"Runway Overruns Common"

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TomVexille

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Seems like a lax attitude to safety from Akbar Al Baker.

Akbar Al Baker, the chief executive of Qatar Airways, which is doubling its flights to and from Australia next year, has claimed runway overrun incidents like one that damaged one of his airline's Boeing 777s upon take-off from Miami in September "happen quite often".

A preliminary report into the Miami incident by the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority this week found the runway overrun left a 46 centimetre tear in the aircraft's fuselage, which breached the pressure vessel as well as numerous dents and scratches in the airframe with 18 square metres of damaged skin.
There were 90 individual areas of damage requiring assessment and fixing, as well as some damage to a metal guard on the left landing gear. In addition, there was damage to three of the runway approach lights at Miami International Airport which the aircraft clipped upon take-off before completing its 13.5 hour flight to Doha, Qatar and arriving with damage to the airframe.

The report found the aircraft, with four pilots in the coughpit, had mistakenly taken off using only part of the runway as they entered via a taxiway due to a misreading of information on a tablet computer. Around 1000 metres of the runway was behind them, and the recorded data from the aircraft showed they overran the runway by nearly 300 metres upon take-off but flew on to Doha, apparently oblivious to the damage.

But Mr Al Baker, rather than taking responsibility for the incident and committing to fixing the airline's procedures, on Wednesday told reporters it was the fault of air traffic control rather than the pilots - in direct contradiction of the report.
According to Flightglobal, he also said: "Such kind of incidents happen quite often, either it is a tail strike on the runway or it is contact with the landing lights."

Runway overruns 'happen quite often': Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker
 
Reminds me of that incident in MEL a few years ago when EK I believe clipped their tail and had to circle and dump fuel before returning. Considering the damage in this example, the outcome could have been far worse and if this isn't taken seriously I doubt I could ever take them seriously as an airline. I'd like to make it to my destination, not encounter explosive decompression because scraping the tail for 300m isn't serious enough to turn around.
 
Reminds me of that incident in MEL a few years ago when EK I believe clipped their tail and had to circle and dump fuel before returning. Considering the damage in this example, the outcome could have been far worse and if this isn't taken seriously I doubt I could ever take them seriously as an airline. I'd like to make it to my destination, not encounter explosive decompression because scraping the tail for 300m isn't serious enough to turn around.

That was EK407

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emirates_Flight_407
 
Once someone is killed on a QR aircraft, then we'll see what the Qatari Trump will say about it.
 
Breathtaking. Almost enough to put this airline on my 'no fly' list. Its not what the CEO says, but how the employees will interpret what's happened.
 
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Breathtaking. Almost enough to put this airline on my 'no fly' list. Its what the CEO says, but how the employees will interpret what's happened.

They should have enough money to employ some very smart people in control of these things. CEO blurting out something stupid isn't always indicative of problems below. However, if the CEO manages and pushes a culture of stupidity, then this is bad.
 
Those pesky airport workers going round shortening runways without telling pilots...
 
Reminds me of that incident in MEL a few years ago when EK I believe clipped their tail and had to circle and dump fuel before returning. Considering the damage in this example, the outcome could have been far worse and if this isn't taken seriously I doubt I could ever take them seriously as an airline. I'd like to make it to my destination, not encounter explosive decompression because scraping the tail for 300m isn't serious enough to turn around.

I didn't think the pilots knew it happened, did they? If they didn't know and systems didn't indicate anything wrong with the aircraft, how could they have made a decision to turn around?
 
Those pesky airport workers going round shortening runways without telling pilots...

Shortened?? .. The pilots turned onto the runway a full kilometer from where it started
 
I didn't think the pilots knew it happened, did they? If they didn't know and systems didn't indicate anything wrong with the aircraft, how could they have made a decision to turn around?

In this situation it appears so, though not sure how they wouldn't have noticed the runway had ended and they were still quite close to the ground ;)
 
Shortened?? .. The pilots turned onto the runway a full kilometer from where it started

Pretty sure that was tongue in cheek

In this situation it appears so, though not sure how they wouldn't have noticed the runway had ended and they were still quite close to the ground ;)

Not sure how you don't notice the runway ending.
 
This is very worrying statement from a CEO of an airline. Shows total arrogance.

No need to fly Qatar.
 
I cannot believe my eyes when reading this post I agree with JohnK and samh004
 
I cannot believe my eyes when reading this post I agree with JohnK and samh004

Well wish me luck as I fly Qatar on Six sectors in the next month. Arrogance from the CEO doesn't equal unsafe. It's the people doing the actual testing/evaluation that matter.
 
Auto brake ..... It kicks in during a pilot initiated abort, but has no ability to initiate one itself.
 
Well wish me luck as I fly Qatar on Six sectors in the next month. Arrogance from the CEO doesn't equal unsafe. It's the people doing the actual testing/evaluation that matter.

I agree with you there, unless that's everyones attitude and it starts filtering down ;)
 
Well wish me luck as I fly Qatar on Six sectors in the next month. Arrogance from the CEO doesn't equal unsafe. It's the people doing the actual testing/evaluation that matter.

You will be fine, I flew 4 sectors last month with QR 2x Business 2x First, and everything about QR is top notch, their crews are from all around the world, very professional and no expense spared.
 
I must say, travelling QR. short haul economy recently, I got more acknowledgements of my OW Emerald status than my past 5 trips onQantas put together!
 
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