DBKP Travel Advisory

DBKP has issued a Travel Advisory for Turkish Airlines. DBKP suggests that its readers avoid traveling by Turkish Airlines until the recent rise in Islamic fundamentalism in Turkey resumes its normal seething. It seems religious zeal has compromised air safety. It is strongly recommended that air travelers in the Middle East seek means alternative to Turkish Airlines to gain their destination.

Islam And The Art Of Aircraft Maintence

“On the morning of February 25, Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 from Istanbul crashed short of the runway at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, killing nine passengers and crew.

On Wednesday, Dutch authorities released a preliminary report indicating that the crash was caused by mechanical failure, exacerbated by severe pilot error: The aircraft’s altimeter – which had malfunctioned twice in the past eight landings – was faulty, and the pilots failed to note this or respond appropriately. It has further been reported that a trainee pilot with less than 25 hours’ experience of flying this kind of plane was at the controls.

Spokesmen for Turkish Airlines, or THY (Turk Hava Yollari) as it is known locally, and European aviation experts have been quick to assure the public that the accident was an anomaly. Turkish Airlines’ standards of maintenance and training, they insist, are the equal of any major European airline.”

We beg to differ.

“The Islamic AKP has packed the airline with political and religious allies. There have over the last few years been numerous accounts in the Turkish press of serious discontent among Turkish Airlines’ employees with the company’s new managerial cadre. Employees have come forward with claims that Turkey’s governing AKP, a party associated with political Islam, has packed the airline’s management and staff with unqualified political allies and co-religionists.”

“[Pilots] charged that many of the new cabin crew, for example, were graduates of religious Imam Hatip schools rather than of technical universities – Imam Hatip schools were, the pilots said, classified as ‘trade schools’ and the Imam Hatip alumni were therefore ‘camouflaged’ as trade school graduates. This is no trivial claim, if true: the main responsibility of cabin crew is not to serve meals, but to handle in-flight emergencies or evacuations.

Technicians were given maintenance tasks after two or three hours of training.

The president of the Turkish Pilots’ Association, Tuna Gurel, claimed that 400 experienced workers had been laid off in the previous year, with 355 of them being forced into retirement – even though the Turkish Airlines fleet had expanded by 25 per cent. In all, 1,500 had been laid off since the AKP-appointed management came to power in 2003.”

So now you know. Prayer does not keep that bird in the air in spite our firm belief to the contrary.

In fact, even a large sacrifice to Allah does not seem to do the trick.

Camel Sacrifice at Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport Gets Turkish Airlines Worker Fired

“A group of Turkish aviation technicians were so happy to be rid of the last of a batch of troublesome planes that they sacrificed a camel on the tarmac of Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport.

The image of an airport worker raising a large piece of bloodied camel meat on the tarmac on Tuesday adorned the front pages of several newspapers, drawing the wrath of transportation authorities, who promptly sacked the a senior technician on Wednesday.

Under pressure from the European Union, Turkey has introduced fines for those who slaughter animals outside special facilities. The sacrificing of a camel at Turkey’s busiest airport was regarded as a disgrace.

…

Turkish Airlines authorities launched an investigation and sacked chief technician Sukru Can for approving the sacrifice.”

Now there is something you don’t see out your window at LAX. And if fortunate, will never see.

DBKP will keep this travel advisory in effect until further notice.

by pat

Image – Plane Crash
Image – Camel Sacrifice
Source – The First Post – Islam and the Art of Aircraft Maintenance
Source – FOX News – Camel Sacrifice at Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport Gets Turkish Airlines Worker Fired