Ryanair Pilots Group Blows The Whistle On Fuel Safety Failings

A channel 4 dispatches programme aired on Monday of this week, reported on several incidents of emergency landings initiated by Ryanair pilots due to fuel inefficiencies, which could have put passenger at risk of death and injury.

The programme highlighted the company's bullying tactics towards its pilots in order to ensure minimum fuel is carried on all their aircraft in order to improve profits for the airline.

This includes issuing league tables showing pilots and their individual fuel usage for that month, and any which do not adhere to the company’s strict minimum fuel usage targets are highlighted to the whole of the company’s pilots and sanctioned in one way or another.

It further identified that the majority of Ryanair’s 2,000 plus pilots are on zero-hour contracts which further intimidates the pilots into silence over bad working conditions and safety breaches. If they don’t fly, they don’t earn a living!

In one incident three Ryanair planes in one continuous queue of planes awaiting landing at a Spanish airport after diversions from Madrid declared a fuel emergency, requiring an immediate landing. The airport concerned, Valencia, has only one runway and a problem with the landing of any one of the planes concerned could have put the others at serious risk of a crash landing. The incident took place in 2012.

Dispatches interviewed several Ryanair Captains, 3 of whom would not be identified due to fear of reprisals by the company, about the situation and the culture within the company.

Despite claims to the contrary, Ryanair pilots are not free to make a decision over the amount of fuel they carry, a practice which does not happen in other airlines as it is a longstanding custom that the Captain of the airplane determines the fuel required for each and every flight.

Dispatches also interviewed the air traffic controller involved in the incidents at the Spanish airport, and he made it clear that in all his years of working in air traffic control; an incident such as this involving the Rynair planes had never happened previously.

Furthermore, following a number of incidents involving Ryanair flights, air accident investigators were unable to access the planes black boxes, due to them mysteriously being wiped in order to destroy the data recordings of the incident under investigation.

Nor does the company issue their pilots with regular monthly safety logs identifying safety incidents and errors and how they were put right, unlike the vast majority of other airlines around the world and certainly in Europe.

The company has been fighting unionisation for many years and has threatened that any pilot of staff member raising concerns about health and safety practices and signing a Ryanair Pilots Group petition about safety, will be dismissed.
This threat was made publically in a TV interview on a US TV news programme!

But in a bitter twist, Ryanair has now sacked with immediate affect one of its longest serving pilots, John Goss after his appearance in the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary. Despite being due to retire in October this year after 26 years service, they have also decided to take legal action against him for providing evidence in the programme.

What is even more shocking about this sacking is that during his 26 years at Ryanair John Goss acted as a flight safety officer and his record was “blemish free,” according to an e-mailed statement from the RPG.

The Independent newspaper in Ireland reported yesterday on the situation:

“Mr Goss, a captain with the airline, is a member of the interim council of the Ryanair Pilot Group (RPG), which has been pressing the airline to engage with it over a number of issues, including safety.

But Ryanair has refused to engage with the RPG and insists that its own safety record is unblemished and that it adheres to all aviation safety protocols. The Irish Aviation Authority has backed the airline, saying it has no concerns regarding the carrier in relation to its safety or fuel use procedures.

Ryanair delivered documents to Mr Goss yesterday informing him of his dismissal.

A memo was also circulated yesterday to all Ryanair pilots by its director of flight and ground operations, David O’Brien.
“I write to advise you that Capt John Goss was today dismissed with immediate effect from Ryanair,” the memo said. It added that safety remains Ryanair’s “No 1 priority”.

The memo added that management wrote to Mr Goss three weeks ago. Ryanair said it was “shocked and astonished” that he then contributed to the Channel 4 documentary.

Ryanair is also to sue Channel 4 and Dispatches for defamation. Channel 4 has said it stands by its journalism and will “robustly defend proceedings if they are initiated”.

Commenting on the situation, RPG Chairman Evert van Zwol said in the statement.

“The immediate reaction of Ryanair to safety issues brought to their attention is to deny the existence of any problems and to effectively shoot the messenger. Safety experts are agreed that a sound safety culture is based on pilots having faith in a non-punitive approach and dealing directly and transparently with all concerns raised.”

The message from the airlines boss, Michael O'Leary, is quite clear and indefectible – raise health and safety issues, take on more fuel than we wish you to and not only will you appear at the bottom of the monthly pilot league tables in terms of your fuel consumption; but you risk being sacked and exposed to legal action.

As for the Irish Aviation Authority’s lack of action over concerns raised by Ryanair’s pilots on their anonymous hotline; that clearly shows they are more concerned with the profits of the Irish and Europe’s number one budget airline than they are on the safety of its passengers.

Commenting on the minimum fuel usage targets of Ryanair policy, website editor Chris Ingram called for a boycott of the airline by those concerned about safety and about trade union recognition rights:

“I have previously questioned Ryanair’s attitude to both safety and their staff working conditions, especially as they refuse to recognise or even talk with the Ryanair Pilots Group, who represent over 50% of the company’s airline pilots, and have always refused to fly with them.

As a result, I have always refused to fly with Ryanair.

Now that Channel 4 Dispatches has provided unmitigated truth around Rynair's fuel policy, and the sacking of the longest serving pilot because he blew the whistle on safety concerns; I believe that all trade unionists and those concerned for the safety of themselves and loved ones should boycott the airline and demand that the British Aviation Authority write to their Irish counterparts expressing concern about Ryanair's fuel policy and general attitude toward health and safety.”

But Ryanair's war on their staff and their airline pilots in particular is being taken into cyberspace.

According to a blog website by the name of 'I Hate Ryanair', both Facebook and Twitter accounts of Ryanair staff are being closed down following their accounts being attacked by trolls posing as Ryanair.

The blog provides the following detail:

“A furious group of pilots who fly for Ryanair, the World’s Most Hated Airline, claim the low-cost shambles is orchestrating a campaign to bully them into silence by “suppressing” their Facebook and Twitter sites.

The RPG’s Facebook website was shut down last week after a complaint the site infringed Ryanair’s intellectual property."

The blog then quotes RPG chairman Evert van Zwol as saying:

“There seems to be an orchestrated and deliberate attempt to silence the public voice of the Ryanair pilots. Attempts to suppress social communications are not acceptable in 21st century Europe.”

In a statement in response to the above claims, Ryanair would only say:

“We are currently applying to obtain all ‘Ryanair’ pages on all relevant social media outlets in order to prevent internet trolls masquerading as Ryanair.”

This latest row occurred just hours after the allegations regarding Ryanair management’s intimidation of their pilots who wanted to raise safety concerns, appeared on the Channel 4 Dispatches programme.

Source: The Independent.IE / I Hate Ryanair / Channel 4 Dispatches / Unionsafety

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