Monday, 13th October 2008 - 19:50CET
Bird strike, cabin crew, delay Air Malta flight by 16 hours
Air Malta said this evening that 123 passengers have been stranded in Sofia because of the inflexibility of its cabin crew.
The airline said flight KM 785 from Sofia to Malta was expected to depart today at 07.10 am and land in Malta at 8.10 a.m. However, upon arrival in Sofia, the aircraft suffered a bird strike and had to be inspected.
Although, after careful examination, the aircraft was certified as being fully operational, the cabin crew claimed they had exceeded flight time regulations, something which the airline refuted. As a result, the passengers were stranded in Sofia. The flight is now expected back at 2 a.m. on Tuesday.
"Air Malta believes that this action was highly inappropriate given that the company and the Union of Cabin Crew are engaged in arbitration procedures on this issue and undertakings had been given that operations would not be prejudiced in the interim," the airline said.
It said it gave utmost importance to the safety and well-being of its clients and staff and it wanted to assure its customers that everything possible was being done to minimise the inconvenience. It apologized to its clients for this delay caused by circumstances beyond its control.
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Comments
It is a pity therefore that the report mentioned just the cabin crew. People shouldn't just assume that, even though the pilots weren't mentioned, they did not have a say in the decision. Both Air Malta cockpit & cabin crew give priority to safety together, even it may inconvenience the passengers...better late than never is particularly relevant in this case, & in many others, as can be seen in the example given by Mr C Farrugia
I presume that the flight crew for that day were on the same duty reporting times (+/- 30 mins) as for the cabin crew. I just need someone to clarify this as its a curious point for someone like me working in aviation.
In March 1977, 583 people lost their lives on the island of Tenerife when two planes collided on the runway. Amongst all possible reasons for this horrible incident, was also a speculation that one of the Captains was in a hurry to take off, *due to Dutch regulations on exceeding crew duty hours*.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_disaster
And before anyone asks, yes, I am a proud Air Malta employee. We are a tiny airline which has been a quiet servant for over 30 years, and we used to and still subsidise the country. Malta is subsidising other foreign carriers who otherwise wouldn't dare operate here.
Air Malta will continue plodding on, mostly alone.
Air Malta is a fine airline, and although the transition from State owned to self sufficient has been far from painless, it remains a credit to Malta.
There appears to be some dispute as to whether the crew were subject to the flight time limitations as outlined in the Ops part A / JAR ops document, or a change to those regulations which was under discussion at the time.
Some clarification would be helpful.
Flight time limitations are designed in principal to prevent fatigue, and the degradation of safety standards that occur when people become fatigued.
If any of you as passengers feel slightly the worse for wear after one flight, consider the effects of two or three flights per day, six days back to back with a nice mix of late and early starts.
Did someone complain they found cabin crew sitting down when they were first on board ?!!!
Sir ... get a life.
KM has an excellent safety record, long may it remain so, but what nobody should ever forget is that if something goes badly wrong, the cabin crew are there to save your life.
Why all this critising to Air Malta crew this I can't understand, do you know that there are laws which tells that after cabin crew exceeds the flight time limitations they can't continue their duty. What I can say is that I am sure that Airmalta gave a hotel to their passengers some time ago a Ryanair flight was delayed by 16 hrs and guess what passengers had to sit in the airport buying the refreshments, so please think before you write and don't try to damage our national airline after all it is the best airline that operates to Malta and it competed well with Ryanait that promised much more tourist than it actually did. Thanks Sarah
Last time I flew Air Malta I was the first to board the plane. As I entered, I noticed that two of the Cabin Crew were sitting in first row, one was sitting legs crossed reading the paper.
Although I do believe that Air Malta provide a good service, I cannot help but notice that there are a few that bring down the image.
Would it have been too hard to ensure that they are standing at the aircrafts door waiting to greet the customers?
To C.Cassar well are you pointing your fingers that cabin crew were stealing, it seems you were part of it and you should have reported them, by the way I think you forgot that economy class had free drinks aswell, and also I think you were an unprofessional steward as it seems you forgot what it is the real duty of cabin crew. For all the people who critics please know that cabin crew work really hard and do their utmost. Keep it up guys as a frequent flyer I congratulate you as being professionals.
Like in everything there's the good and the bad, but as an ex crew myself for a number of years, I can vouch that the majority of air malta's CCs love their job, and do it with such hospitality, that when one travels with another airline the difference in service is immediately noted. Also, in stark contrast to C.Cassar comments I think they are the front-liners of company and the ones who kept its good reputation even through hard times!
The issue here is, once we are in the EU, shall the employees adhere to them?, or they shall be used only fejn jaqblina?
Flight Duty Periods are regulated by EU & vary according to day or night flights. Cabin crew report for duty 1 & 1/2 hours before departure from Malta. Then there is the flight to & from the destination as well as the (approx 1 hr) turnaround in between, & finally another 45min after landing in Malta. The combined flight to Istanbul & Sofia began duty at 23.25 on Sunday evening so when they arrived in Sofia, the crew had been up all night, not flying for just 1 hour. Incidentally when on terra ferma, they are still on duty and there are still odd jobs to be done, even when passengers are not on board
If anyone thinks that cabin crew delay flights just for the fun of it, then YOU are living in a pantomina. Who do you think will save the day in case of an emergency???
Dear Mr/Ms Cassar (coz C Cassar is very vague) if you weren't honoured to work with Airmalta you shouldn't have mentioned it in the first place. Shame on you if you didn't do anything about your alleged insinuations on your colleagues when you were in the job but just splash it out now to sound sensational with this irrelevant info.
Kindly note that Sofia is 1hour ahead of us. (+3 GMT) That makes it a 2 hour flight.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/Result.do?T1=V2&T2=2008&T3=8&RechType=RECH_naturel&Submit=Search
It is a 200-page odd document and the section on flying time limitations is to be found on p. 191 of the pdf file. Anyone bothering to have a look, will maybe appreciate what a complicated subject this is....before joining the usual bandwagon of 'Air Malta and/or cabin crew bashing' - which unfortunately has always been a favorite pastime of many readers! One cannot comment like an expert on a simple press release without having all details at hand. From the position I occupy today, I have nothing but respect and admiration both for Air Malta and its cabin crew - who both manage to continue doing so much with so little. May good sense prevail...as it surely will.
Stefan
Brussels
Seems like sour grapes to me!
and you must have got your timings wrong .A 1 hour flight won't even take you to Rome.
One particular comment from an ex cabin crew, said that the flight only took an hour to reach Sofia. I suggest taking a look at the Airmalta flight schedule before he/she tries to mislead other readers. As far as I remember the two hour flight leaves from Malta to Istanbul , one hour stop in Istanbul airport, and another one hour flight to Sofia, all in the odd hours of the night.
Could it be that cabin crew are covered by a different collective agreement than from that of the pilots?
There are rules and then there is common sense. We have just seen the demise of the Malta Drydocks, mostly due to inflexible work conditions. What I call the "That is not my job" syndrome.
Stephan,
In essence what you are telling people is to keep their uninformed opinions to themselves. To be honest that is quite rude. This is an open forum and all opinions are welcome. Some may not be valid, but that is par for the course.
I am curious, and you may be able to answer this question, which legislation do KM Cabin Crew choose to follow? EU or some other?
Judging from your comments I am assuming that you suppose it is EU.
Obviously if the airline and the cabin crew have different opinions as to their flying time limitation they must both be looking at different legislation. Or.....the legislation you were directly involved in is open to interpretation. However this should not be the case as I am sure it is vetted by lawyers.
If the facts unfold everyone should be better informed.
I also worked as cabin crew with Air Malta, although frankly I would not call it an honour. The way they ripped off the airline was a scandal - remember the sale of drinks in economy vs giving them out for free in club class? Well, perhaps you have forgotten, and perhaps you were never involved, however the reality is that Cabin Crew are far from being the dedicated staff members that you make them out to be.
Now let us look at the facts here.... they arrived in Sofia at 8.10 am after an hour flight - so they had only been airborne an hour. Then they hit a delay .... examination of the plane due to a bird strike. Fine. Now with all due respect the press release was issued Monday afternoon, say 6 hours after they landed in Sofia, where as we all know, they just sat and chatted and drank cofffee. Then they refused to work on a ONE HOUR flight back home.
Get real Stefan!
Good deeds are easily forgotten and one must recall that the Cabin Crew, along with the flight deck crew were the first to give back some of the hard fought and hard earned conditions to 'save' the airline.
My sympathies go with the clients but if the action was within the limitations then it was a decision well taken. I am a regular traveller now and these situations occur often enough. I have never read such news in the media, even after 24 hour+ delays and by the 'best' of airlines in the air or not. The national airline seems to grasp at any rope that is swinging by it to justify deficiencies. Wash your dirty linen at home, I say.
Air Malta and its crews still give the best of service when compared to their competitiors.
The delay is a very annoying circumstance but the article is misleading and does only put light on one side of the picture .
Can anyone of these bloggers explain to the readers , what would happen if an accident occurred while the crew were operating outside their safe hours of flying hours .Would the insurance cover the airline from the multimillion Euro cliam put forward by the relatives of the dead passengers ??
Enough said :-P
Such pantomini are unacceptable, especially in an airline supported by tax payer monies.
International regulations are there to provide for the safety of the crew and passengers and must be strictly adhered to even if it means inconvenience for the passengers and AirMalta.