| Dear Sir or Madame, I have decided to file this report because I do care not only about what is going on my flight, but about air transport too. The January 4th, was a challenging day for everybody at Changsha airport due to real winter operations. Many pilots, ATC and ground services were working hard to ensure the flights are departing safely. The safety is our main priority, it always will be. We had our passengers on board for four hours because the first de-icing holdover time had failed, that followed by RW closure, a passenger decided to offload himself, long time for the second full treatment etc. Yes, it was a very challenging day for my crew, but we did announcements in two languages and this was positively understood by passengers, but what they did not understood, as none of us, that there were two aircraft departing from neighbouring stands with wings full of snow without de-icing. The first aircraft Airbus China Southern B-6272, departure time about 02:40 UTC, started pushback, I thought to do de-icing somewhere, but that was for departure!!! Another aircraft, OKair, foreign captain I suppose, they were pushed and had engines started, but the RW was closed what imposed a further delay of about one hour in SN. Although they were de-iced by type I, but this type of fluid has protective properties for only 22 min as a maximum in conditions we had in Changsha that day. The SN on failed de-icing fluid downgrades aerodynamic performances rather more than SN on clean surfaces. I dont know what those captains were thinking about... This is just totally irresponsible, uncivilised and rather criminal, as the decisions they made are completely against Air Law. I would like to appeal to fellow colleagues, I would like to ask captains and first officers why some of us dont care? Why some of us cut corner where it is completely unacceptable, why? Have we forgotten what happened on November 21 2004 with CRJ200 near Bautou? Have we forgotten about ATR72 April 2 2012 at Tyumen? Some pilots seem have forgotten about their responsibilities too... We got our positions and licenses because we are being trusted by authorities and public, but what some of us do? They just betray of everyone who has trust in them, they betray their colleagues too. My position about the culture of safety in operations is very strong, there is only one way to do this job for me and I make anything possible to introduce this to my co-pilots too. At the end, I would like to wish everyone a Happy New 2013! Let it be a very good and safe to all of us! |