The tragic crash on Sunday of a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 aircraft at Phuket Airport, Thailand, has reopened the debate about the safety of budget airlines, which are proliferating. David Cresswell recently flew the Bangkok-Phuket route on a One-Two-Go MD-82 and reports a perfectly satisfactory and safe flight.The accident follows a week in which Canadian planemaker Bombardier ordered the grounding of almost half of its Q400 turboprop planes after three were involved in landing gear failures. Bomardiers are operated by UK budget airline Flybe. Aside from landing gear worries, a Flybe Bombardier Q400 with 36 people on board had to make an emergency landing in Edinburgh in July when crew members were forced to shut down one of its two turboprop engines.
There are two websites which provide useful information on aviation safety. The European Commission website provides information on those airlines which are banned from EU airspace or which have restrictions placed on them. For details click on:
http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air-ban/list_en.htm
The airsafe.com website provides information on the safety record of specific makes of aircraft. The MD-82 type aircraft which crashed on Sunday is listed under MD-80:
http://www.airsafe.com/by_model.htm
Obviously, choosing a safe airline and safe aircraft type is a very imprecise science.
Selection a safe airline is one of the topics covered in Business Travel Security, which is a one-day workshop during Security Management Stage 2, 15-26 October 2007. The workshop may be attended as a standalone workshop on 22 October.
Alternatively, ARC can deliver the programme in-house, tailored to your specific requirements.
