747 off the Runway in Saudi Arabia

TallFlyer

Well-Known Member
260 Passengers in Narrow Escape at Medina Airport

By ARAB NEWS
Published: Feb 17, 2011 23:05 Updated: Feb 17, 2011 23:05
JEDDAH: Passengers on board a Saudia flight from Indonesia had a narrow escape on Wednesday night when two of the engines on their Boeing 747 reportedly caught fire after landing at Madinah's Prince Muhammad International Airport.
According to sources at the airline, the aircraft was going too fast when it turned off the runway. It tipped to the side and the wing struck the ground, wrecking two other jets on the tarmac.
The 260 passengers on board the Saudia aircraft were rescued and taken to the terminal.
None of the passengers on board flight SV817 was hurt. However, eyewitnesses reported that some of the passengers experienced panic attacks. The flight, which had originated in Jakarta, had made a stopover in Riyadh before flying on to Madinah.
Khaled Al-Khaibari, spokesman for the General Authority of Civil Aviation, said that the Saudia Jumbo jet had landed in Madinah at 8.30 p.m. Wednesday after coming from Riyadh.
He confirmed that no injuries had been logged.

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Why do I feel like these pilots might be from a contract program here in the US where the common frame of mind is "Good enough, they'll learn once they get back to company... just give them the license so they can go get solo time."
 
Why do I feel like these pilots might be from a contract program here in the US where the common frame of mind is "Good enough, they'll learn once they get back to company... just give them the license so they can go get solo time."

Oh Hell, you figured out the strategy!! Looks like we might have to change how we do things. It really is too bad that they just aspire to be bus drivers and not real pilots.

Of course there is the story of a training pilot working for Saudi Airlines that had the question of a lifetime. 747 FO, flying 15+ years, asks the expat training pilot how you could tell the difference between a compulsory and non-compulsory reporting point on Jepp. There really is no idea that they can find the info on their own, they expect the instructor to spoon feed it to them.

And you just don't know how true the statement you make is. Once they finish with commercial they spend at least a year with the Saudia training/cadet program. Some days they show up, some days they don't. Maybe someone can chime in on how the US flight schools handle the students or how the students behave in the programs. Here they don't show up and then when they think they are ready things can't move fast enough for them.
 
I'm assuming that's sarcasm there, and while I accept that there is training after, the mentoring program is greatly variant from airline to airline. Exceedingly so in foreign countries (some I admire, some I avoid). I do know that Chinese and some southeastern asia airlines promote on English and general aptitude. Which means you can get 1000 hour captains or FO's in things like the 747 and 777. I know I'm still a novice at 1300 hours and I try not to do stupid things in expensive aircraft.

This seems like the all too frequent "I can make that turn" shown by many a student pilot that ends up in the grass. Unfortunetly it's with a multi-million dollar aircraft now and seem to speak of a macho attitude that is past appropriate with that aircraft.
 
Of the three primary nationality's we trained (Saudi, Indian, Mexican) the Saudi's were the absolute worse! They refused to study, would get upset if you quizzed them (to be tested was an offense to them), and didn't even really care to learn to fly. I had one who eventually went to the Philippines and was back home within two months with his PPL, IR, Comm single and Multi. In other words he bought it. This kid could not do a 50nm cross country to a town that even had a highway leading from the takeoff airport to the dest airport. could have easily flown "ifr".

I cannot speak for other US school, but we would not give Certs away, so we ended up losing the Saudi students...no loss IMO!

After what I saw, I don't think I would ride on a Saudi Air flight.
 
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