Hearing flight crews talking about aviation safety sounds like a cliche. But it is undeniable that no one cares about safety issues more than they do -- because they make a living out of doing so.
Dean Young (楊定輝), chief pilot of China Airlines' (中華航空) Boeing 747-400 fleet with over 500 pilots under his command, is even more qualified to address the matter as he is, after all, an employee and not an airline manager who might be preoccupied with cost-effectiveness.
PHOTO: JESSIE HO, TAIPEI TIMES
The 53-year-old aviation veteran retired from the Taiwan Air Force in 1990 before serving as chief pilot of the Airbus 320 fleet at Transasia Airways Corp (復興航空). A few years later, he moved to French aircraft maker Airbus SAS as a check pilot. In that capacity, he helped airlines set up standards on flight operations and pilot training.
With piloting experience of about 15,000 flight hours, Young joined China Airlines in 2000 and has since then been helping to monitor the airline's efforts to guarantee flight safety.
"As people know, China Airlines employs a considerable number of retired military pilots, and it is very important to enhance their knowledge, language skills and discipline," Young told the Taipei Times after piloting a new Boeing 747-400 jet from Seattle to Taipei on Dec. 9.
Over the past 45 years, China Airlines has given people a two-sided impression -- a symbol with the beautiful national flower painted on the tails of its airplanes, but also a poor safety record.
The carrier began to standardize and reform its flight procedures, the first step to improve flight safety, in 2000. In addition, the company has spent huge amounts on recruiting new blood and has adopted strict standards in training recruits, Young said.
In recent years, China Airlines has recruited outstanding pilots from well-known and reputable international airlines, such as Singapore Airlines, United Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways and Belgian carrier Sabena Airlines. Foreign pilots currently account for about one-fourth of China Airlines' pilot personnel.
The airline has also spent large amounts on training cadet pilots since 1988.
It trains its pilots according to BAE Systems Flight Training, developed by an Australian flying school based in Adelaide, that provides the world's finest pilot training. The company upholds a stringent screening process that ensures the qualification of pilots.
But passing the entrance examination does not mean a pilot is secure in his job at China Airlines forever. Pilots in the company are tested every three months in a flight simulator and their handling of nonscheduled raids situations are also monitored, according to Young.
In the tests, besides standardized flight procedure, the pilots are given various emergency situations to overcome. An example of this is how to successfully land an aircraft when parts of the plane malfunction in bad weather, he said.
Pilots failing to pass the tests are required to enhance their skills until they can handle all kinds of critical situations without endangering a single life on board, he said.
Discipline is also an important issue to the carrier.
In October last year, China Airlines sacked a pilot who was found to be intoxicated shortly before a flight in the US. The airline meted out the most severe penalty to the pilot after tests showed he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.087 percent, more than twice the legal level of 0.04 percent, shortly ahead of his scheduled flight from Anchorage to New York on Sept. 25.
Pilots are prohibited from drinking any alcohol in the 12 hours before performing their duties, Young said.
If they break the rule, their assignment will be cancelled immediately, and, in the worst cases, they may also lose their jobs. While in the air, the pilot crew's performance is also recorded by a system that monitors any improper operations conduct during the flight, he said.
China Airlines' efforts have started to pay off.
In June this year, the carrier won the "Best Overall Airlines" and "Best Cargo Airlines" categories in the 2003 Skyliners Awards made by Manchester Airport. With no accident being reported since a crash on May 25, 2002, the airline received a rebate from its insurance company, which also lowered the company's premium for next year by 30 percent.
In terms of business, the carrier raised its pre-tax income forecast for the year to NT$4.05 billion, a 29 percent increase from the previous estimate of NT$3.15 billion. With more routes to be launched next year, China Airlines is looking forward to seeing its revenue grow by 5 percent in the passenger division, and registering double-digit growth in cargo next year.
"We don't know how long it will take to restore people's confidence in us, but we will keep improving flight safety. We can't afford to let the tiniest mistake destroy our hard-won achievements," Young said.
HANDOVER POLICY: Approving the probe means that the new US administration of Donald Trump is likely to have the option to impose trade restrictions on China US President Joe Biden’s administration is set to initiate a trade investigation into Chinese semiconductors in the coming days as part of a push to reduce reliance on a technology that US officials believe poses national security risks. The probe could result in tariffs or other measures to restrict imports on older-model semiconductors and the products containing them, including medical devices, vehicles, smartphones and weaponry, people familiar with the matter said. The investigation examining so-called foundational chips could take months to conclude, meaning that any reaction to the findings would be left to the discretion of US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming team. Biden
INVESTMENT: Jun Seki, chief strategy officer for Hon Hai’s EV arm, and his team are currently in talks in France with Renault, Nissan’s 36 percent shareholder Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the iPhone maker known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally, is in talks with Nissan Motor Co’s biggest shareholder Renault SA about its willingness to sell its shares in the Japanese automaker, the Central News Agency (CNA) said, citing people it did not identify. Nissan and fellow Japanese automaker, Honda Motor Co, are exploring a merger that would create a rival to Toyota Motor Corp in Japan and better position the combined company to face competitive challenges around the world, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. However, one potential spanner in the works is
HON HAI LURKS: The ‘Nikkei’ reported that Foxconn’s interest in Nissan accelerated the Honda-merger effort out of fears it might be taken over by the Taiwanese firm Nissan Motor Co has become the latest buyout target in Japan as it explores a merger with Honda Motor Co and faces an overture from Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally. Shares in Nissan yesterday jumped 24 percent, the most on record, to hit the daily limit, after the two Japanese automakers acknowledged that talks are ongoing to better position themselves for competitive challenges during a time of upheaval in the global auto industry. Foxconn — a Taipei-based manufacturer of iPhones, which has been investing heavily in factories to build electric vehicles — has also
CHIP SUBSIDY: The US funding would help alleviate the financial pressure from building two fabs in the US and should lift gross margins in 2026, the company said GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s third-largest silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said it is to receive US$406 million in subsidies from the US Department of Commerce for two new US fabs under the CHIPS and Science Act, with the first batch of the funds likely coming next year. The grant represents 10 percent of the planned investments of US$4 billion in advanced semiconductor wafer manufacturing facilities in Texas and Missouri, GlobalWafers said. The commerce department is to disburse the funds based on the completion of project milestones over a multiyear timeframe, the company said. Along with the tax credit, which is equal to
RSS