Cruising at 35,000 Feet
Cruising at 35,000 feet, the Captain of the flight Peter was busy looking at the Flight Displays, he offered pan cakes to his co-pilot Andy, that were made by his wife for this International flight.
Peter in his usual convincing tone said “Have some more Andy, there is plenty, they won’t make you fat”
Andy as usual a shy young guy responded “No Captain that’s enough thanks”.
Andy was a newly released First Officer, who had done most of his training flights with Capt Peter, and had high regards for him.
Andy knew Peter had done well within his limits to train and teach him about the procedures to be followed for Flying the Airlines, part of which is known as Standard Operating Procedures.
Most of the training is effortless, if one has seen the daily procedures of Airline operations, as to what is done on a regular basis on each flight.
All the procedures are very well documented, with a specific role assigned to every occupant of seats and duties allocated for each individual on board.
The training also requires lots on flights under training, which are performed with revenue paying passengers on board, for which Airlines allow Trainee Co-pilots to fly as supernumerary crew, who mostly sits behind the Captain and Co-pilot and observes the flight.
But if the Captain is nice and instead of ignoring a new young boy decides to help the boy, he could teach a lot more which could be a real boon for a new Pilot and if allowed by the Captain, the new trainee pilot could get involved in the flight by giving required callouts, fill up paper works, including fuel calculations, check system pages, and learn the rules and tricks for the safe operation of the flight.
Peter had allowed him to do all of it, and although there was no incentive involved to train new co-pilots, took extra pains to help them learn the trade.
Andy was flying to Singapore for the first time, and was happy that he was flying with his senior and someone he was very comfortable, in his own words “Peter was the sweetest Captain, Andy had flown with”.
The flight deck chime sounded, Peter selected the Cameras on and a familiar face appeared outside the Flight Deck Door, and Peter moved the Door Unlock switch to allow access of cockpit through cabin door “Hello Captain, my name is Shweta, and I am working as a L2”, “Hello Shweta, Peter here, he is Andy Simon” Andy welcomed Shweta, the cabin crew on board in the cockpit by greeting as well.
After the formal introduction, Peter asked “So how is it going Shweta, have you guys eaten your breakfast”.
Shweta replied “No Captain, we are about to eat in a while, just done with the services”.
Peter observed some lights in the cockpit and replied “Ok, just excuse me for a second”.
Peter turned towards Andy and said “Andy can you please switch off the Engine Anti Ice”. “Sure” came the reply of Andy, and in a flash, he reached for the switches and turned them off.
Peter who was watching his hands, immediately reached for the switches and reselected the switches back to on, and immediately afterwards casually pointed fingers towards the switches.
Andy was now in a shocking state, looking at the pointed fingers towards the switches. “Oh my god, I’m sorry sir, I am extremely sorry sir” came the reply of Andy, who was breathing heavily now.
Peter turned towards Shweta and told her if she could please excuse them for a minute, he further said they will call her back in sometime.
Andy by mistake had switched off the Hydraulic switches of the Control surfaces, instead of the Engine Anti Ice. The big control surfaces of the Jetliner are moved by the Hydraulic systems.
The error can also be attributed to the similarity in the switches, but flying at 35000 feet, with few hundred passengers, it will not be possible to blame such error on the similarity of the switches, when you are responsible for the wellness of those on board.
As soon as Shweta left, Peter said, “Ok, just calm down, Would you like to have something to drink, or maybe some water” “No sir, I am fine” said Andy, while still looking fixed at his screens, he was trying to hide himself. “Ok, have some more Pan Cakes, first of all, just relax before we speak about it” Peter tried to lighten the situation.
“No sir, I am fine, I am really apologetic”
“Tell me honestly did you sleep well last night”
“Actually honestly sir, I could not sleep all night, because there was no electricity at my place last night, I could sleep only 1 and a half hour”.
“Well, you do one thing, close your eyes and take a nap for 15 minutes and we will talk about it later”.
“No sir, I just need 2 minutes if you can please let me close my eyes” “Andy you can take 15, take a nap and when you are fresh we will talk about what happened ok, now close your eyes, I have Radios and I have controls, it is 08:01 I will wake you up at 08:16 ok”.
“Thanks sir, but I will be up in 05 minutes”
At 08:06 time, Andy said “Yes sir, I am fine now”.
“Andy, let’s talk about what happened after the flight ok, but please don’t touch the switches on the overhead panel and try to relax, we will talk about it after the flight is done, right now just concentrate on the remaining flight and relax”.
After the flight was over, Peter checked in the hotel and got the room next to Andy’s.
Peter asked Andy, “Do you think we should have a conversation about what happened on the flight today, kind of a debriefing, do you want to do it now, or maybe after you take a shower or change or something, whatever you feel like”.
“Sure Captain, I will come into your room with you just now”
“Ok please come”.
Once inside the room, Peter kept his luggage bag and Flight bag on the table and asked Andy
“Please take a seat and be comfortable, Would you like to have something to drink, maybe a coke or tea or something”.
“No Sir I am fine” said Andy, while taking a chair to sit.
Peter loosened his tie, turned towards Peter grabbing a note pad and a pen, while beginning to write few numbers on the pad and started “So buddy what’s going on today Let’s start from the beginning, no. 1 you gave our call sign as 81, instead of 18 at least 15 times since morning and that is after I told you 6 times, finally I wrote it on a piece of paper as 18 in big letters, and kept it in front of you, even then you were repeating the same mistakes”.
“Where are your brains today Andy, and the most important no. 2 Did you realize you just switched off the Hydraulic switches of the Control surfaces, instead of the Engine Anti Ice”.
Andy was speechless.
“Then your fuel calculations were haywire, do you remember that you told me that the extra fuel burnt by us on the waypoint was 270 kgs, whereas when I checked the same, it turned out to be 760 kgs extra and above the predicted fuel burn, that was a difference of 500 kgs, do you understand the consequence of your actions my friend, then your Radio Telecommunications are nowhere close to a professionals.
“If you remember we were on Approach at 1000 feet, when Changi Airport told us that there is a Airbus 380 ahead of us, continue approach for ILS 02 Left, and you responded back saying that Cleared to land Rwy 02 Left, he had to repeat it 3 times before I had to tell him that continue approach behind Airbus 380, for ILS 02 Left, am I suppose to be doing this while hand flying my plane 600 feet above ground in heavy rain, and with a Wide body Airbus 380 Airplane landing ahead of me, this is your job, but you are not doing it correctly, I am sorry to say, but instead of an asset to me, you became a liability on me today”.
“Do you know why is all this happening, because you are not rested, nobody can perform well, when they are not rested well, and you are no different, the only cure to tiredness is to Sleep, and the only alternative to Sleep is to just Sleep”.
“Sir, you are right, I am feeling ashamed now, but I only did this because I am not rested well, I could not sleep well last night”.
“But when you knew you are not rested, you should have report sick, and not fly when you are not well rested, it is extremely dangerous to fly like this”.
Andy replied “Sir, I know, but then we do not get a chance to do flights like Singapore every day, it happens only once in a month or so, and since it was you, I decided to come for the flight”.
Peter responded “But Andy, it does not make sense, Singapore or Hong kong is all the same, all these flights will come in your life more in numbers than you can ever count, but playing with your profession is completely unacceptable, you are working as a professional and it is a very responsible career, please don’t screw it up by doing things like this”.
“Sir, I understand it now, and it will never happen again, I know you are very sweet that is why you are letting it go, someone else would have done worse than I can imagine”
“I am sure you are responsible enough to understand that by now, please don’t let it happen again, and that’s all I want you to know” Peter said, trying to finish off the conversation.
Andy apologized again and left saying that he has a cousin sister who will be coming to pick him up at the hotel.
After Andy left, Peter spent a couple of hours trying to figure out what could go wrong as a consequence of the action of Andy, he called up one of his senior colleague and asked whether a report should be made in the regard to the same, the colleague strongly recommended for making a report, but after a lot of thinking and analyzing Peter came to a conclusion.
Peter made the report, opened the Email to mail the same to Chief Pilot, but did not mail it and saved it as a draft, Peter knew this mail could mean a long training session for Andy, and a possible humiliation, and also for he knew that it was a genuine mistake due to fatigue and not a planned error.
Peter decided to stay quiet till someone turned up and asked him for an explanation for the same, in which case, the report was already made and could be mailed anytime.
It was yet another day in the life of a Flyer.