Air France safety record

[3toes]

Interesting way of looking at the safety record of an airline based on number of passenger killed rather than on crashes alone.

A french friend has always referred to this airline as Air Chance which takes on a new meaning here.



A new book has attacked the safety record of Europe’s biggest airline Air France-KLM. ‘The Hidden Face of Air France’, an investigation by journalist Fabrice Amedeo, criticises what he sees as failures in Air France’s management culture. The revelations came on the day that the airline was announcing huge annual losses of more than one billion euros. Air France flights have fallen victim to several accidents in recent years and, according to a report on the book in the daily newspaper Libération, statistics compiled online rank its safety record as only the 65th best in the world.

According to a tally compiled by the Swiss-based website ‘Aircraft Crashes Record Office’, with 1,783 fatalities Air France has been the second most deadly airline for passengers, trailing only Russia’s Aeroflot. Germany’s Lufthansa, which is of similar size and age, is in 43rd place. In June last year Air France flight 447 from Rio to Paris broke apart and plunged into the Atlantic with the loss of all 228 people on board. The cause of the crash has not been officially confirmed, but investigators found that cockpit flight computers were receiving incorrect airspeed readings and Air France has since replaced speed probes on its other jets. ‘Air France has a fleet of ultramodern planes, and its pilots are among the best in the world ... but its safety statistics are those of a second division company,’ writes Amedeo. ‘The problem appears not to be technical but cultural,’ he says, accusing the airline’s executives of a ‘certain laxity’ in responding to incidents and adapting their safety procedures.

In a statement the airline said: ‘Air France’s safety standards meet the most stringent requirements in the international aviation industry. Air France is continuously working on improving flight safety which has always been one of its main priorities.'

The French Paper - news section

[VladTepes]

Basing a safety assessment on number of passengers killed is stupid. Just makes the larger airlines seem less safe than airlines operating smaller aircraft. Ludicrous.

[Bearman]

There's a few I won't fly on - one of them is Garuda...Brian

[JDNSW]

I have only made one flight with Air France; Paris - Houston a few years ago. I was struck by the casual attitude of the cabin crew to passengers fastening seat belts for take-off compared to other airlines I have travelled on. Maybe this is part of the culture referred to.

On a completely different note - anyone care to guess where this flight crossed the North American coastline? (without looking at a globe!)

John

[p38arover]

On a completely different note - anyone care to guess where this flight crossed the North American coastline? (without looking at a globe!)

Well north on a great circle route?

Not being a navigator.... maybe NY or thereabouts?

[JDNSW]

Well north on a great circle route?

Not being a navigator.... maybe NY or thereabouts?

Southern shore of Hudson's Bay! Last view of Europe was Scotland. And yes, great circle.

John

[buzz66]

As an Aircraft Engineer with 25 years experience on everything that fly's including Russian Helicopters.

The worst company's to fly on are Air Fiji in the South Pacific, (Not Air Pacific) and every other National carrier with a host Country having a Muslim predominate Religion.

As for you Dickheads that are about to wave the racist flag....back off..

The reason for my statement is simple, the facts and my personal experience speak for themselves. To put it simply they HONESTLY believe that is is the will of Allah that ultimately decides the fate of an Aircraft. The employee's and management have no work ethics whatsoever. It's simply ****ing frightening to see.

When I worked in Holland for a 6 week heavy maintenance stint. I simply couldn't believe the staggering amount of defects this Fokker 100 owned and operated Air Merpati. In all my Aviation experience I was simply dumb founded by the amount of unserviceable equipment.
Don't even start me on Bangladesh.

The Aircraft is equipped with 2 extendable landing lights. Both didn't extent and only one lite up. The Taxi light didn't work. None of the position lights worked. THe APU fire detection system was U/S. I replaced around 100 lamps in the various annunciators in the cockpit. Basically everything that got me to look at was stuffed in one way or another.

Good thing the Dutch build bloody good Aircraft. It sure makes Allah's job easy.

Interesting statistic. Worldwide you are just as likely to die (Not be injured) in an Aircraft than a Car.
The reason is time on seat.
If you spend and equal amount of hours siting in an Aircraft as you do in a Car the odds are you you more than likely die in an Aircraft than a Car.
These are worldwide statistics, and not particularly relevant to Australia for obvious reasons.

[VladTepes]

Having lived in Saudi Arabia I can vouch for that attitude to some extent.

Every time they'd announce something there'd be a caveat..

"We will be arriving in Riyadh shortly. Insh'Allah" (God Willing),



Then there was the time the Saudia flight 163 burned at Riyadh airport, killing 301 people.

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudia_Flight_163[/ame]

Accident Database: Accident Synopsis 08191980

My dad went up to a hill overlooking the airport to see what all the commotion was about and was looking through binoculars when a Saudi bloke came charging up in his car. Dad thought he would be in the **** for looking, but the fella asked to borrow the binoculars. It transpired that this blokes almost entire family were aboard. When dad expressed his sympathy the fella just responded along the lines of "It's the will of Allah".

Scary thing is they just left the wreck (burned down the the window line) beside the taxiway and every time you flew in (or worse, out) you'd taxi past it. What a great bit of advertising ! Lucky for them Saudia had a monopoly on flights into Riyadh.