Pilot tells passengers “I am not qualified to land the plane”

by Josh Lew on

A Flybe Airlines flight from Cardiff to Paris had to turn around because of fog at Charles De Gaulle Airport. The fog did not force the airport to close. Rather, the pilot, a man with 30 years of experience, had never completed low-visibility training for the particular aircraft that he was flying.

Passengers on the flight were stunned when, 20 minutes shy of De Gaulle, the pilot got on the PA system and, instead of announcing the imminent arrival, said the following:

‘Unfortunately I’m not qualified to land the plane in Paris. They are asking for a level two qualification and I only have a level five. We’ll have to fly back.’

And fly back they did. The bizarre incident is nothing if not humorous, but I doubt the passengers on the flight were amused.

A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority said that such a situation was rare, but not unheard of. “There are different classifications of aircraft and when an aircraft is updated, pilot’s who have flown an older version have to completely retrain.”


Think that pilot pulled an unusual stunt? What he did is nothing compared to the stunts these girls pulled.


“New” Delta Still Blames “Old” Weather

by Iva Skoch on

It was supposed to be a relaxing weekend with a group of dear friends in Maine. It sure didn’t start out that way…

On Friday afternoon, we get to JFK airport to be told by a Delta representative that our flight was canceled.

“The weather,” says the rep as if that answers everything.

“The weather? Why don’t you just wait for the weather to get better rather than canceling?” I say.

“I don’t know. It’s the pilot’s decision,” she says.

“It seems odd. It is gorgeous in New York, Boston and Maine,” I say.

“Sorry. The computer says the weather is bad.” Says the rep. She was done with us. No offer to put us on a different flight, compensate us, nothing.

Well, if the computer says the weather is bad, then it must be bad. Still, something tells me that “the computer” also finds it convenient to cancel flights and then blame the weather to avoid having to compensate travelers. This is not the first time Delta has been accused of doing this.

I will spare you the details of our adventurous trip up to Maine but I will mention that they finally put us on an alternative flight to Boston instead (somehow, the weather for that flight was OK) and a shuttle from there to Portland, ME. Needless to say, the weather was great throughout this entire trip.

I was shocked how poorly Delta treated us. They basically kept saying “Well, it’s the weather, there is nothing we can do.” I know for a fact that there are things they can do. So can I. Never flying Delta again is step one. (Unless, of course, I get a personal apology letter from Delta’s CEO, like Bruce Nussbaum from Business Week did. Yeah, right.)