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Update on the Kuwait Airways Pilot Story

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According to an article on Gulf News, when the news went viral about the incident with the porn star and Kuwait Airways, the pilot in the video was in Bangkok on layover. After the story blew up the communication minister ordered an “urgent investigation” into the matter and ordered the “immediate recall” of the Kuwaiti pilot from Thailand. Looks like he’s going to be made an example of. Check out the article [Here]

91 replies on “Update on the Kuwait Airways Pilot Story”

I wonder what s going to happen to the FO since it seems he was not so into what the captain was doing

“The co-pilot didn’t smoke or really say that much – he made a couple of jokes but thankfully he seemed more concerned with flying the plane.”

The actual guy that saved the day.

That guy could be seen as an accomplice since he didn’t stop it from happening nor did he report it so he will most likely get fired as well.

Such nonsense you are talking! The captain is the FO’s direct boss. If he informed the management about this incident then he could be in trouble if the captain got away with it (Wasta,) and if he kept quiet to avoid getting the “red eye” from his captain he could also be trouble.

What do you think the best solution here?

The pilot isn’t his boss and this isn’t the army. If he didn’t report this to management (AKA his bosses) then he’s as guilty as the pilot.

You talk about it as if this is something new. This happens all the time. Heck read the news papers… there were couple more “interesting” incidents that happened a while back and they didn’t get investigated because people just “heard” about it and didn’t get to see it.

Examples? Interesting incidents on this airline? NEWSFLASH…nobody is surprised…people need to understand that what this airlines does reflects on Kuwait as a nation, so this pilot not only used his position to be above international law, but disgraced his nation. This woman, regardless that she was/is a porn star, exposes severe violations and how Kuwait officials handle this matter is a reflection of how they view their responsibilities to their nation. After 2001, the law barring passengers from cockpits was enacted to protect pilots and the safety of passengers mainly against terrorists. So even though it is a longshot, what if this woman was DAESH? Quite frankly, external agencies should demand that he be fired and repremand Kuwait Airways from entering their air space if they don’t clean up their act – these are severe safety violations. I commend this woman for posting this and exposing the security violations of KA because evidentally they need more than upgrading their fleet, they need to get their house in order and that is a reflection of the top management all the way up the ladder to the MP.

Actually when the plane is moving, the captain is the boss in the cockpit; even if he/she is not the PIC (Pilot In Command) or PF (Pilot Flying).

FO (First Officer’s) can be fired for not following the Captain’s orders and in the end, the flight is the responsibility of the captain.

So in this case they will need to fire the cabin crew also because it was the stewardess who invited them initially and served them a bottle of champagne in cockpit. why didn’t she report?

The reason for F/O not reporting the matter is Saving his job as the captain is senior and of course has more wasta in airline so he could endanger his job by messing with the captain. at the end his performance is evaluated by captain only.

i believe there is another part of story as well that will be revealed after the investigation is complete. why it took 2 years to get video online? what if the captain was being blackmailed by the one who filmed? may be he refused to pay or fulfill the demand and his video was published.

I don’t see it that way, the co pilot is not meant to follow orders like a robot. If there is a situation where the pilot is acting irrationally and is a danger to everyone the co pilot would have to step in and take charge. In this case the pilots actions would be deemed careless and dangerous as well as breaking the law and the co pilot from what we can tell didn’t do anything so he’s in as much trouble as the pilot.

Yes if it was a situation where he sensed danger he would have taken over the controls. but as you know the plane was at cruising altitude and on Auto pilot, so all he had to do was follow ATC and watch weather radar. They both violated they will be punished for that but i don’t see F/O on fault as much as Captain.

True and I’m not an expert but I think the fact that the pilot broke protocol by allowing civilians into the cockpit is considered a dangerous situation.

Also not sure why it matters that this was reported two years after the fact, the incident happened that’s what’s important. Maybe the porn star just found the video now, maybe she wasn’t planning on releasing it before but now needed the attention so she decided to release it. It’s not that important.

+1 to what everything Mark said in this argument, completely agree with him here. I also think that the cabin crew should also be punished.

This is Kuwait.

They summon him home not to make an example of him. They do it so the Minister will cover his ass.

They will not fire any of the pilots, that will be bad for the pilots future. They will give them the option to quit their jobs volunteer. In fact, the pilot(s) probably already done that.

Then, those same people who were attacking Kuwait Airways in the media, will work on securing new jobs at other local airliner or other regional one.

Want to bet I’m wrong?

Mark… As i know that guy personally and i know he had no choice in what happened, nor could he or any off the crew intervene or do anything at that time as the captain has the final authority onboard, the only thing the can do is POST flight to report the problem, and there is no evidence that they didnt, and maybe their report was not taken seriously, and as it is clear in the video that the first officer was not part of the act, he didnt smoke he didnt sing he didnt do anything unprofessional, ha did chat a bit with the passengers, and was also seen doing his job in a professional way although there was distraction in the cockpit as he was breifing the captain from a chart, i hope for his sake you remove his photo , and i think he has the right to sue as there is no charge against him yet.

I’m forwarding this to the first officer , since this is a public site and you have put his picture clearly , and since there is no court sentence againt him in what you are accusing him, and under the law you are wrongfuly accusing a person of misconduct in his work place, and publicly shaming him.

To tell you the truth fillinname/blue/crew the pilot and copilot fully deserve to be shamed. I don’t give a fuck to people who put the lives of a whole plane’s passengers in danger.
In fact I wish that the papers would post a mugshot of both of them with their full names so everyone can know their identities.

Mark… As i know that guy personally and i know he had no choice in what happened, nor could he or any off the crew intervene or do anything at that time as the captain has the final authority onboard, the only thing the can do is POST flight to report the problem, and there is no evidence that they didnt, and maybe their report was not taken seriously, and as it is clear in the video that the first officer was not part of the act, he didnt 1/2

Mark… As i know that guy personally and i know he had no choice in what happened, nor could he or any off the crew intervene or do anything at that time as the captain has the final authority onboard, the only thing the can do is POST flight to report the problem, and there is no evidence that they didnt, and

And if u read the link YOU posted you will know what Chloe said about the pilot YOU put his picture for people to shame I quote “the copilot didint say much thankfully he was more concerned in flying the plane”.

Well there is his picture under the title UPDATE ON THE PILOT STORY ! And there is also YOU calling him an acomplice , dont act smart…. Anyways i spoke to him directly , set aside KD5001 from your budget

Just as your mother god bless her, as she was an ex crew, if there was an authoritarian Captain in command of a plane was there anything a crew member or copilot could do to stop him doing such a thing ? And u will get the answer to that poor copilot is a victim

I’m sure you will be contacted by the appropriate authority and then your lawyer can contact who ever she wants to contact

I see you rrad my comment but didnt mind to post it since its not eye to eye with your thoughts so much for “I allow comments on the site because I believe that you can make a valuable contribution”

She said she sat on Pilot’s knee and pushed some buttons..I can tell you she is lying because the pilot seat has so little headroom that he himself cant stand straight how would he let a adult sit on his knee and push buttons. I believe she is making up a story to make sure he is fired from his job. If it was a matter of Safety she would have reported it as soon as the plane landed. What took her so long to report is my concern.

Don’t go blaming Mark because it is convenient and you feel entitled to do so. He is not publicly humiliating the crew, he is reprinting photos that are now owned by the daily mail newspaper in London. London is just a 6 hour flight, so take it up with them! What is MOST outrageous about this case is the lack of professionalism in following international laws AND publically stating in this case that they were above the law. YOU ARE NOT…and as I stated in an earlier comment, I think international airline authorities should take action against Kuwait Airways and can, so now do you understand the criticality of this case and how you affected the reputation of the airline AND the State of Kuwait, so don’t go throwing threats at Mark like a school child, you ALL should be punished. The authorities will see how the First Officer did not participate in the rendezvous and determine whether they think he should be implicated, but Mark brought up a logical point on why he should be.

“I’m forwarding this to the first officer , since this is a public site and you have put his picture clearly , and since there is no court sentence againt him in what you are accusing him, and under the law you are wrongfuly accusing a person of misconduct in his work place, and publicly shaming him.” That is a threat! *facepalm*

Fred, are you dum or plain stupid. Wait you are both.

Can you read?

Pictures were posted by the “Daily Mail” in UK.

Marc clearly you are the dumb (with a b) and stupid one. You haven’t read his comment properly. Spictacular fail!

Wait wait, I meant this for RONIN & BLUE and NOT to Fred.

I repeat NOT FRED.

Sorry Fred. I misread.

Mr. Gonzalves, if you read my comment again you will notice that i am talking about the one who filmed and their intentions. I did not mention Mark in it. “She said she sat on Pilot’s knee and pushed some buttons..” to me it looks a bit fabricated story. because in video we cant see her sitting on pilot’s lap, pilot smoking or they having champagne. So lets not judge rite now.
pilot allowed a passenger in cockpit is violation of a law and he is answerable for that.
let me remind you calling someone Stupid or dum will not make you look smart.

Isn’t there a flight recorder that records all conversations in the cockpit? Do they check these routinely or only after a major incident? Can they retrieve data from two years ago? It would be informative if anyone from the aviation industry sheds a light on this.

The CVR (Cockpit Voice Recorder) is part of the CVDR (cockpit voice and data recorder) which is commonly called the “black box” (which is actually colored bright orange) and is stored at the back of the aircraft.

This device is only ever used after an incident. They can capture up-to two hours of voice recording and require special equipment to read.

“I have ordered the prompt probe to check the reports and the pictures that have been circulated on this issue,” Isa Al Kindari told Kuwaiti daily Al Jareeda.

“Prompt probe” possibly not the best choice of words here. 🙂

Kuwaiti laws are strange. Even re-tweeting a defamatory tweet makes you an accomplice.

The co-pilot will most likely win the case against Mark.

Hah! Please dont act as if you are doing anyone a favor by staying on in Kuwait! You are living off Kuwait- your livelihood is based on talking about Kuwait.
So stop dropping this line in every other post and move out NOW if you have so many problems here

Mark, I think it’s a good idea to refrain from offering legal opinions such as calling someone an “accomplice”. You don’t know the facts and the matter is still being investigated. Use language like “could be seen as” or “may be considered pending the investigation” to protect yourself, otherwise you can be held liable for slander if this guy is not found guilty by the courts. This is true in the USA, Europe and Canada, not just Kuwait.

You do realize that (a) I don’t know who the co-pilot or pilot is (b) I did not mention the names of any of the pilots because I don’t know them and (c) I haven’t posted a clear picture that could identify any of the pilots in question either.

The co-pilot, the guy with the glasses and the mini-goatee, is clearly identifiable. That’s why local newspapers obscured his face using the same picture. They know how the law works.

Granted, you simply C&P the Daily Mails front page, but, then you went ahead and accused him of being an accomplice point-blank. Legally, that’s slander if he is found innocent by a court of law, assuming it gets there in the first place.

I am not trying to bum you out Mark. However, your blog is technically a mass medium, so you need legal council before you publish potentially “controversial” stuff with identifiable people’s lives on the line. Run it by Fajer first and see what she thinks. She will probably say what I just did.

The guy in the picture looks like my friend, it’s not clear and not identifiable as any specific person. And I can’t be sued for slander because I never mentioned anyones name nor did the article I linked to. But thanks in any case for looking out for me.

The Gulf News in the UAE printed a full frontal picture of the pilot, so he sues them? Oh just try that one…..Maybe they should both go on TV and apologize to the nation for embarrassing the national carrier. You’re all small minded and entitled and think you can go around the world doing whatever you want because you are arrogant…they both broke international laws, so look at the big picture here. I hope this evolves in a law suit overseas by these passengers in a foreign court and/or this case goes in front of the IAA. Enough…this carrier has been poorly run for decades and has been an embarrassment to this nation. This is just another example of what a rundown airlines it is, only to highlight the level of unprofessionalism which unfortunate passengers who book this carrier have endured for many years. The GCC laughs again at Kuwait, thanks to them.

to be fair, the national carrier is already pretty embarrassing. In fact, the nation itself is pretty embarrassing. Look at the things it enters the news stream for?

They don’t need a whole lot of help.

stop bitching about Mark. the Captain and first officer should go to prison full stop; stop trying to be politically correct imbeciles.

I’m not bitching about Mark, i really enjoy his blog and think he is one of the best contributers to this country in many different ways, its just this post i find miss leading about a person i know is a victim in all this scandal, your opinion is your right as a human and your are entitled to express your self the way you want to, but not at the risk of harming other people’s reputation or worse his career and only source of income (and wrongfully in this case)…

Nothing will happen toward the captain nor the first officer, the rules of kuwait airways clearly allow the captain to invite civilians to the cockpit unlike other airlines. The minister reaction was extreme only because it was on the first page of daily mail and will not go any further. Safety measures on this flight was maintained, and being allowed to fly is far of being true as the rest of the article. The flight was in 2013 and this article is an unethical way for marketing for the porn star and let other media contribute in this marketing. as well for free.

And any one who wish to have a copy of the rule that allows the visit to the cockpit I’m ready to provide you a copy. What happened is no way near to be considered as incident. What happened is professional crew trying to have good time when the phase of flight where allowing them to do so. They didn’t party they were talking and facing the instruments most of the time as the lousy video shows. I believe the matter only business so the daily mail and porn star benefit on the back of these people repetation.

On the backs of these poor,

Pilots responsible for the lives of all the passengers on the plane who invited 2 bimbos to the cockpit so they could give them champagne, have them sit on their lap, sing songs and hopefully see their new tit implants,

reputations.

So you don’t see anything wrong with this? Would you be ok with your family being passengers on that plane?

Well I go and tell your parents you were on my lab and we drunk champaign so they would take my word for it and you don’t deserve to live anymore. It’s a newspaper don’t be small minded.. And the pilot had the conversation when it safe to do so.. Also they eat their meals and walk along the aircraft and go to the toilet during the flight… As I mentioned there is no safety breach in their act and they will go flying again.

The video, with everyone’s faces, is online and in the public domain. Mark did not publish the original video, he is simply reposting from another site. So everyone who feels the need to defend their friend the co pilot who sat idly while this crime was happening needs to take a reality check. His face is already public and everyone knows who he is. If the legal system does not hold them both accountable, the public has already seen them and I hope they will be made an example of in some way or another. This kind of professional negligence is rampant in Kuwait and you folks are defending someone peripherally involved (no less with legal threats). For shame. What if she hit the wrong switch while sitting on asshole’s lap and the plane crashed? Would co pilot friend be to blame or just and innocent bystanderd?

‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.’

Ps the spelling on this comment thread is atrocious. Don’t your computers come with spell check?!

If you follow kuwaiti law, retweeting a post faces the same charges of the tweet it self. Go Google it in Arabic and find out your self. But I guess this blog is ready to take this charges. It depends on the pilots and kuwait airways anyway.

So after reading the comments above, below is how I think we can summarize the public opinion:

1.These pilots are idiots and their behavior is shocking.

2.However, certain other idiots (presumably said pilot’s friends/family), find that naming (in this case visually identifying) and shaming these pilots is shocking.

3.Also, supposedly such behavior is OK and allowed under Kuwait Airways regulations.

Kind of reminds me of the South Park episode where the Vatican is up in arms about the child sex abuse scandal. In that episode, the Vatican is upset not because of the actual abuse, but because they just don’t get why the children are coming forward with the complaints.

Welcome to Kuwait (Airways)! We don’t follow international rules and regulations and shame on you for pointing it out.

Everyone is an expert on air law all of a sudden? We are in the land of experts after all. Anyway, authorities read the whole in-house regulations of all airliners that want to land in their respective countries. So they know about our cockpit visit with the commander discrection rule and still they approve kuwait airways to land in their airports.

So I painfully trawled through the comments of this post and listen to everybody beating their chests and the howls of outrage and disbelief and “What if she’s DAESH?” (that one was my favorite,) and screams for his arrest and/or to be to be fired immediately.
If anything the pilot should be either severely demoted and put in a desk job for being a bit of a chauvinistic dooshbag and showing poor judgment. The 2IC and stewards should be formally counselled regarding protocol, public image and safety, and that’s it.
As a civvie going up to the cockpit was always a massive treat as a kid AND an adult. When handled with professionalism and kindness it is a massive publicity boost for airlines and the airline industry and it is a crying shame global terrorism has taken this away from kids (and pilots actually,) today.
No major safety violations were observed, just a personality flaw and lack of personal restraint in the face of big boobs and pretty faces. Unfortunately bad judgment and and a lack of professionalism is not a trait many airlines desire in their pilots, so hand in your wings and take a desk.
It was not malicious disregard for flight safety, people. Sheesh, calm down.

There are three major safety violations observed:

1. Smoking in cockpit.
2. Civilians in cockpit during flight.
3. Tea cup on center console.

Only flight crew are allowed in cockpit during flight; once the plane is safely landed only then are civilians allowed in the cockpit.

I actually spoke to a Kuwait Airways pilot and according to him they’re allowed to have guests in the cockpit. I’m just waiting for him to send me a photo of that rule from the book so I can post it.

After 9/11 – any flights to/from the US are not allowed to have any non-airline personnel in the cockpit.

They are also required to have reinforced cockpit doors; in addition to providing advanced passenger information and a whole host of other specific requirements.

So, even though the airline may allow it – specific regulations may override rules on a particular flight segment.

If that were the case (that non airline personnel are allowed in the cockpit) it may be only for certain flight segments.

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