An Independent Constabulary?

I want to declare upfront that I don’t like British Airways. Like most state protected monopolies they forgot who their customer was and engaged in cartel behaviour for many years with other state protected airlines to screw the customer with high fares and ridiculous conditions to protect their cosy monopoly. Once they kept me in Dublin airport for 3 days because their “condition” on their euro budget ticket called for the return leg to be re-endorsed by a travel agent. On a Sunday I went out to Dublin Airport to the BA desk to have the ticket “re-endorsed.” They told me they couldn’t do it as “travel agent” meant one of their agents not their own ticket counter. So I had to wait until travel agents were open on a Monday, miss my flight on Monday morning and pay extra to eventually go back on a Wednesday because of the silly restrictions they used to put on budget tickets. When competitors like Laker and Virgin started to take their market they fought back illegally with dirty tricks, having to pay compensation to Virgin and the liquidator of Laker Airlines. God knows what they go away with that we never heard about.

But even by their own standards they have taken the biscuit with their treatment of Nigerian passengers in an incident which also calls into question whether we should continue to pay a huge premium in our taxes to maintain an Independent Police Force, a question I have asked before.( http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/up-up-and-away-with-baa-no-2.html) More than 1,000 Nigerians have backed a call to boycott British Airways unless it apologises to 136 passengers who were ordered off a flight to Lagos after they complained about the forced deportation of a man on board.

A British Airways captain made the extraordinary decision to clear the whole of economy class on an aircraft due to take off from Heathrow in response to concern from travelers that security men were manhandling a man who was pleading not to be removed from the UK. The man, who was thought to be about 30, was being held down in his seat by four or five police officers as the other passengers filed on board, and was crying out in broken English that he was afraid he would die if he were sent back to Nigeria.

The officers took him off the plane, then returned and arrested Ayodeji Omotade, one of the passengers who had complained vociferously about his treatment. When others on board protested noisily about Mr. Omotade's detention, the captain ordered them all off the flight. The only person who eventually flew economy class on flight BA0075 was the unidentified deportee who did not want to go. Mr. Omotade – who pleaded tearfully with officers not to prevent him travelling to Nigeria, where he was due at his brother's wedding – was held in custody for 10 hours, accused of causing an affray, and banned by British Airways from travelling with them again.

Ayodeji Omatade


The police also confiscated all the money he was carrying, which came to £1,600 in notes, plus three £1 coins he had in his pocket, and abandoned him, penniless, in Heathrow airport. He was spotted there by one of his fellow passengers, who was waiting for the next flight to Lagos and loaned him the money to get home.

Mr. Omotade, an IT contractor from Chatham, Kent, who is married with a five-year-old daughter, said: "£1,603 is not a lot of money to some people, but to me it's a lot, and most of it wasn't mine. I told them I had letters written in English to show them why I was carrying the money, but they said they had strong reason to believe it was the proceeds of crime.

"By the time I got to the magistrates' court, the police had already applied for an extra 90 days to investigate. I still don't know whether they are going to charge me, or not charge me. I didn't even get my luggage back until a week later. They flew my luggage to Lagos. I need a public apology that I can get framed and hang in my living room."

The incident, on 27 March 2008, has created outrage among expatriate Nigerians in the UK, who have called on the Lagos government to intervene. A protest letter, signed by more than 1,000 Nigerians, has been sent to the country's President, Umaru Yar'Adua, and senior members of the Nigerian parliament.

It calls for a front-page apology in a national Nigerian daily newspaper to all passengers on flight BA0075, a written apology and appropriate compensation to Mr Omotade, lifting of the life ban which Mr Omotade says has been imposed on him by British Airways, and the dropping of any criminal charges against him. They say the airline has until 30 April to respond.

Nigeria's Favourite Airline?

"Failure on the part of the British Airways to comply with the above demands will result in us calling for worldwide boycott of British Airways by Nigerians," the petition warned. British Airways said: "Police were called to the BA75 service to Lagos on 27 March after a large number of passengers became disruptive. Many were removed. We take any threats against our crew or passengers very seriously and this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated."

Now I have many Nigerian colleagues and friends and I am sure they felt a great deal of solidarity with their compatriot who was being forcibly deported. After all this is a country which deported a terminally ill women to Ghana to die and is deporting a Filipino Man whose wife a nurse was, in the verdict of a Coroner’s Court, was “unlawfully killed” in the same hospital she worked in whilst given birth. Her husband has now lost his right to remain in the UK because the UK unlawfully killed his wife. The spirit of Frank Kafka is alive and well and living in the Home Office in Marsham Street, London.

Now as I said British Airways has an impressive track record in customer abuse but you may ask again why do the Police, who we pay for out of our taxes, see themselves as uncritical attack dogs for the transport industry not doubt using and abusing the many laws applying in airports and to “protect” us from terrorists. So why did they intervene in a civil dispute between BA and its passengers? If you paid £700 to go to Lagos would you expect the in-flight entertainment to be a distressed Nigerian deportee surrounded by 5 heavies? What was the threat to national security which required Ayodeji Omotade to be stripped of his money and possessions and abandoned at Heathrow? I confidently predict if the “case” against Ayodeji Omotade sees the inside of a court room it will be thrown out the same day. The independence of the Police Service and their duty in law to form an “independent mind” is fundamental to the contract they have with society to have the powers of a Constable vested in them. Every Police Officer has to make the following oath before becoming a constable.

“I do solemnly and sincerely declare and affirm that I will well and truly serve the Queen in the office of constable, with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality, upholding fundamental human rights and according equal respect to all people; and that I will, to the best of my power, cause the peace to be kept and preserved and prevent all offences against people and property; and that while I continue to hold the said office I will to the best of my skill and knowledge discharge all the duties thereof faithfully according to law."

The Police Reform Act 2002

Ayodeji Omotade and his 135 compatriots who were removed by the Police and treated like criminals could well ask where was the “fairness, integrity, diligence, impartiality, upholding of human rights …….and according equal respect……….” on the 27 March 2008 at Heathrow on flight BA0075 to Lagos, Nigeria. Indeed on the latter point of “ ..equal respect..” would the Captain of that flight and the obedient Constabulary have behaved with such uncaring arrogance to 136 white passengers in similar circumstances?

The Terminal 5 Song

Terminal 5 is the success Daithai C predicted!!

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/up-up-and-away-with-baa-no-2.html

This great video and song plays better tribute to this Great British World Beater than my words can!

Up, up and away with BAA & BA !!!!

Up, up and away with BAA No. 2?

Cardboard City at Heathrow Teminal 5

Well following on from my Blog of 14th March last;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/03/up-up-and-away-with-baa.html

Terminal 5 has opened with a bang, but not the one its exclusive user British Airways, expected. In fact passengers at Heathrow's Terminal 5 have been reduced to sleeping in cardboard boxes as British Airways' woes intensified and the papers have carried Third World (or Waterloo subway) scenes of an impromptu cardboard city at Terminal 5 as disgruntled passengers camp out as flight upon flight gets cancelled. The flagship £4.3 billion building began to resemble a shanty town after the cancellation of more than 100 flights at the weekend left thousands of passengers stranded. The image of people huddling for warmth beneath the boxes, as snow and a technical fault with airport operator BAA's luggage system grounded the planes, was the latest embarrassment for both the airport and airline since the opening of Terminal 5.

Even British Airway’s own pilots have decided to kick them when they are down. Jim McAuslan, the general secretary of the pilots' union, BALPA, rounded on British Airways in an open letter.

"Banks, institutional investors and analysts need to wake up to the fact that there is something very wrong right at the heart of this company that is making our once great brand a laughing stock," he wrote.

Individual pilots have also started to voice their disquiet - at times on the public address system to passengers. One is understood to have said he was "ashamed" to work for the airline and another has urged passengers to email Willie Walsh, the chief executive, with their complaints. A BA spokesman defended the airline's chief executive. He said: "Willie Walsh said he will not resign and is determined to resolve the problems associated with the initial move to Terminal 5." A man of steel is our Willie who left Aer Lingus when the possibility of gaining a small fortune in a management buy out evaporated. The former Aer Lingus chief appeared to come from nowhere when he took over at the Irish airline in 2001. He joined the company in 1979 as a cadet pilot and gradually worked his way up through the ranks into flight operations management in the mid-1990s. In 1998, he became chief executive of Futura - the company's chartered airline in Spain - then was named chief finance officer in 2000.

Willie Walsh

Perhaps his claim that "a reasonable man gets nowhere in negotiations" - made in a staff publication when he represented pilots during their row with managers - was a hint of the man to come, as his tough decisions at the top made him few friends.

In 2004, he made it known that he wanted to explore the possibility of a management buy-out. Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern attacked him from the floor of the Dail, the Irish parliament, for trying to cash in on the airline. He left the airline in January 2005, four months ahead of schedule, amid reports that he was in talks about setting up a rival airline.

In fact British Airways has been so bad that they have succeeded in generating sympathy for Supermodel Naomi “Anger Management” Campbell who was led off one of their planes by Police called by BA staff after she paid £6,000 for a First Class fare to Los Angeles and BA lost one of her bags which contained an outfit for a memorial service she was attending. Naomi, with the BA Lottery, you pays your money and takes your chances - surely you didn't believe the publicity on their website about the "First Experience" giving you "Effortless Travel" and "Choice and Control" not to mention the clincher "A queue-less, personalised and stress free environment to check in your baggage."? What did you expect from British Airways for a mere six thousand pounds? Respect? Efficiency? Your baggage back? Keeping their promises to you? Oh Naomi, to think you used to be streetwise!! Heathrow Terminal 5 to Heathrow Central Police Station in only 10 hours!!

The Stress Free First Experience


It is notable that as Customer Service has deteriorated in the Transport industry fashionable posters have appeared saying something to the effect “Our Staff will not be abused” and threatening dire sanctions and Police action to those in Cattle (and First) Class who make outrageous demands to be treated with respect and civility on the unreasonable grounds that they have paid for a ticket. As Airport Operators and Airlines routinely abuse passengers, flaunt the Disability Discrimination Act and ignore EU Law No. 261 on the rights of airline passengers the Police (Security is paramount in the current climate!) seem entirely content to become attack dogs for an increasingly abusive and uncaring transport industry. It is for such Independence of Mind that we have a Police Service to apply the Law without fear or favour and 46 highly paid Chief Constables and one Metropolitan Commissioner who, by law, must be unfettered and independent in their operational responsibilities. You may not find this at your local airport Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly, where staff (often Agency badly trained minimum wage types) use the posters and Police to say Foxtrot Oscar to the old, the disabled and those with children.

Independent Constables of the Realm keeping the Queen's Peace and applying the Law without Fear or Favour

These are the rights the UK SHOULD be enforcing at UK airports for people with reduced mobility from the EU’s website:

Around 10% of the EU population is affected by reduced mobility – these are mainly disabled and elderly people, while others are unable to walk long distances as often required in modern airports. Most airlines and airports make genuine efforts to offer the necessary assistance. However, not all of them provide comprehensive assistance, free of charge. These problems are addressed by Regulation (EC) No 1107/2006, adopted by the Parliament and the Council on 5 July 2006, which provides for persons with reduced mobility to travel by plane without difficulty. The Regulation’s provisions cover three areas; those covering the first area are entering into force tomorrow.

Equal treatment of persons affected by reduced mobility.
For flights from airports in the EU, the Regulation prohibits the refusal by airlines and tour operators to carry passengers, or to take bookings, on the basis of reduced mobility. Exceptions can be made only for duly justified safety reasons. This should put an end to (generally unintended) instances of discrimination.

Free assistance in all EU airports.
As from 26 July 2008, airports will have to provide a specific set of services for persons with reduced mobility.

Assistance on board.
On flights from EU airports, airlines will be obliged to provide certain services, such as the carrying of wheelchairs or guide dogs, free of charge. These rules will also enter into force on 26 July 2008.

The EU’s Member States, for their part, have to set up enforcement bodies responsible for ensuring that the Regulation is applied on their territory. Any person affected by a disability or by reduced mobility who considers that these rights have not been respected can bring the matter to the attention of the management of the airport or the airline in question. In case of an unsatisfactory response, a complaint can be made to the national enforcement body designated by the Member State.
For further information, go to:

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air_portal/passenger_rights/prm/index_en.htm

The link to this site also gives you access to the general rights you have at EU airports when flights are delayed, cancelled or you are denied boarding;

“Denied boarding.
The new regulation will dramatically reduce the frequency of denying boarding against a passenger's will, by a combination of two measures. First, when expecting to turn passengers away, and before doing anything else, airlines will be obliged to call for volunteers to surrender their seats in exchange for advantages; in other words they would try to strike a deal with passengers interested in giving up their seats. Only if insufficient volunteers came forward, would they be allowed to deny passengers boarding against their will. Second, if after all airlines or tour operators do deny passengers boarding, they would have to pay compensation at a dissuasive level:

• € 250 for flights of less than 1500 km
• € 400 for intra-Community flights of more than 1500 km and for other flights 1500 and 3500 km
• € 600 for all other flights.

This will create a strong incentive to make volunteering attractive and a powerful deterrent to deny boarding. In addition to financial compensation, passengers denied boarding will continue to enjoy these rights:

• the choice between reimbursement of their ticket and an alternative flight, and
• meals, refreshments and hotel accommodation.
• Minimise the inconvenience of cancellations.

When airlines or tour operators cancel flights on their own responsibility, passengers will have the right to compensation at the rate fixed for denied boarding, unless:

they are informed two weeks before the scheduled time of departure, or

they are informed on due time and re-routed at a time very close to that of their original flight.

In addition, in case of cancellations, passengers will receive three other rights:

• meals and refreshments, and
• hotel accommodation, when a cancellation obliges a passenger to stay overnight, and
• Reimbursement, when a cancellation delays a passenger for at least five hours.
• Assist passengers facing long delays.

When airlines reasonably expect a long delay, they will be obliged to give passengers:

• meals and refreshments, and
• hotel accommodation, when a delay obliges a passenger to stay overnight, and
• Reimbursement, when a delay delays a passenger for at least five hours.

Your rights are summarised on the poster (see link) which should be displayed at every UK Airport but those who DEMAND RESPECT often hide them around corners and in stairwells;

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air_portal/passenger_rights/doc/2008_apr_poster/aff_apr_a4_en.pdf

The European Union provide a Freephone Helpline Number: 00800 678 91011 which is staffed 09.00 to 18.30 CET Weekdays.

By contrast the National Enforcement Body for the UK, the Civil Aviation Authority and its totally toothless passenger watchdog, The Air Transport Users Council, provide nothing because being British, they rely on everybody being good chappies!

Disabled Friendly?

We have seen what has happened in Terminal 5 – Elsewhere Ryanair’s respect for the law extends to NOT having the EU leaflets which should be available from all carriers and giving you a one page summary saying they disagree with the Law therefore they won’t apply it. Try this argument with the Police at a UK Airport the next time you receive the FOXTROT OSCAR treatment from the Oh, so law abiding, Airport Operators and Airlines. And Finally – The EU is prosecuting National Enforcement Authorities, including the CAA in the United Kingdom, for NOT ENFORCING EC LAW ON PASSENGER RIGHTS. Somebody should explain to people who do not pay for their flights, such as the Secretary of State for Transport and the Government’s “Respect Czar” that respect is a TWO WAY PROCESS. Let’s stand up for respect for Disabled People and Passengers in general. Indeed the UK Border Agency (Leadership by example?) could comply with the Disability Discrimination Act at entry points and so could Airport Security checks so I wouldn’t have to witness, as I did at Birmingham’s miserable airport, an elderly passenger tottering taking off a leg brace without even a chair being provided and being ignored by staff and a manager with no disability awareness training.

Perhaps the Constabulary could turn its attention to such illegality and stop helping badly run profit hungry private Airlines and Airports bully and intimidate passengers? Now there is a respectful thought?

Down to Earth at Heathrow?

The crash landing of the British Airways flight BA038 from Beijing on the 17th January 2008 at London Heathrow Airport has elicited praise for the crew for landing the plane, which appears to have lost power two miles out, safely with no loss of life and miraculously, no major injuries. All 136 passengers and 16 crew on the flight from Beijing survived - one person suffered a broken leg and others received minor injuries during the emergency evacuation.

The plane was being flown for its landing approach by First Officer John Coward, who was credited by his captain, Peter Burkill, for averting a major crash, said he was humbled by people calling him a hero, but said: "I was only doing my job. The crew, the passengers, and everybody else acted heroically. Flying is definitely all about teamwork and that is what we all displayed," he added. Earlier Captain Burkill said Mr Coward had done a "most remarkable job" in landing the aircraft. He also praised all the crew for showing "the highest standards of skill and professionalism".

An initial report into the crash-landing by the Air Accident Investigations Branch (AAIB) found the jet's engines failed to respond to demands for increased thrust from the crew two miles from touchdown. The AAIB is now investigating "the range of aircraft systems that could influence engine operation", and a more detailed analysis of the flight recorder is also taking place. The results of the investigations are expected within 30 days.

At a press conference at their headquarters near Heathrow Airport British Airways played up and lauded their crew’s professionalism in landing the plane and pointed out the excellent safety record of the Boeing 777 long distance twin jet. The Irish Chief executive of BA (And former MD of Aer Lingus) Willie Walsh said he was "very proud" of the crew and the Boeing 777 was an "excellent aircraft. We train hard for incidents such as this, and all that training has paid off today,"

There is of course a certain problem to all this elation, as pointed out by industry safety experts. Commentators have pointed out that if the engines had failed 30 seconds earlier the plane would have crash landed on the busy A30 approach road where Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s convoy was travelling to (coincidentally) take a BA plane to Beijing. It had failed a minute earlier the plane would have crashed over densely populated West London. This has added a certain frisson to the debate about expanding Heathrow and the application by Heathrow’s owners BAA (Owned by Ferrovial, a highly indebted Spanish brick making company) to build a 3rd. runway and sixth terminal at Heathrow. This is opposed by all the Local Authorities in the area and the four candidates for Mayor of London. One of the reasons they are opposing it is that Heathrow is something of a planning disaster for it is built in the wrong place as the approaches are over London with all the attendant safety risks and environmental pollution. When I lived (for a short while) on the Great West Road near Heathrow the houses had triple glazing fitted for sound insulation and sound baffle ventilation boxes for the same reason. When walking outside the smell of “paraffin” was prevalent in the air for when planes are slowly approaching for landing jet engines are at their most inefficient and dirtiest at burning fuel. It is estimated that the homes of 1.5 million Londoners are blighted by noise pollution from Heathrow. If London’s main airport had been built to the east on the Thames estuary the approaches would have been over the sea, not the metropolis, and there would have been plenty of room for further expansion.

Now the uncomfortable problem which needs to be faced by British Airways, Boeing and potentially the well funded lobby of vested interests supporting Heathrow’s expansion is this;

The probability of an accidental simultaneous shutdown of two engines on a modern twin jet due to mechanical problems is virtually zero due to both the reliability of modern wide-fan jet engines and the duplication of control systems. Therefore it is virtually certain that the shutdown of the two engines was in response to “command”. The issue the Air Accident Investigations Branch will now need to establish is was that “command” from the onboard computers or from the crew?

Either way the conclusion will be uncomfortable for British Airways, Boeing and an aviation industry which has promoted Extended Twin-Jet Operations (ETOPS). It will also be uncomfortable for supporters of Heathrow expansion and support opponents who have said that having approaches over densely populated urban areas is a disaster waiting to happen.

For those looking for light relief in this serious issue the British Press, as always, delivers the goods. They door stepped a neighbour of BA Captain Peter Burkill for some background on the hero of the moment and he described him as being “Very down to earth”. In the circumstances it is hard to argue with this description!