Yes, split personalities coming out again due to prozac.
Plane's shocking safety record Geoffrey Thomas Aviation Editor, The West Australian
June 22, 2010, 2:31 am
The airline carrying the missing board members from Sundance Resources was banned from flying to the European Union because of a shocking safety record in Congo and two crashes in the past five years.
And the missing plane, a twin-engine CASA 212-300, has one of the world's worst safety records, with 76 of about 600 built crashing. Registered TN-AFD, the charter plane was built in 1990 and was the 398th off the production line.
Charter company Aero Service, based in Congo's capital Brazzaville, has a fleet of eight ageing planes including Russian aircraft and some small Western-built piston powered designs.
The airline was founded by C.H. Griesbaum in 1962 as the aviation branch of a frozen food company and is now the biggest charter operator in Congo. Aero Service has commuter, charter and cargo operations in Congo and neighbouring countries.
Aero Services finance director L. Decouville refused to answer any questions from _The West Australian _ yesterday.
He said the Congolese company was at "crisis stations" and was trying to concentrate on the search.
The missing plane was first delivered to Cabo Verde Airlines in early 1992, then sold to Aero Service in December 1993.
The CASA 212 was designed in Spain in the late 1960s to replace the venerable DC-3 and first flew in 1971.
Designed as military transport, airlines pressed CASA for a commercial version which appeared in July 1975.
The plane has a high-mounted straight wing to enable it to land and take-off on short runways, while its rugged undercarriage allows it to land on rough gravel and grass runways.
The initial model carries up to 20 passengers in a 2-1 seating configuration. Aero Service's C212 was a 300 model which was produced from 1987 and is longer than the original design, with capacity for 26.
The C212 has been the subject of two major airworthiness directives relating to the autopilot and cracks in the wings. It is not know if the missing plane was affected by the directives or if corrective action had been taken.
The plane's poor safety record is partly because its operations involve flying into remote and small airports and low level flying as a military transport.
Africa has the world's worst safety record, according to the International Air Transport Association, with a crash rate up to 17 times higher than the world average. Last year, Africa and the Middle East accounted for 32 per cent of aircraft accidents but only 8 per cent of global air traffic.
The airlines of many African countries, including Congo, are banned from flying to Europe because of significant deficiencies relating to safety management by regulators.
Many countries have poor aviation infrastructure such as landing aids, rendering many sophisticated plane safety systems useless. Another serious problem is the theft of ground equipment such as navigation aids, and a lack of maintenance.
The situation has become so serious that pilots from some international airlines are pushing for routes that avoid flying over central Africa.
Another concern for the industry is the revelation from IATA that sloppy check list procedures by pilots were causal factors in 75 per cent of all accidents in Africa.
All i can say is money cannot buy sense.
