A Jazeera Airways pilot left the following comment regarding my previous post on the Kuwait Airways crash landing:
Ok the replacement plane is one to fly passengers back its not a charity, you do have a return flight you have to make. They aren’t giving Kuwait a free plane. Secondly, that plane is repairable unless there is structural damage or the cost to repair is too high, and crash landings or gear being stuck is a common problem, has nothing to do with the age of the aircraft. There is a manual release on gear, this breaks open the gear doors locks and releases the hydraulic system which is why the gear doors are hanging down like that. Finally, the use of emergency slides is a crew discretion, in a situation like this they would probably fear hydraulic fluid catching on fire or any other substance around the plane, pilots can’t tell what is going on outside thus they want to clear the plane as quickly as possible, remember they can’t tell whats going on behind them. From my view, Good job on handling the situation.
And another point sure KU customer service is crap, but trust me the people in Dubai are an outstanding team, they try their best, I’ve personally seen them in action a few times. The hotel situation is not up to them, you can’t find 50 hotel rooms in a busy traveling season in seconds or hours, and also do you think Dubai has a lot of empty top notch hotels. Upper management is corrupt in KU not the people who are holding the fort in the stations abroad. And yes KU has lost its touches around 2001/2002. They now officially suck.
16 replies on “On the Kuwait Airways Emergency Landing”
Didn’t know I was going to make the front page, however I hope the info helped you guys to see things from our Point of view.
by the way “bust” is a typo its supposed to say “busy”.
thanks for the info, it was helpful. also fixed your bust typo 🙂
appreciated that input by jazeera pilot.
one reason i WOULD fly Kuwait Air is now i know they can at least land me alive in a effed up sitaution
I would fly Jazeera air as much as possible seeing that their pilot is compentent in English and all! hehehe
The managment is horrible for Kuwait Airways and they always try to cover shit up. Its not that the people are bad, but they had no training and no facilities or tools to help the customer so that is why Kuwait Airways sucks!
KU = KA
thank god you admitted in the end that they suck even though you’re a pilot! something tells me you worked there before …
Well their pilots are very well trained and they have experience under their belt. Their new trainee program is also very well managed. They only suck on the marketing/customer services side. Engineering works hard to keep these planes working, but turn-arounds (airplane landing and then getting prepped for another flight) are usually what is hard to sort out, can you say lack of management skills. However, given a plane coming in from London the night before, then cleaned and rested and any malfunctions sorted (including clogged toilets) for 3hours, then takes off to Bombay, flies back on the same night and has to Leave Kuwait again in an hour to London and New York, well you get the picture. There is no time to sort out such minor details as Entertainment Systems. I’m sorry to say it but there are more priorities (Think of it this way, would you like a functioning toilet on a 6hour flight, or would you like to “relieve” yourself in a bottle?), whenever the plane has the time to stay then they can tend to these matters.
Don’t crack down on the techies or engineers till you see all the work they put in to make it work. But those ground handlers and dispatchers are really unprofessional. (The Kuwaiti based ones).
Their new batches of air hostesses suck, too!
Hey guys wait a sec … first of all we thank GOD that almost all passengers are safe …
I hope the media spins this into a terrorism story!
Customers don’t see what the engineers do. Most customers don’t know about how planes are basically glorified buses that land, are usually quickly checked over and re-fuelled, then sent off again. So yes, whether a personal TV works or not *shouldn’t* be so important BUT – it is.
If seats are torn, toilets out of order, tv’s not working, blankets not available, staff rude and abrubpt is EVERY BIT as important as having a well maintained plane…. why? Because defects like these mark an underlying cancer which – for all WE regular Joe’s know – represents every aspect of an airline’s operations INCLUDING aircraft maintenance.
I’ve NEVER been on a SQ, EK, BA, TG, GF, or QR flight where my screen didn’t work, or toilets or eve blankets weren’t available. Even older planes look clean if not pristene. If they can do it, KU – airline of one of the richest countries in the world – can do it. If they can’t, then maybe they can’t maintain their planes to the same standard either?
It’s just a question from a customer, not an analysis from an expert.
My first and last time on Kuwait Airways was once they gave my seat to someone with wasta and told me i don’t have a confirmation. I was 3 hours before the flight in the airport and when i tried to check in they told me i don’t have a confirmed reservation.
I started digging around with people from the team and one guy told me that my seat was given to someone with a good wasta.
This is when hell blasted on them and I was going to call the civil aviation personnel from Dubai airport when they eventually took the phone and told the guy they will put him on the next flight as this one was full.
I agree about Kuwait’s pilots, they have extremely well-trained professionals. On a different note, did you know that Kuwait’s Air Traffic Controllers are ranked as among the best in the world? Despite the lack of air traffic, I find that surprising.
KAC spends millions on training staff, but most likely pennies on customer service and marketing.
I totally agree with the jazeera pilot when he states ‘But those ground handlers and dispatchers are really unprofessional. *(The Kuwaiti based ones)*.’
From my experiences (generally) Kuwait ground staff is worlds apart from other bases (in a bad sense).
Wait kuwait airways soon in a new look.
Kuwait airways had emergency landing here in Kuwait on 10 Nov.,they did excellent job.It was done for 48 sec.,they are very good crew.But the menagment is not.I’M not a crew and not have any connection with them.