Why flying in the Third World can be dangerous . . .

Ever heard of a fireman filling in for an air traffic controller? No? Well, according to the Telegraph, that's just what happened in India recently.

An aircraft carrying more than 60 passengers was guided in to land by a low-paid fireman speaking broken English after air traffic controllers at an Indian airport failed to turn up for work.

As a Jet Airways flight from Hyderabad approached Tirupati airport in Andhra Pradesh, its pilot was alarmed when he received no instructions from its control tower, where two air traffic controllers would normally guide them to a safe landing.

Instead, he was eventually greeted by an airport fireman ordered into the control tower by an official after it emerged that two senior controllers due on duty had either overslept of failed to call in sick.

The fireman, known as Basha, was sent to the tower by the airport’s deputy general manager who issued instructions on how to guide the pilot by phone.

Despite successfully guiding the plane to safety and possibly saving dozens of lives, the fireman has yet to be recognised as a hero while airport bosses announced they would be taking disciplinary action against air traffic control officers for dereliction of duty.

There's more at the link.

One must, of course, congratulate Fireman Basha on his successful efforts to guide the aircraft to a safe landing . . . but one can't help thinking that 'Basha' is a most unfortunate name, given the circumstances. After all, a 'bash' is precisely what the aircraft's pilots wanted to avoid!





Peter