew the flight plan foresaw three altitudes, but limited himself to orienting the Legacy "in the exact terms" he received from the Brasilia center: "Authorized level 370 on the heading of Poços de Caldas."
This was the first of a series of errors, such as the displinência [carelessness, indifference, negligence, disinterest] of Brasilia's controllers and the discomfort of the North American pilots Joe Lepore and Jan Paladino with the new jet and with flight conditions in Brazil. In one stretch of the black box, one of the pilots admits, "I need to learn this international crap. Shit."
[MY COMMENT: HEY GUYS, COULDN'T IT ACTUALLY BE THAT PERHAPS BRAZIL'S AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ALSO 'NEED TO LEARN THIS INTERNATIONAL CRAP?']
Folha: "In one of the stretches of the recording between the centers of Brasilia and Manaus it is clear that Cindacta-1 [the country's main air traffic control center near Brasilia] was convinced that the Legacy was flying at 36,000 feet, and not 37,000 feet, as it was in fact doing.
"After the impact, which was at exactly 16:56:54 (Brasilia time), one of the Legacy pilots asked the other, "What the devil was that?" Only 26 minutes later, Lepore and Paladino admitted to each other the possibility - really, the only one - of having hit another airplane. "We hit another airplane. I don't know where the damn thing came from." In an interview with the Folha in New York, in December, they declared that they were only certain after their emergency landing.
"For the controllers, the discovery was slow. "The pilot told us he collided with something and he doesn't know what it was", said the Manaus controller. "Wow. Balls", the one from Brasilia responded. The tragedy was clear."
[MY COMMENT: WE LANDED IN THE JUNGLE ABOUT 25 MINUTES AFTER IMPACT, BY MY NOTES, WHICH CAN'T BE OFF BY MORE THAN A FEW MINUTES. THAT WOULD HAVE MEANT THAT THE COMMENT CITED ABOVE -- THE INITIAL SPECULATION ON HITTING ANOTHER PLANE -- CAME AWFULLY LATE IN THE PROCESS, AT 26 MINUTES AFTER IMPACT. YET FOLHA SAYS DARKLY THAT IT TOOK THE PILOTS, FRANTICALLY STRUGGLING TO PUT DOWN A DAMAGED PLANE, A FULL 26 MINUTES BEFORE THEY "ADMITTED TO EACH OTHER THE POSSIBILITY -- REALLY, THE ONLY ONE -- OF HAVING HIT ANOTHER AIRPLANE."
BUT WOULDN'T THAT SUGGEST THAT, AS I WITNESSED IT, THE POSSIBILITY OF HAVING HIT ANOTHER PLANE WAS CONSIDERED VERY UNLIKELY? AFTER OUR EMERGENCY LANDING IN THE JUNGLE, THE SEVEN OF US SPECULATED FOR ALMOST THREE HOURS ABOUT WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE COLLIDED WITH BEFORE WE LEARNED THAT IT WAS A 737.
UNTIL WE LEARNED THAT, NO ONE GAVE SERIOUS CREDENCE TO THE IDEA THAT WE HAD COLLIDED WITH AN AIRLINER. NO ONE SAW THE OTHER PLANE AT THE POINT OF IMPACT, FOR EXAMPLE. ONE PERSON SAW "A DARTING SHADOW." THE PREVAILING THEORY IN OUR GROUP SPECULATION WAS THAT ANOTHER AIRPLANE AT A HIGHER ALTITUDE NEARBY HAD EXPLODED FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON AND WE RAN INTO SOME OF THE FALLING DEBRIS
AS TO THE REPORTED TRANSCRIPT COMMENT "We hit another airplane." THAT TAKES ON A WHOLE DIFFERENT MEANING IF IT IS PUNCTUATED AS, "We hit another airplane????"
NATURALLY, ONE REACTION OF THE PILOTS WAS THAT WE COULD HAVE HIT ANOTHER AIRPLANE. BUT THAT SCENARIO WAS SO UNLIKELY -- NO ONE SURVIVES A MID-AIR COLLISION BETWEEN TWO BIG AIRPLANES -- THAT IT WAS FAR DOWN OUR GROUP SPECULATION LIST. AS I HAVE SAID AGAIN AND AGAIN, WE WERE SHOCKED BEYOND DESCRIPTION WHEN WE LEARNED THAT WE HAD COLLIDED WITH AN AIRLINER, IF ONLY BECAUSE THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM IS YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY SURVIVE SUCH A THING]
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
There is one other bit of silly business flapping in the media winds today, and that is a report on Brazzil.com that the pilots had a laptop in the cockpit, presumably watching a movie. This nearly ranks up there with the widely promulgated theory that the pilots were executing stunt maneuvers to show what the plane could do, and tuned off the transponder to conceal that.
From a pilot I know:
"Many of the most advanced cockpits in the world use laptop computers. EFBs (meaning Electronic Flight Bags) are replacing the numerous books of charts that are carried on board and that require frequent revisions to changes in the airways around the world. Laptops in cockpits are very common in today's aviation world."
--Over and out.
Here's a sample, with some comment from me appended, from Sao Paulo's Folha newspaper today. Thanks, as usual, to correspondent Richard Pedicini for the translation:
Tapes reveal errors in plane crash
Pilots of Legacy that collided with Gol Boeing had problems with jet, radio, and speaking with tower
By Elaine Catanhêde, Folha columnist
The 290 pages with the transcriptions of the Legacy jet pilots' conversations and of the Brazilian controllers', obtained by the Folha, show that a succession of errors and misunderstandings caused the crash of the Gol Boeing, on September 29, 2006, causing the deaths of 154 people.
The recordings confirm that the tower in São José dos Campos (state of São Paulo), from where the [Legacy] jet took off, liberated the flight citing 37,000 feet, without detailing the three altitudes in the original plan. It was the first error of a series.
[THIS MEANS THE LEGACY WAS TOLD BY AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL AT DEPARTURE TO REMAIN AT 37,000 FEET ALL THE WAY TO MANAUS, OVERRIDING THE FORMAL FLIGHT PLAN, AS THE PILOTS HAVE SAID ALL ALONG]
The Legacy's North American pilots, Joe Lepore and Jan Paladino, had difficulties with the jet, the radio, the aeronautic map, and the controllers' English. Besides this, the anti-collision system was off.
[MY COMMENT: AIR CRASHES USUALLY ARE CAUSED BY A SERIES OF ERRORS AND WE DON'T KNOW THE FULL STORY YET. BUT ONE REASON THE AMERICAN PILOTS MIGHT HAVE HAD 'DIFFICULTIES' IS THAT THERE ARE NOTORIOUS ZONES OVER THE AMAZON WHERE RADIO AND RADAR CONTACT ARE UNRELIABLE. SEE MY FEB 13 POST WITH THE STATEMENT FROM THE INTERNATIONAL AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION (ALPA) TO THAT EXACT EFFECT.
ALSO, I GOT TO KNOW JOE AND JAN FAIRLY WELL DURING OUR DETAINMENT IN THE JUNGLE AND DURING AN ALL NIGHT POLICE INTERROGATION THE NEXT NIGHT AND AFTERWARDS.
I AM HERE TO TELL YOU, THEY SPEAK VERY GOOD ENGLISH! IF THEY HAD "DIFFICULTIES" WITH THE "CONTROLLERS' ENGLISH" IT'S BECAUSE, AS EVERY INTERNATIONAL PILOT WHO FLIES OVER BRAZIL KNOWS, SOME BRAZILIAN CONTROLLERS' ENGLISH SKILLS ARE POOR. MANY OF THEM ONLY KNOW A HALF DOZEN PHRASES, LEARNED PHONETICALLY. THE RECENT ALPA STATEMENT WARNING INTERNATIONAL PILOTS ABOUT FLYING OVER BRAZIL ALSO ADDRESSES THAT.
Back to Folha: "The controllers were unaware that the two planes were traveling at the same altitude. When Brasilia called Manaus to ask why the Boeing didn't appear, the response was "Hey! What Gol 1907 is that?"
MY COMMENT: THEY DIDN'T KNOW THE COMMERCIAL GOL 737 WITH 154 ABOARD WAS IN THE SKIES, LET ALONE AT THE SAME ALTITUDE? ????
More from Folha's Ms. Catanhêde:
"The 290 pages with the transcriptions of the Legacy jet pilots' conversations and of the Brazilian controllers', reinforce that a succession of errors, misunderstandings, and a certain inexperience or incompetence caused the worst accident in the history of Brazilian aviation: the crash of the Gol Boeing, on September 29 of last year, with 154 people aboard.
...Seen together, the transcriptions make it evident that the pilots and the controller in São José, subofficial João Batista da Silva, whose name isn't cited, had communications difficulties. He spoke of 37,000 feet and the [American] pilots tried three times to clarify, without success.
In testimony to the Federal Police, Silva said that he knew the flight plan foresaw three altitudes, but limited himself to orienting the Legacy "in the exact terms" he received from the Brasilia center: "Authorized level 370 on the heading of Poços de Caldas."
This was the first of a series of errors, such as the displinência [carelessness, indifference, negligence, disinterest] of Brasilia's controllers and the discomfort of the North American pilots Joe Lepore and Jan Paladino with the new jet and with flight conditions in Brazil. In one stretch of the black box, one of the pilots admits, "I need to learn this international crap. Shit."
[MY COMMENT: HEY GUYS, COULDN'T IT ACTUALLY BE THAT PERHAPS BRAZIL'S AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ALSO 'NEED TO LEARN THIS INTERNATIONAL CRAP?']
Folha: "In one of the stretches of the recording between the centers of Brasilia and Manaus it is clear that Cindacta-1 [the country's main air traffic control center near Brasilia] was convinced that the Legacy was flying at 36,000 feet, and not 37,000 feet, as it was in fact doing.
"After the impact, which was at exactly 16:56:54 (Brasilia time), one of the Legacy pilots asked the other, "What the devil was that?" Only 26 minutes later, Lepore and Paladino admitted to each other the possibility - really, the only one - of having hit another airplane. "We hit another airplane. I don't know where the damn thing came from." In an interview with the Folha in New York, in December, they declared that they were only certain after their emergency landing.
"For the controllers, the discovery was slow. "The pilot told us he collided with something and he doesn't know what it was", said the Manaus controller. "Wow. Balls", the one from Brasilia responded. The tragedy was clear."
[MY COMMENT: WE LANDED IN THE JUNGLE ABOUT 25 MINUTES AFTER IMPACT, BY MY NOTES, WHICH CAN'T BE OFF BY MORE THAN A FEW MINUTES. THAT WOULD HAVE MEANT THAT THE COMMENT CITED ABOVE -- THE INITIAL SPECULATION ON HITTING ANOTHER PLANE -- CAME AWFULLY LATE IN THE PROCESS, AT 26 MINUTES AFTER IMPACT. YET FOLHA SAYS DARKLY THAT IT TOOK THE PILOTS, FRANTICALLY STRUGGLING TO PUT DOWN A DAMAGED PLANE, A FULL 26 MINUTES BEFORE THEY "ADMITTED TO EACH OTHER THE POSSIBILITY -- REALLY, THE ONLY ONE -- OF HAVING HIT ANOTHER AIRPLANE."
BUT WOULDN'T THAT SUGGEST THAT, AS I WITNESSED IT, THE POSSIBILITY OF HAVING HIT ANOTHER PLANE WAS CONSIDERED VERY UNLIKELY? AFTER OUR EMERGENCY LANDING IN THE JUNGLE, THE SEVEN OF US SPECULATED FOR ALMOST THREE HOURS ABOUT WHAT WE MIGHT HAVE COLLIDED WITH BEFORE WE LEARNED THAT IT WAS A 737.
UNTIL WE LEARNED THAT, NO ONE GAVE SERIOUS CREDENCE TO THE IDEA THAT WE HAD COLLIDED WITH AN AIRLINER. NO ONE SAW THE OTHER PLANE AT THE POINT OF IMPACT, FOR EXAMPLE. ONE PERSON SAW "A DARTING SHADOW." THE PREVAILING THEORY IN OUR GROUP SPECULATION WAS THAT ANOTHER AIRPLANE AT A HIGHER ALTITUDE NEARBY HAD EXPLODED FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON AND WE RAN INTO SOME OF THE FALLING DEBRIS
AS TO THE REPORTED TRANSCRIPT COMMENT "We hit another airplane." THAT TAKES ON A WHOLE DIFFERENT MEANING IF IT IS PUNCTUATED AS, "We hit another airplane????"
NATURALLY, ONE REACTION OF THE PILOTS WAS THAT WE COULD HAVE HIT ANOTHER AIRPLANE. BUT THAT SCENARIO WAS SO UNLIKELY -- NO ONE SURVIVES A MID-AIR COLLISION BETWEEN TWO BIG AIRPLANES -- THAT IT WAS FAR DOWN OUR GROUP SPECULATION LIST. AS I HAVE SAID AGAIN AND AGAIN, WE WERE SHOCKED BEYOND DESCRIPTION WHEN WE LEARNED THAT WE HAD COLLIDED WITH AN AIRLINER, IF ONLY BECAUSE THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM IS YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY SURVIVE SUCH A THING]
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
There is one other bit of silly business flapping in the media winds today, and that is a report on Brazzil.com that the pilots had a laptop in the cockpit, presumably watching a movie. This nearly ranks up there with the widely promulgated theory that the pilots were executing stunt maneuvers to show what the plane could do, and tuned off the transponder to conceal that.
From a pilot I know:
"Many of the most advanced cockpits in the world use laptop computers. EFBs (meaning Electronic Flight Bags) are replacing the numerous books of charts that are carried on board and that require frequent revisions to changes in the airways around the world. Laptops in cockpits are very common in today's aviation world."
--Over and out.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
JetBlue BLOWS IT
THE JETBLUE MESS CONTINES, and my question remains: How did you guys and gals with the best domestic reputation -- so hard-earned and well deserved -- jump off the tracks so readily? Were you really stretched that thin in terms of equipment and crew that a little ice storm could virtually shut you down for four days, going now on five or six?
What JetBlue blithely calls "weather-driven" events were only a part of the problem. We're always going to have weather-driven events (duh).
What we need, not just at JetBlue but throughout the air travel industry, is an aviation system with minimally enough slack built in to handle a little snow, ice, rain or wind without stranding thousands of travelers at airports or, worse, inside idled planes. The airlines aren't the only ones who must solve this problem. The F.A.A. has to step up to the plate as well. So does Congress and so does the flying public, conditioned as it is to artificially low fares that keep many airlines operating so close to the edge that a slight disruption becomes chaos.
Specifically regarding the JetBlue fiasco, I'd like to know hour by hour: What went into the bone-headed decision-making process on those JFK ramps Wednesday --with the American Airlines debacle of Dec. 29, 2006, still fresh in mind?
Meanwhile, this just in. (And don't you love the words in the PR headline below, "extends operational recovery," rather than "continues unable to provide service"?)
"PR news wire:
JetBlue Extends Operational Recovery Through Monday, Feb. 19
Airline will Cancel 23 Percent of Monday Operations to Further
Recover from Weather-Driven Events of Feb. 14 and Subsequent
Operational Interruptions
NEW YORK, Feb. 17, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- JetBlue Airways this
evening announces further operational recovery programs through Monday,
Feb. 19. Details include:
Canceling 23 percent of Monday, Feb. 19 operations, including but not
limited to all flights to and from the following JetBlue destinations:
Austin, TX
Bermuda
Charlotte, NC
Columbus, OH
Houston, TX
Jacksonville, FL
Nashville, TN
Pittsburgh, PA
Portland, ME
Raleigh/Durham, NC
Richmond, VA
Customers are asked to check the status of their flight online at
http://www.jetblue.com/ prior to leaving for the airport. Customers may check
their flight status via web-enabled mobile phones and PDA at
http://mobile.jetblue.com/.
Customers scheduled for now-cancelled flights are encouraged to visit
http://www.jetblue.com/ and choose to either convert the value of their travel
to a JetBlue credit or a full refund to the original form of payment.
Customers who would like to rebook their travel through May 22 without
change fee or fare difference are asked to call JetBlue at 800-JETBLUE
(800-538-2583).
JetBlue extends the operational recovery program into Monday in order
to operate a reliable schedule and to continue its work in positioning
aircraft and flight crews properly.
JetBlue attempted to recover from the Feb. 14 ice storm by selectively
canceling flights on Feb. 15 and Feb. 16 in order to help reset the
airline's operation. The benefits of this action were mitigated by
further operational constraints at JFK, including a one runway
operation on Feb. 15, which resulted in long delays that flowed into
Feb. 16.
JetBlue is taking this aggressive, unprecedented action to end rolling
delays and cancellations, and to operate a new schedule reliably."
--end
What JetBlue blithely calls "weather-driven" events were only a part of the problem. We're always going to have weather-driven events (duh).
What we need, not just at JetBlue but throughout the air travel industry, is an aviation system with minimally enough slack built in to handle a little snow, ice, rain or wind without stranding thousands of travelers at airports or, worse, inside idled planes. The airlines aren't the only ones who must solve this problem. The F.A.A. has to step up to the plate as well. So does Congress and so does the flying public, conditioned as it is to artificially low fares that keep many airlines operating so close to the edge that a slight disruption becomes chaos.
Specifically regarding the JetBlue fiasco, I'd like to know hour by hour: What went into the bone-headed decision-making process on those JFK ramps Wednesday --with the American Airlines debacle of Dec. 29, 2006, still fresh in mind?
Meanwhile, this just in. (And don't you love the words in the PR headline below, "extends operational recovery," rather than "continues unable to provide service"?)
"PR news wire:
JetBlue Extends Operational Recovery Through Monday, Feb. 19
Airline will Cancel 23 Percent of Monday Operations to Further
Recover from Weather-Driven Events of Feb. 14 and Subsequent
Operational Interruptions
NEW YORK, Feb. 17, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- JetBlue Airways this
evening announces further operational recovery programs through Monday,
Feb. 19. Details include:
Canceling 23 percent of Monday, Feb. 19 operations, including but not
limited to all flights to and from the following JetBlue destinations:
Austin, TX
Bermuda
Charlotte, NC
Columbus, OH
Houston, TX
Jacksonville, FL
Nashville, TN
Pittsburgh, PA
Portland, ME
Raleigh/Durham, NC
Richmond, VA
Customers are asked to check the status of their flight online at
http://www.jetblue.com/ prior to leaving for the airport. Customers may check
their flight status via web-enabled mobile phones and PDA at
http://mobile.jetblue.com/.
Customers scheduled for now-cancelled flights are encouraged to visit
http://www.jetblue.com/ and choose to either convert the value of their travel
to a JetBlue credit or a full refund to the original form of payment.
Customers who would like to rebook their travel through May 22 without
change fee or fare difference are asked to call JetBlue at 800-JETBLUE
(800-538-2583).
JetBlue extends the operational recovery program into Monday in order
to operate a reliable schedule and to continue its work in positioning
aircraft and flight crews properly.
JetBlue attempted to recover from the Feb. 14 ice storm by selectively
canceling flights on Feb. 15 and Feb. 16 in order to help reset the
airline's operation. The benefits of this action were mitigated by
further operational constraints at JFK, including a one runway
operation on Feb. 15, which resulted in long delays that flowed into
Feb. 16.
JetBlue is taking this aggressive, unprecedented action to end rolling
delays and cancellations, and to operate a new schedule reliably."
--end
BRAZIL AT CARNAVAL; BYE-BYE BUENO
Duty bids me be fair to Brazil, though Brazil has certainly not been fair to me or the rest of the Amazon 7 -- the Americans on the private jet that the Brazilian air-traffic-control system nearly killed, along with the 154 poor souls on the commercial 737 that it DID kill, on Sept. 29 -- and then continued to lie about the cause.
And so, a report on Carnaval. So far, major disaster has not occurred, in that there are no current reports of tourists being robbed or shot in their buses, and air traffic is only in moderate crisis. Defense Minister Wonderful Waldir Pires says everything's going just swell, though they have sacked the Air Force commander Luiz Carlos Bueno, and paid the air traffic controllers bonuses to behave for the duration of tourist-rich Carnaval.
[Not that the spiraling crime spree is not in the news in Brazil. Please see the tragic street-crime story involving a six year-old child in Rio at the end of this post.]
Anyway, as regards Carvaval, trom today's Brazzil.com:
"... Carnaval, which is being celebrated for 5 days starting Friday night, marked also the return of the dreaded airport blues and delays in all main air corridors in Brazil.
Anyway, back to Brazzil.com and Carvaval:
"There were reports that the flight controllers were planning a work-to-rule campaign to coincide with the Carnaval season. An action by president Lula may have prevented it. Just yesterday, Lula announced that he was dismissing the Air Force commander brigadier Luiz Carlos Bueno and placing brigadier Juniti Saito in his place.
"Today's news is delays at airports, a bit more on controllers' protest failing to take place, and something interesting on the new Air Force commander, Juniti Saito. ...
"What gives cause for optimism on Saito's nomination is that, first, he's someone new. Not responsible for past errors. Can change course. Second, he's a fighter pilot. Not someone who flies airports or radar dishes. That may give him a bias towards pilots; it has seemed to me that the voices of men who actually fly planes have been unnaturally silent during this whole persecution of Jan and Joe. This may mark a change."
[MY NOTE: Jan Paladino and Joe Lepore are the two courageous American pilots from Long Island who fought the damaged Legacy 600 business jet down into an emergency junglemlanding after the Sept. 29 collission with the Brazilian commercial 737].
More from Richard, summarizing the news:
Lula defines new names for the command of Forces
Seniority was criteria to choose chiefs of Navy, Army, and Air Force
Tenetente-Brigadeiro Juniti Saito will assume Air Force; Almirante-de-esquadra Júlio de Moura Neto, the Navy, and General Enzo Peri, the Army
by Eduardo Scolese and Pedro Dias Leite
Brasilia Bureau
In a meeting yesterday with the the Minister of Defense, Waldir Pires, and the commanders of the Armed Forces, President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva defined the names of the new commanders of the Navy, the Army, and the Air Force. ...
Accidents
In the Air Force, in the midst of the crisis with the air traffic controllers, Tenente-Brigadeiro [NT: four-star general] Juniti Saito will take over the position of Luiz Carlos da Silva Bueno. A fighter pilot, Saito is the current Chief of Staff of the Air Force.
Bueno, who is leaving the position, faced one of the hardest times of the history of the Brazilian Air Force, with the explosion of the VLS (Satellite Launch Vehicle) in 2003; the Gol Boeing accident [on Sept. 29], the worst in Brazilian aviation history; and a work-to-rule protest by air traffic controllers which left the airports head over heels and with consequences that are still being felt.
Among the controllers, according to what the Folha learned, it is unknown what Saito's position will be on the problem of flight delays and the shortage of controllers in the country. ...
Bueno proposes bonus of R$2,000 for controllers
---And now latest horrific street crime story from Rio, via the Bloomberg News Service:
And so, a report on Carnaval. So far, major disaster has not occurred, in that there are no current reports of tourists being robbed or shot in their buses, and air traffic is only in moderate crisis. Defense Minister Wonderful Waldir Pires says everything's going just swell, though they have sacked the Air Force commander Luiz Carlos Bueno, and paid the air traffic controllers bonuses to behave for the duration of tourist-rich Carnaval.
[Not that the spiraling crime spree is not in the news in Brazil. Please see the tragic street-crime story involving a six year-old child in Rio at the end of this post.]
Anyway, as regards Carvaval, trom today's Brazzil.com:
"... Carnaval, which is being celebrated for 5 days starting Friday night, marked also the return of the dreaded airport blues and delays in all main air corridors in Brazil.
This Friday, February 16, 37.7% of all flights were delayed for at least 45 minutes. That meant that from 1662 flights scheduled for yesterday 622 had considerable delays throughout the whole day and until late at night.
Brasília's International Airport, in the Brazilian capital, had it worst with more than half of all flights postponed for a long period. In Congonhas, São Paulo, the country's busiest airport, at 9 pm, 55 of arrivals and departures were late.
In contrast with the chaos registered in the past, passengers seemed to take it all in stride. It helped that this time there were no huge check-in lines and flights weren't delayed up to 24 hours as it happened in past holidays.
Anticipating the worst, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had an emergency meeting Friday morning with Defense Minister, Waldir Pires, and Milton Zuanazzi, the National Agency of Civil Aviation's director, to ensure that all measures were taken to avoid a repetition of the Christmas season bedlam.
Pires told the President there was no reason for worry. "I hope everything works fine and that the Brazilian people have the right to come and go peacefully during this Carnaval," wished the minister.
Brazilian flight controllers, who in recent months organized work-to-rule campaigns, released an official note denying that they were planning on disrupting flights during Carnaval. Said they, "There isn't and never was any kind of movement, action or organization with the intention of creating havoc to the National Air Traffic during the Carnaval holidays or during any other occasion." ...
[MY NOTE: AS I HAVE SAID REPEATEDLY, FLIGHT CONTROLLERS HAVE BEEN STAGING PROTESTS TO WARN THE GOVERNMENT AGAINST BLAMING THEM FOR THE SEPT. 29 DISASTER, WHICH WAS ALMOST ENTIRELY THE FAULT OF OBSOLETE ATC TECHNOLOGY AND UNSUPERVISED, INATTENTIVE AND UNTRAINED CONTROLLERS WHO HAD PLACED TWO AIRCRAFT ON A COLLISION COURSE OVER THE AMAZON. THE GOVERNMENT HAS REPEATEDLY BLAMED THE AMERICAN PILOTS FOR THE DISASTER]Anyway, back to Brazzil.com and Carvaval:
"There were reports that the flight controllers were planning a work-to-rule campaign to coincide with the Carnaval season. An action by president Lula may have prevented it. Just yesterday, Lula announced that he was dismissing the Air Force commander brigadier Luiz Carlos Bueno and placing brigadier Juniti Saito in his place.
Bueno had been a source of considerable friction with the controllers while Saito is seen as a more conciliatory figure. Saito, the second in command until now, was, for example, against the decision of keeping the controllers locked for days in the Brasília's control center during the days of crisis."
--end of Brazzil.com articleAnd a new report from the scene by the redoubtable Richard Pedicini, the chief (and, um, only) foreign correspondent for Joe Sharkey at Large.
"A bit of speculation earlier this week on new Air Force commander was that Lula would pick Saito because next year is 100th anniversary of Japanese immigration to Brazil, and the Emperor of Japan will be coming to visit. He came about thirty years ago as Crown Prince and appeared at the Pacambu soccer stadium; a friend of mine who lived nearby said he'd never before seen an all-Japanese traffic jam. The Boy Scouts, I'm told, are about evenly split between Japanese and non-Japanese troops; my neighborhood has only the Japanese variety. They had a rally in the park here a couple of years ago, with a bonfire, about 200 of them, both boys and girls, and maybe two who were only half Japanese. I avoided asking the reason for the celebration as it was December 7th. ..."Today's news is delays at airports, a bit more on controllers' protest failing to take place, and something interesting on the new Air Force commander, Juniti Saito. ...
"What gives cause for optimism on Saito's nomination is that, first, he's someone new. Not responsible for past errors. Can change course. Second, he's a fighter pilot. Not someone who flies airports or radar dishes. That may give him a bias towards pilots; it has seemed to me that the voices of men who actually fly planes have been unnaturally silent during this whole persecution of Jan and Joe. This may mark a change."
[MY NOTE: Jan Paladino and Joe Lepore are the two courageous American pilots from Long Island who fought the damaged Legacy 600 business jet down into an emergency junglemlanding after the Sept. 29 collission with the Brazilian commercial 737].
More from Richard, summarizing the news:
Lula defines new names for the command of Forces
Seniority was criteria to choose chiefs of Navy, Army, and Air Force
Tenetente-Brigadeiro Juniti Saito will assume Air Force; Almirante-de-esquadra Júlio de Moura Neto, the Navy, and General Enzo Peri, the Army
by Eduardo Scolese and Pedro Dias Leite
Brasilia Bureau
In a meeting yesterday with the the Minister of Defense, Waldir Pires, and the commanders of the Armed Forces, President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva defined the names of the new commanders of the Navy, the Army, and the Air Force. ...
Accidents
In the Air Force, in the midst of the crisis with the air traffic controllers, Tenente-Brigadeiro [NT: four-star general] Juniti Saito will take over the position of Luiz Carlos da Silva Bueno. A fighter pilot, Saito is the current Chief of Staff of the Air Force.
Bueno, who is leaving the position, faced one of the hardest times of the history of the Brazilian Air Force, with the explosion of the VLS (Satellite Launch Vehicle) in 2003; the Gol Boeing accident [on Sept. 29], the worst in Brazilian aviation history; and a work-to-rule protest by air traffic controllers which left the airports head over heels and with consequences that are still being felt.
Among the controllers, according to what the Folha learned, it is unknown what Saito's position will be on the problem of flight delays and the shortage of controllers in the country. ...
Agência Estado
To attempt to stem the climate of revolt among flight controllers, who threatened a work-to-rule protest during Carnaval, the commander of the Air Force, brigadier Luiz Carlos Bueno, on Wednesday waved a gratification for the military of from R$1,500 to R$2,000."
[MY COMMENT: Money and then Bueno's head on a plate. That might buy calm for the duration of Carnaval.]
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx---And now latest horrific street crime story from Rio, via the Bloomberg News Service:
"Feb. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The killing of 6-year-old Joao Helio Fernandes, dragged to his death last week in a Rio de Janeiro carjacking, is casting a pall over Brazil's Carnaval holiday ...
Gunmen forced Rosa Cristina Fernandes from her Chevrolet Corsa on Feb. 7, said Hercules Nascimento, the police chief handling the case. Her son, Joao, got tangled in the seat belt when he tried to escape. He was dragged 4 miles through Rio's streets on a busy summer evening, while motorcyclists and passers-by tried in vain to stop the car.
``We've reached our limit -- the limit of the senseless and daily tragedies that affect a large part of the Brazilian population,'' said Cezar Britto, 45, president of the Organization of Brazilian Lawyers.
The child's death is galvanizing politicians and citizens nationwide in a way that Rio de Janeiro state's 6,000 murders a year had not. A family photo of Joao was published on the front pages of most of Brazil's newspapers and magazines, including Veja, which put it against a black background with the headline ``Aren't we going to do anything about it?''
... The child's death and the protests it sparked created a somber mood ahead of Brazil's four-day Carnival holiday, which culminates with thousands of Samba groups dancing through the city's streets.
... Four days before New Year's Eve celebrations in December, when thousands of people flocked to Copacabana beach to watch fireworks, drug gangs retaliated against efforts to oust them from several of Rio de Janeiro's slums by shooting at police stations and burning buses. Eighteen people died.Crime even reached to the nation's chief justice, Ellen Gracie, who was robbed the night of Dec. 7 on one of the roads leading to the international airport.
Academicos da Rocinha, a samba school in one of Rio's biggest slums, will end its parade this year with a group of members dressed in black, walking in silence."
--endFriday, February 16, 2007
DELTA ON THIN ICE WITH ZEN-MASTER JOE SCARBOROUGH
Wednesday's stranded-passengers debacle wasn't confined to JetBlue planes with passengers aboard stranded near gates at Kennedy International Airport. As I said before, I went to the invaluable www.flightstats.com Web site at 6 p.m. Wednesday and counted about 1,500 flight cancellations among major airlines at New York airports, at Philadelphia, Boston, Washington and in Chicago, where O'Hare was discombobulated by the Northeast mess. Even today, passengers are still stranded at JFK and other airports (though in the terminals, not confined to planes) as JetBlue and other airlines struggle to get their airplanes -- and crews -- back into normal rotations.
So I think we'll be hearing horror stories about this fiasco for some time, as the stories filter out into the major media.
Take Joe Scarborough, of MSNBC's "Scarborough Country," for example. Anyway, here's what he had to say about being stranded Wednesday on a Delta plane parked at LaGuardia:
"You know what? I can relate after spending almost nine hours in seat 41E. Yes, that‘s a center seat, where I was stuck between a man, a woman and a dog. For nine hours, I sat in very close proximity to that dog and some very agitated dog owners. Our pilot did a great job of keeping everybody calm and kept telling us we were lucky to be on the plane since this would be the only flight out of LaGuardia that day.
--end
So I think we'll be hearing horror stories about this fiasco for some time, as the stories filter out into the major media.
Take Joe Scarborough, of MSNBC's "Scarborough Country," for example. Anyway, here's what he had to say about being stranded Wednesday on a Delta plane parked at LaGuardia:
"You know what? I can relate after spending almost nine hours in seat 41E. Yes, that‘s a center seat, where I was stuck between a man, a woman and a dog. For nine hours, I sat in very close proximity to that dog and some very agitated dog owners. Our pilot did a great job of keeping everybody calm and kept telling us we were lucky to be on the plane since this would be the only flight out of LaGuardia that day.
We actually believed him for the first four hours. After the fifth hour, we were told there was a break in the weather. Scattered applause was followed with 30 minutes of de-icing, which was followed by another announcement saying the temperature had dropped so low that we were going to be stuck for another few hours.
We got the go ahead after hour seven—again, seven hours straight on that plane—only to be told in hour eight that an engine valve was frozen and we‘d be towed back to the gate. And 4:30 PM, nine hours after most of us had boarded and most of us stayed on that plane, the plane we‘d stayed on all that time—well, it got canceled. We filed off.
My producers called Delta and got this response. “Delta‘s commitment is to maintain safety as our number one priority, keep customers informed about conditions impacting their travel and make every effort to keep them comfortable. We certainly regret the inconvenience to our customers caused by yesterday‘s delays.”
Hey, listen, stuff happens, and I try to be very Zen about the whole episode. But I‘ve yet to get an apology from Delta, and instead, I‘m getting spin from a company that‘s refusing to take responsibility for one bad decision after another, decisions that left men, women, and yes, dogs stuck on a plane for nine hours. I‘m waiting for that apology and my own free round-trip tickets, or I may just find me another airline."
(My question to MSNBC's travel department: Why the hell did you have Mr. Scarborough, a TV star, a veteran and presumably productive business traveler, and a former Congressman, wedged in a rear-of-the-plane middle seat-- back by the lavs -- stuck between a two passengers and an apparently cranky dog (and what sensible dog wouldn't be cranky) for all those hours?--end
Thursday, February 15, 2007
ICED EXCUSES
Yesterday, JetBlue Airways, which has spent years burnishing an enviable reputation for customer service and smart-thinking, shot itself in both feet during an icy snowstorm in the Northeast.
You remember the Dec. 29 debacle in Texas, when thunderstorms caused American Airlines to divert 121 flights from Dallas to various airports in the region, and to hold them on the ramps for long periods of time?
Initially, the media reported reported on just ONE American Airlines flight that sat on a ramp for nearly nine hours. (And fellow travel writers, please stop calling it a "tarmac." Tarmac is, like macadam, concrete or asphalt, a road-building material, and not a synonym for ramp or taxiway).
Then after I made some inquiries, it turned out that at least three American flights sat on ramps for over eight hours, at Austin and San Antonio. Now I've learned that another one sat for over eight hours in Tulsa. Who knows how many others were involved, with bewildered passengers stranded on packed planes with only the food they could scrounge from each others' carry-ons, subject to foul air and uncertainty, unable to use on-board toilets because of disgusting conditions.
To their credit, American told me that, while they thought the Dec. 29 problem was extremely isolated and the result of extremely unusual weather, there was no excuse for holding passengers on planes, unable to get to gates, for more than four hours. American said it had re-instituted procedures requiring operations to start paying close attention to planes held for three hours, and to absolutely get them back to a gate by hour four.
(By the way, I am amused at how the current news reports on the JFK incident fail to mention the Dec. 29 incidents -- as if there were not a context to this all. Having long ago replaced curiosity with piety and agitation as driving impulses, much of the media seem to treat every day (or hour) as entirely unconnected to previous days (or hours). But I digress ...)
Underlying these airport incidents are some basic facts. The domestic air-travel network -- handling record numbers of passengers now with 25 percent fewer airline employees and fewer full-size planes than 2000, and dealing with an overburdened, underfunded air-traffic control system to boot -- has no slack. I was not the only one who predicted that what happened in Texas on Dec. 29 would happen again soon elsewhere.
And so we had a more widespread repeat yesterday. While the local media were dispatching reporters out to cover stories about snow and fender-benders, the regional air-traffic system was collapsing. By 6 p.m. yesterday, I counted more than 1,500 flight cancellations -- not delays, but outright, this-plane-ain't-moving cancellations -- at airports in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and -- thanks to the horrible backups in the Northeast -- Chicago.
JetBlue wasn't the only airline with huge numbers of cancellations. But JetBlue at Kennedy was especially affected. (And attention travel reporters who call the airlines and get inaccurate information on stories like this: Flightstats.com provides accurate, real-time information on every flight at every airport in the country. You could look it up).
Anyway, the point here isn't to rant about a system without any slack, in an industry where customer-service is no longer held as a real value.
It's to remark on the way JetBlue, the airline with perhaps the classiest brand reputation in the country among economy-class travelers, dropped the ball. How many JetBlue employees worked so hard over so many years to build that brand!
Hey JetBlue: You are BASED at Kennedy International Airport! American Airlines at least had the excuse that its overpaid top executives were not actually on the scene at Austin and San Antonio and elsewhere as the planes sat and sat. JetBlue executives could literally look out the window and see that major trouble was brewing. They didn't even need their DirectTV.
Yes, I know JetBlue has now apologized and said there was no excuse for keeping people detained on airplanes for up to 10 hours. The company also said upfront that it would issue refunds and a free roundtrip ticket to those who sat on parked planes for over three hours.
But lemme ask ya: Didn't you learn anything from Dec. 29? Didn't ya hear about it? Why did you strand people out there for up to 10 hours without doing something on the spot about getting them into the terminal? Who was in charge of that?
The Dec. 29 mess motivated a bunch of furious passengers to begin strong lobbying for Congress to pass a Passengers' Bill of Rights. A similar push failed after a similar mess in Detroit in 1999 involving stranded Northwest Airlines flights. That failed, I think, because the proposed legislation started to look like a co-op sales contract after all the various pressure groups put their two cents in, and started demanding that the law address things like seat width and, one might guess, the quality of toilet paper, and perhaps a petition to have Mumia Abu-Jamal released from prison.
As currently drawn up, the Passengers Bill of Rights is deliberately to the point. It would address very specific things: When you have to let passengers off a plane. How you have to make sure there's enough food and potable water (and folks, no one I know thinks that stuff in the lavatory faucets ought to be actually drunk). Emergency procedures for the young, the old and the disabled. Period. The draft is posted at the Web site strandedpassengers.blogspot.com And I sincerely hope they don't keep adding new provisions to it.
end
You remember the Dec. 29 debacle in Texas, when thunderstorms caused American Airlines to divert 121 flights from Dallas to various airports in the region, and to hold them on the ramps for long periods of time?
Initially, the media reported reported on just ONE American Airlines flight that sat on a ramp for nearly nine hours. (And fellow travel writers, please stop calling it a "tarmac." Tarmac is, like macadam, concrete or asphalt, a road-building material, and not a synonym for ramp or taxiway).
Then after I made some inquiries, it turned out that at least three American flights sat on ramps for over eight hours, at Austin and San Antonio. Now I've learned that another one sat for over eight hours in Tulsa. Who knows how many others were involved, with bewildered passengers stranded on packed planes with only the food they could scrounge from each others' carry-ons, subject to foul air and uncertainty, unable to use on-board toilets because of disgusting conditions.
To their credit, American told me that, while they thought the Dec. 29 problem was extremely isolated and the result of extremely unusual weather, there was no excuse for holding passengers on planes, unable to get to gates, for more than four hours. American said it had re-instituted procedures requiring operations to start paying close attention to planes held for three hours, and to absolutely get them back to a gate by hour four.
(By the way, I am amused at how the current news reports on the JFK incident fail to mention the Dec. 29 incidents -- as if there were not a context to this all. Having long ago replaced curiosity with piety and agitation as driving impulses, much of the media seem to treat every day (or hour) as entirely unconnected to previous days (or hours). But I digress ...)
Underlying these airport incidents are some basic facts. The domestic air-travel network -- handling record numbers of passengers now with 25 percent fewer airline employees and fewer full-size planes than 2000, and dealing with an overburdened, underfunded air-traffic control system to boot -- has no slack. I was not the only one who predicted that what happened in Texas on Dec. 29 would happen again soon elsewhere.
And so we had a more widespread repeat yesterday. While the local media were dispatching reporters out to cover stories about snow and fender-benders, the regional air-traffic system was collapsing. By 6 p.m. yesterday, I counted more than 1,500 flight cancellations -- not delays, but outright, this-plane-ain't-moving cancellations -- at airports in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and -- thanks to the horrible backups in the Northeast -- Chicago.
JetBlue wasn't the only airline with huge numbers of cancellations. But JetBlue at Kennedy was especially affected. (And attention travel reporters who call the airlines and get inaccurate information on stories like this: Flightstats.com provides accurate, real-time information on every flight at every airport in the country. You could look it up).
Anyway, the point here isn't to rant about a system without any slack, in an industry where customer-service is no longer held as a real value.
It's to remark on the way JetBlue, the airline with perhaps the classiest brand reputation in the country among economy-class travelers, dropped the ball. How many JetBlue employees worked so hard over so many years to build that brand!
Hey JetBlue: You are BASED at Kennedy International Airport! American Airlines at least had the excuse that its overpaid top executives were not actually on the scene at Austin and San Antonio and elsewhere as the planes sat and sat. JetBlue executives could literally look out the window and see that major trouble was brewing. They didn't even need their DirectTV.
Yes, I know JetBlue has now apologized and said there was no excuse for keeping people detained on airplanes for up to 10 hours. The company also said upfront that it would issue refunds and a free roundtrip ticket to those who sat on parked planes for over three hours.
But lemme ask ya: Didn't you learn anything from Dec. 29? Didn't ya hear about it? Why did you strand people out there for up to 10 hours without doing something on the spot about getting them into the terminal? Who was in charge of that?
The Dec. 29 mess motivated a bunch of furious passengers to begin strong lobbying for Congress to pass a Passengers' Bill of Rights. A similar push failed after a similar mess in Detroit in 1999 involving stranded Northwest Airlines flights. That failed, I think, because the proposed legislation started to look like a co-op sales contract after all the various pressure groups put their two cents in, and started demanding that the law address things like seat width and, one might guess, the quality of toilet paper, and perhaps a petition to have Mumia Abu-Jamal released from prison.
As currently drawn up, the Passengers Bill of Rights is deliberately to the point. It would address very specific things: When you have to let passengers off a plane. How you have to make sure there's enough food and potable water (and folks, no one I know thinks that stuff in the lavatory faucets ought to be actually drunk). Emergency procedures for the young, the old and the disabled. Period. The draft is posted at the Web site strandedpassengers.blogspot.com And I sincerely hope they don't keep adding new provisions to it.
end
CARNAVAL FORECAST: RAIN, DISRUPTIONS, CRIME
Brazil's air-traffic system is facing chaos again as tourists pour in for the annual Carnaval holiday.
You'll recall that Brazil's military-controlled air-traffic controllers virtually shut down Brazilian air traffic for long periods in October through December -- partly to protest bad pay and having to work with obsolete technology and too few employees, and more pointedly, to send a warning to Brazilian authorities not to blame controllers for Brazil's notoriously unstable air-traffic control system, which was responsible for the Sept. 29 mid-air disaster that killed 154 people on a Brazilian commercial 737 that collided with an American business jet.
From today's Folha, the big Sao Paulo newspaper: (Please to excuse the shaky of translation)
"Controllers threaten to stop during Carnaval ... [Controllers] will decide today if they will engage in a sit-down strike during the prolonged Carnaval holiday weekend. Despite the suspicion that it is a bluff to pressure the government, spokesmen for the category affirmed that "patience has run out".
Controllers met yesterday to evaluate their capacity to mobilize at least 70% of the workers at Cindacta-1 [the major air-traffic control center in Brasilia, the capital], according to what the Folha learned. The idea is to provoke defections from the teams. Thus, for safety, it would be necessary to restrict takeoffs and landings.
Cindacta 1 (Integrated Center for Air Defense and Air Traffic Control), in Brasilia, controls the traffic to the states of São Paulo, Rio, Minas Gerais, Federal District, Goiás, part of Mato Grosso and part of Mato Grosso do Sul. It manages about 70% of the country's flights. ...
According to the president of the civilian controllers' union, Jorge Botelho, the government knows that "there is a real risk of the category stopping work". He represent the minority civilian portion of the controllers but has been conducting negotiations, because military personnel cannot engage in union activity. [My note: Most Brazilian air traffic controllers are in the military].
"The Presidential Palace is informed of the real risk that the controllers will cross their arms over Carnaval, despite any threat of punishment. The response so far has been silence", Botelho said. ...
Yesterday, minister Dilma Roussef met for nearly four hours with authorities in the sector to evaluate the precautions and contingency plans to avoid a new aerial chaos during Carnaval. ..."
MY NOTE: Ever-faithful Folha then assures readers that the doddering Defense Minister, Wonderful Waldir Pires, who has stood by his delusional fantasy that the Sept. 29 collision was caused by the American pilots doing trick maneuvers in the brand-new Legacy 600 over the Amazon, "affirmed that the government has taken all possible precautions to avoid a new chaos at Carnaval and said that the largest worry is rain."
Thus Wonderful Waldir has established an alibi in advance, if protesting controllers take the system down. It's raining in Rio! Folha quotes him: "Our expectation is that we will have the whole population coming and going in peace at Carnaval. We're worried about the rainy season, which, because of the network itself, can cause delays."
You can't, as they say, make this stuff up.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
TAKE 2, from the Rio police blotter as noted today by Brazzil.com:
"One day after a clash between the Rio de Janeiro police and drug gangs, which left six dead in a city's shantytown and on the eve of Carnaval, which starts this Friday night, February 16, the vice president of one of Rio's most famous Escolas de Samba (Samba Clubs) was executed.
Guaracy Paes Falcão, 42, vice president of Acadêmicos do Salgueiro and his wife, Simone Moujarkian, 35, one of the stars of samba school, were shot 20 times in front of the Guanabara supermarket, in the north side neighborhood of Andaraí, just half a mile from the Salgueiro club, soon after leaving an event there, today before dawn.
A rehearsal for the Carnaval parade scheduled for tomorrow night at Salgueiro has been cancelled. ...
Police say they still have no idea who committed the crime. But they suspect that the death may have been caused by a dispute over slot machine locations.
Falcão is sometimes called the card game king in Rio. He used to live in São Paulo and only moved to Rio de Janeiro about two years ago, after his cousin, Waldemir Paes Garcia, was also executed."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Finally, this, from the U.S. State Department report today on crime in general in Brazil:
CRIME: Crime throughout Brazil has reached very high levels. The Brazilian police and the Brazilian press report that the rate of crime continues to rise, especially in the major urban centers – though it is also spreading in rural areas. Brazil’s murder rate is several times higher than that of the U.S. Rates for other crimes are similarly high. The majority of crimes are not solved. There were several reported rapes against American citizens in 2006.
You'll recall that Brazil's military-controlled air-traffic controllers virtually shut down Brazilian air traffic for long periods in October through December -- partly to protest bad pay and having to work with obsolete technology and too few employees, and more pointedly, to send a warning to Brazilian authorities not to blame controllers for Brazil's notoriously unstable air-traffic control system, which was responsible for the Sept. 29 mid-air disaster that killed 154 people on a Brazilian commercial 737 that collided with an American business jet.
From today's Folha, the big Sao Paulo newspaper: (Please to excuse the shaky of translation)
"Controllers threaten to stop during Carnaval ... [Controllers] will decide today if they will engage in a sit-down strike during the prolonged Carnaval holiday weekend. Despite the suspicion that it is a bluff to pressure the government, spokesmen for the category affirmed that "patience has run out".
Controllers met yesterday to evaluate their capacity to mobilize at least 70% of the workers at Cindacta-1 [the major air-traffic control center in Brasilia, the capital], according to what the Folha learned. The idea is to provoke defections from the teams. Thus, for safety, it would be necessary to restrict takeoffs and landings.
Cindacta 1 (Integrated Center for Air Defense and Air Traffic Control), in Brasilia, controls the traffic to the states of São Paulo, Rio, Minas Gerais, Federal District, Goiás, part of Mato Grosso and part of Mato Grosso do Sul. It manages about 70% of the country's flights. ...
According to the president of the civilian controllers' union, Jorge Botelho, the government knows that "there is a real risk of the category stopping work". He represent the minority civilian portion of the controllers but has been conducting negotiations, because military personnel cannot engage in union activity. [My note: Most Brazilian air traffic controllers are in the military].
"The Presidential Palace is informed of the real risk that the controllers will cross their arms over Carnaval, despite any threat of punishment. The response so far has been silence", Botelho said. ...
Yesterday, minister Dilma Roussef met for nearly four hours with authorities in the sector to evaluate the precautions and contingency plans to avoid a new aerial chaos during Carnaval. ..."
MY NOTE: Ever-faithful Folha then assures readers that the doddering Defense Minister, Wonderful Waldir Pires, who has stood by his delusional fantasy that the Sept. 29 collision was caused by the American pilots doing trick maneuvers in the brand-new Legacy 600 over the Amazon, "affirmed that the government has taken all possible precautions to avoid a new chaos at Carnaval and said that the largest worry is rain."
Thus Wonderful Waldir has established an alibi in advance, if protesting controllers take the system down. It's raining in Rio! Folha quotes him: "Our expectation is that we will have the whole population coming and going in peace at Carnaval. We're worried about the rainy season, which, because of the network itself, can cause delays."
You can't, as they say, make this stuff up.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
TAKE 2, from the Rio police blotter as noted today by Brazzil.com:
"One day after a clash between the Rio de Janeiro police and drug gangs, which left six dead in a city's shantytown and on the eve of Carnaval, which starts this Friday night, February 16, the vice president of one of Rio's most famous Escolas de Samba (Samba Clubs) was executed.
Guaracy Paes Falcão, 42, vice president of Acadêmicos do Salgueiro and his wife, Simone Moujarkian, 35, one of the stars of samba school, were shot 20 times in front of the Guanabara supermarket, in the north side neighborhood of Andaraí, just half a mile from the Salgueiro club, soon after leaving an event there, today before dawn.
A rehearsal for the Carnaval parade scheduled for tomorrow night at Salgueiro has been cancelled. ...
Police say they still have no idea who committed the crime. But they suspect that the death may have been caused by a dispute over slot machine locations.
Falcão is sometimes called the card game king in Rio. He used to live in São Paulo and only moved to Rio de Janeiro about two years ago, after his cousin, Waldemir Paes Garcia, was also executed."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Finally, this, from the U.S. State Department report today on crime in general in Brazil:
CRIME: Crime throughout Brazil has reached very high levels. The Brazilian police and the Brazilian press report that the rate of crime continues to rise, especially in the major urban centers – though it is also spreading in rural areas. Brazil’s murder rate is several times higher than that of the U.S. Rates for other crimes are similarly high. The majority of crimes are not solved. There were several reported rapes against American citizens in 2006.
Street crime remains a problem for visitors and local residents alike, especially in the evenings and late at night. Foreign tourists are often targets of crime and Americans are not exempt. This targeting occurs in all tourist areas but is especially problematic in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador.
Caution is advised with regard to nighttime travel through more rural areas and satellite cities due to reported incidents of roadside robberies that randomly target passing vehicles. Robbery and “quicknapping” outside of banks and ATM machines are common. In a “quicknapping,” criminals abduct victims for a short time in order to receive a quick payoff from the family, business or the victim’s ATM card. Some victims have been beaten and/or raped.
The incidence of crime against tourists is greater in areas surrounding beaches, hotels, discotheques, bars, nightclubs, and other similar establishments that cater to visitors. This type of crime is especially prevalent during Carnaval (Brazilian Mardi Gras) ...
At airports, hotel lobbies, bus stations and other public places, incidents of pick pocketing, theft of hand carried luggage, and laptop computers are common. Travelers should "dress down" when outside and avoid carrying valuables or wearing jewelry or expensive watches. "Good Samaritan" scams are common. If a tourist looks lost or seems to be having trouble communicating, a seemingly innocent bystander offering help may victimize them. Care should be taken at and around banks and internationally connected automatic teller machines that take U.S. credit or debit cards. ... Carjacking is on the increase in Sao Paulo, Recife and other cities.
Travelers using personal ATMs or credit cards sometimes receive billing statements with non-authorized charges after returning from a visit to Brazil. The Embassy and Consulates have received numerous reports from both official Americans and tourists who have had their cards cloned or duplicated without their knowledge. Those using such payment methods should carefully monitor their banking online for the duration of their visit. ...
RIO DE JANEIRO: The city continues to experience a high incidence of crime. Tourists are particularly vulnerable to street thefts and robberies on and in areas adjacent to major tourist attractions and the main beaches in the city. Walking on the beaches is very dangerous at night. During the day, travelers are advised not to take possessions of value to the beach. Incidents affecting tourists in 2006 included the robbery of cars and a tourist bus going into the city from the airport and the murder of a Portuguese tourist at 8:30 a.m. on Copacabana beach. Drug gangs are often responsible for destruction of property and other violence, such as the burning of public buses at the end of 2005 caused the deaths of some passengers . ... While most police officials are honest, in 2006, there were several cases of corrupt police officials extorting money from American tourists. ...SAO PAULO: While similar incidents may occur elsewhere, all areas of Sao Paulo have a high rate of armed robbery of pedestrians at stoplights. There is a particularly high incidence of robberies and pick pocketing in the Praca da Se section of Sao Paulo and in the eastern part of the city. As is true of "red light districts" in other cities, the areas of Sao Paulo on Rua Augusta north of Avenida Paulista and the Estacao de Luz metro area are especially dangerous. There are regular reports of young women slipping knockout drops in men's drinks and robbing them of all their belongings while they are unconscious. Armed holdups of pedestrians and motorists by young men on motorcycles (“motoboys”) are an increasingly common occurrence in some parts of Sao Paulo. Victims who resist risk being shot. The number one item of choice by robbers in Sao Paulo, especially with regards to business travelers, is laptop computers. Recent efforts of incarcerated drug lords to exert their power outside of their jail cells have resulted in sporadic disruptions in the city, violence directed at the authorities, bus burnings and vandalism at ATM machines. These occurrences have not resulted in any injuries to U.S. citizens. Visitors and residents should respect police roadblocks and be aware that some municipal services may be disrupted.
--endTuesday, February 13, 2007
CAUTION: BRAZIL'S AIR SPACE AHEAD
All right, enough of this dawdling. Back to work. The statement below, issued by the International Air Line Pilots Association, indicates that Brazil has not succeeded in sweeping under the carpet the air-traffic-control disgrace that caused the Sept. 29 mid-air collision that killed 154 in the Amazon.
Among other things, this very strong statement warns international pilots of the potential perils caused by "a lack of proper government oversight and control of the ATC system." It also warns of poor radar coverage in some areas, and air traffic controllers who are inexperienced, unsupervised and lack the ability to speak more than a few phrases of English, which is the worldwide language of aviation.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"ALPA Cautions Pilots on ATC Operations in Brazilian Airspace
On January 29, the Association issued ALPA Safety Alert 2007-01 to caution pilots about certain aspects of operating in Brazilian airspace. The September 2006 midair collision that occurred over Brazil has highlighted several issues associated with operations in that airspace that may have significant implications for the safety of flight.
ALPA believes that all pilots should maintain a high level of situational awareness while operating into or within the Brazilian Flight Identification Regions (FIRs). Of particular concern are both the procedural and technical ATC methods used in Brazilian airspace and its FIR boundary areas, compared to what pilots may be used to in other parts of the world.
ALPA therefore recommends that pilots
*
operating in and around Brazilian airspace ensure they are aware of all operational guidance published by their company and review company training materials if any have been provided.
*
always strictly adhere to ICAO standard phraseology for all communications and do not assume that the controller is fully aware of any changes that have been made to the flight plan.
*
consider using all available exterior aircraft lighting whenever changing altitudes.
*
who are familiar with operations in and around Brazil share that knowledge with their MEC Central Air Safety Committee and with ALPA’s Engineering and Air Safety Department so that subsequent follow-up bulletins can be provided to ALPA members.
*
operating in this airspace, as is the case in all operations, work closely with their company safety and operations departments to ensure that all flight crews have the most comprehensive information available regarding the potential hazards of operating in this area.
While the ALPA bulletin focuses on issues related to the pilot/controller interface, pilots should note that the underlying deficiencies are caused by lack of proper governmental oversight and control of the ATC system. This is a separate issue that ALPA, in conjunction with IFALPA and other international agencies and entities, is working to correct.
Without commenting on the ongoing accident investigation regarding the recent midair collision, and based solely on reports from pilots who are experienced in operating in this environment, ALPA wishes to ensure that flight crews are aware of the following issues that may present operational challenges in Brazilian airspace:
*
Although use of ATC surveillance radar is now widespread in Brazilian airspace, controllers’ experience operating in a full radar environment is still developing. This may lead to subtle changes in procedures that reflect many years of using nonradar procedures.
*
Controller experience is not always taken into account in scheduling ATC facility assignments for controllers. This situation could result in inexperienced controllers operating in a challenging environment with little or no supervision.
*
Flight plan changes, including inflight changes from original preflight flight plan, are not always properly transmitted through the entire ATC system. This can result in different ATC sectors having parts of two flight plans (original and revised). Therefore, if a change has been made to the original flight plan, the flight crew should make sure that a clearance for “flight planned route” has been clarified and specific routing details confirmed with each sector.
*
As in many areas where English is not the controllers’ primary language, controllers may speak limited English. Pilots must also be aware that some controllers may sound proficient in the use of English as a result of these controllers either speaking with a familiar accent or because of their excellent pronunciation of certain words. In this situation, the actual proficiency of the controller’s English skills could be masked, and this could exacerbate confusion generated by any flight plan changes. Therefore, strict adherence to ICAO standard phraseology is highly recommended.
*
Pilots accustomed to more-efficient ATC systems in other operating areas may not realize the need to clarify instructions, avoid assumptions, or rely on the communications and situational awareness between pilots and controllers that may otherwise prevent errors. Similarly, a controller may not challenge pilots who inadvertently request an incorrect or inappropriate altitude, routing, etc.
*
Brazil has no national or airport standards for engine-out departure procedures in terminal areas; thus each operator may have different procedures. Therefore, controllers may not know what procedure pilots are following in the event of an engine failure. Under these circumstances, high cockpit workload and language proficiency issues can add to the difficulty in effectively communicating the intended flight path to ATC.
One of the consequences of today’s highly accurate navigation systems is that their precision can result in aircraft being on the same route with little or no lateral deviation. While the strategic lateral offset procedure (SLOP) that is in use in other areas of the world does not yet exist in South America, some member associations are actively debating the benefits of this concept and may soon put forth positions encouraging the use of this procedure. In the meantime, if individual flight crews choose to fly any deviations from a published airway, they should advise each ATC sector of their intentions."
--end
Among other things, this very strong statement warns international pilots of the potential perils caused by "a lack of proper government oversight and control of the ATC system." It also warns of poor radar coverage in some areas, and air traffic controllers who are inexperienced, unsupervised and lack the ability to speak more than a few phrases of English, which is the worldwide language of aviation.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"ALPA Cautions Pilots on ATC Operations in Brazilian Airspace
On January 29, the Association issued ALPA Safety Alert 2007-01 to caution pilots about certain aspects of operating in Brazilian airspace. The September 2006 midair collision that occurred over Brazil has highlighted several issues associated with operations in that airspace that may have significant implications for the safety of flight.
ALPA believes that all pilots should maintain a high level of situational awareness while operating into or within the Brazilian Flight Identification Regions (FIRs). Of particular concern are both the procedural and technical ATC methods used in Brazilian airspace and its FIR boundary areas, compared to what pilots may be used to in other parts of the world.
ALPA therefore recommends that pilots
*
operating in and around Brazilian airspace ensure they are aware of all operational guidance published by their company and review company training materials if any have been provided.
*
always strictly adhere to ICAO standard phraseology for all communications and do not assume that the controller is fully aware of any changes that have been made to the flight plan.
*
consider using all available exterior aircraft lighting whenever changing altitudes.
*
who are familiar with operations in and around Brazil share that knowledge with their MEC Central Air Safety Committee and with ALPA’s Engineering and Air Safety Department so that subsequent follow-up bulletins can be provided to ALPA members.
*
operating in this airspace, as is the case in all operations, work closely with their company safety and operations departments to ensure that all flight crews have the most comprehensive information available regarding the potential hazards of operating in this area.
While the ALPA bulletin focuses on issues related to the pilot/controller interface, pilots should note that the underlying deficiencies are caused by lack of proper governmental oversight and control of the ATC system. This is a separate issue that ALPA, in conjunction with IFALPA and other international agencies and entities, is working to correct.
Without commenting on the ongoing accident investigation regarding the recent midair collision, and based solely on reports from pilots who are experienced in operating in this environment, ALPA wishes to ensure that flight crews are aware of the following issues that may present operational challenges in Brazilian airspace:
*
Although use of ATC surveillance radar is now widespread in Brazilian airspace, controllers’ experience operating in a full radar environment is still developing. This may lead to subtle changes in procedures that reflect many years of using nonradar procedures.
*
Controller experience is not always taken into account in scheduling ATC facility assignments for controllers. This situation could result in inexperienced controllers operating in a challenging environment with little or no supervision.
*
Flight plan changes, including inflight changes from original preflight flight plan, are not always properly transmitted through the entire ATC system. This can result in different ATC sectors having parts of two flight plans (original and revised). Therefore, if a change has been made to the original flight plan, the flight crew should make sure that a clearance for “flight planned route” has been clarified and specific routing details confirmed with each sector.
*
As in many areas where English is not the controllers’ primary language, controllers may speak limited English. Pilots must also be aware that some controllers may sound proficient in the use of English as a result of these controllers either speaking with a familiar accent or because of their excellent pronunciation of certain words. In this situation, the actual proficiency of the controller’s English skills could be masked, and this could exacerbate confusion generated by any flight plan changes. Therefore, strict adherence to ICAO standard phraseology is highly recommended.
*
Pilots accustomed to more-efficient ATC systems in other operating areas may not realize the need to clarify instructions, avoid assumptions, or rely on the communications and situational awareness between pilots and controllers that may otherwise prevent errors. Similarly, a controller may not challenge pilots who inadvertently request an incorrect or inappropriate altitude, routing, etc.
*
Brazil has no national or airport standards for engine-out departure procedures in terminal areas; thus each operator may have different procedures. Therefore, controllers may not know what procedure pilots are following in the event of an engine failure. Under these circumstances, high cockpit workload and language proficiency issues can add to the difficulty in effectively communicating the intended flight path to ATC.
One of the consequences of today’s highly accurate navigation systems is that their precision can result in aircraft being on the same route with little or no lateral deviation. While the strategic lateral offset procedure (SLOP) that is in use in other areas of the world does not yet exist in South America, some member associations are actively debating the benefits of this concept and may soon put forth positions encouraging the use of this procedure. In the meantime, if individual flight crews choose to fly any deviations from a published airway, they should advise each ATC sector of their intentions."
--end
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