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This time brought to you by China Airlines. Enjoy, kids!
A pilot for a Chinese carrier requested permission and landed at FRA (Frankfurt, Germany) for an unscheduled refueling stop. The reason became soon apparent to the ground crew: The Number 3 engine had been shutdown previously because of excessive vibration, and because it didn't look too good. It had apparently been no problem for the tough guys back in China: as they took some sturdy straps and wrapped them around two of the fan blades and the structures behind, thus stopping any unwanted windmilling (engine spinning by itself due to airflow passing through the blades during flight) and associated uncomfortable vibration caused by the suboptimal fan. Note that the straps are seatbelts....how resourceful! After making the "repairs", off they went into the wild blue yonder with another revenue-making flight on only three engines! With the increased fuel consumption, they got a bit low on fuel, and just set it down at the closest airport (FRA) for a quick refill.
That's when the problems started:
The Germans, who are kind of picky about this stuff, inspected the malfunctioning engine and immediately grounded the aircraft. (Besides the seatbelts, notice the appalling condition of the fan blades.) The airline operator had to send a chunk of money to get the first engine replaced **(took about 10 days).
The repair contractor decided to do some impromptu inspection work on the other engines, none of which looked all that great either. The result: a total of 3 engines were eventually changed on this plane before it was permitted to fly again.
A perfect example of why you dont book a flight on a third-world airline. US, Canadian, Western European, Japanese, Australian, Singapore, yes. African, Latin American, Middle Eastern, former Soviet, no.
A perfect example of why you dont book a flight on a third-world airline.
Ok...that's a little on the cheap side. I'd hardly call China Airlines "third world". Now...perhaps some of the carriers running old prop planes around the jungles of Latin America and the ever so politically stable and safe African plains, that's a different story.
I'd have no problem flying on many of the airlines you mention. Of those four in paticular, I've flown on Varig (before they collapsed), a Latin American airline, Gulf Air and Emirates, both Middle Eastern airlines, and Aeroflot, a Russian airline. I've been on a South African Airways 747 on an improptu tour and was quite impressed...hardly run down and falling apart. I must also say that Emirates and Aeroflot both but the American idea of travel to shame...they were quite first class airlines. No complaints for Gulf Air or Varig either.
Even after hearing stats saying air travel is safer, I still feel better being close to the gound.
11,000 times more likely to die driving from LA to NY than flying, and people will never believe it because of idiots like these...
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