Re: What Realy hapened in Douala?

James,

You raise interesting question and hopefully, my answers will be of some help. "No bottle before throtle" is one of aviation's many commandments. Let me put it even more graver; it is illegal to fly or operate an airplane on pain killers. I once stalled a plane three times 6 miles into Trenton Robinsville's Airport on tylenol. If it can be established that the captain to KQ507 was intoxicated some 8 to 12 hours before the flight, possible factors would be compounded.

On the 24 year old Lad, it wouldn't be very safe to judge his airworthiness based on age simply because legally, one can obtain a pilots certificate at 17years. To be qualified as an airline pilot, one only needs accumulate a certain number of flight hours (600) which translates into experience. Assuming that this young lad's father owns an airplane, he begins flying at 13years, by the time he's 17, he probably has accumulated more hours than most flight instructors. With the kind of accelerated training they currently have its not uncommon for one to rise from zero hrs to CFI (Certified Flight Instructor) in 6 months or less.

I'm not sure of any selection criteria for flight schools in Kenya but I believe it's based on one's ability to afford the cost associated with flight training such airplane rental fees, study material, flight instructor fees etc. One thing we've to take into account is also that most of these pilots are military trained and its possible that the young pilot in question has a military background. Whether tribalism is involved in the National Airliner's hiring, I'm not best qualified to answer exhaustively.

Finally, another sugesstion that the plain was only in the air for 30 seconds crumbles under scrutiny. This assumption is based on calculations of distance from the runway and the plane's airspeed. Now, assuming that the plane took off into a head wind as is standard procedure, the speed of the wind must be factored in to arrive at the actual ground speed which in such circumstances is less than the indicated airspeed. It is possible that the plane was in the air longer than they're saying. Now, the winds magnitude and direction should also be looked into during this investigation. Let's say that the plane took off with a left quarterly 25kts wind, the pilot would have to crab into the wind to maintain a staight flight path out of the airport which would also put unprecedented strain on the plane's structural integrity and greately reduce the ground speed.

Bill Ouko