National Post (National Edition)
CABIN PRESSURE
FORMER AND CURRENT PILOTS ALLEGE AIR GEORGIAN IS CUTTING CORNERS; THE OPERATOR DEFENDS ITS RECORD
Alan Eugeni had been flying at Air Georgian for only a month when he said the first one happened.
Landing a Bombardier CRJ100 as the flight’s first officer, he said he pulled back the throttle to slow down the 50-passenger plane, but the engine on one side kept roaring ahead. Unable to get the jet to respond, Eugeni and the captain shut it down and made an emergency landing with a single engine, according to Eugeni.
The pilots, he said, duly reported the defect to their maintenance department and assumed it would be fixed, then went through exactly the same crisis the next day, the flaw clearly not remedied.
By the end of his notquite two years at Georgian — a contract provider that transports 1.5 million passengers a year in North America under the Air Canada Express brand — Eugeni charges that he had two more emergency landings, the kind of unsettling event he said pilots at bigger carriers might experience once or twice in a 25-year career.
“That is unheard of in a major airline environment,” he said. “Declaring one emergency is a huge thing … It means there is a potential catastrophe about to happen. It’s not something that should happen on a weekly or monthly basis. “
Yet other pilots say his experiences were not unique, while Georgian itself is just one part of a surprising subset of the airline industry.
Although most Canadians have likely never heard of the company, it’s among four contractors — the others being Jazz Aviation, Sky Regional and EVAS in Atlantic Canada — that provide planes and crews for short-haul flights under the Air Canada Express banner.
Most of the aircraft bear the Air Canada colours, the crew wear Air Canada uniforms and tickets can only be bought through Air Canada.
The four companies bid on routes to cities throughout North America using smaller jets and propeller aircraft, an idea that has become standard among U.S. and Canadian legacy airlines as a way to cut costs on flights that haul up to about 50 passengers, but still need two pilots and a flight attendant.
The result, Eugeni alleged, is a “race to the bottom,” as contractors vie for routes at the lowest cost possible, and fight to get bonuses for flights that leave on time.
Indeed, while safety is the publicly stated top priority of Georgian, an August, 2016, memo to employees also emphasized another imperative.
“As a reminder, OTP (ontime performance) is the first and foremost metric by which our success is measured … while maintaining the required level of safety,” it said.
There is no official or empirical evidence that Georgian has more safety problems than other, similar airlines. It has never had a serious accident and holds a licence in good standing with Transport Canada, which said it does regular inspections of the airline.
Publicly posted reports to Transport Canada on safetyrelated incidents at airports mention Air Georgian about as often for the size of its fleet as they do Air Canada, considered to have a topnotch safety record.
But other pilots at the company that annually handles 62,000 Air Canada Express-branded flights separately told the National Post of having one or more emergency landings over a similar one-to-two-year period, and allege a troubling approach to safety and maintenance at the airline.
Defects are often left unfixed as long as legally possible, crews are pushed to their physical limits and reporting problems is sometimes discouraged, said current and former pilots and flight attendants.
“I was always on my guard: ‘Is something going to go wrong today?’” said Olivier Nayet, a pilot who left Georgian a year ago after what he called two emergency landings in 19 months.
Employees described captains repeatedly reporting dangerously low levels of engine oil, regular airconditioning failures that leave crew drenched in sweat and a company memo that urged pilots to think twice about aborting takeoffs when a “master caution” light flashes on as they thunder down the runway.
“The aircraft likes to fly,” the memo said, arguing the problems can often be rectified in flight.
The airline rejected the criticism, and said Eugeni’s allegations in particular are an act of “vengeance,” since Air Canada rescinded a job offer because of his alleged “repeated abuse” of that airline’s employee travel policy (Georgian employees get discounted Air Canada flights).
Eugeni has made false, “entirely fabricated” and defamatory statements, said a letter from the company’s lawyer, Rocco DiPucchio. “He did not, in fact, experience any emergency landings.”
The airline cancelled an interview to discuss the crew members’ allegations more fully, with DiPucchio suggesting the Post was intending to present an “entirely one-sided and negative” view.
He said Air Georgian is one of the most audited airlines in Canada, and the results of those evaluations put it in “the top tier” of Canadian operators.
Air Canada said it also carries out a variety of audits and reviews to ensure Georgian and its other regional carriers are operating safely, a requirement it describes as foundational and essential.
“To date we have not identified any issues that raise concerns,” said spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick about Air Georgian. “Safe operations are a requirement and competitive advantage, not a ‘cost.’ This serves as a powerful inducement for regional partners to invest in and maintain safety.”
As for contracting out operation of some flights, he said that is a standard practice worldwide and has a “sterling safety record.”
Eugeni said he quit for a variety of reasons, including poor working conditions — low pay and being put up at bed-bug-ridden hotels being two of them — and word that he had no chance of graduating to a better-paying job at Air Canada.
But he also said he feared for his own safety, and “sadly” recommends his friends and family avoid flying Air Georgian (tickets say “Operated by Air Canada Express — Air Georgian” in fine print).
“I have a wife and a threeyear-old boy and I want to see him grow up,” said the Montrealer, an engineer by training who became a pilot in his 40s after selling a successful company. “The writing is on the wall: there’s something wrong at this company and there’s an accident waiting to happen.”
Eugeni has detailed his experiences in a self-published book, provocatively titled The Next Plane Crash. It was originally available on Amazon, but was taken down after Georgian complained to the retailer about allegedly defamatory content. The pilot has since launched a website to sell the volume, saying he stands by everything in it.
Three other pilots and a flight attendant still working for the airline, as well as Nayet and a flight attendant who recently left the company said Eugeni’s portrait is spot on.
The crew members provided company documents and photographs to back up some of the allegations, and two of the employees approached the paper unsolicited with their concerns.
“All of those things in the book did happen. The facts cannot be argued with,” said one pilot. “It’s pretty shocking.”
Like other current crew members at the airline, he was not authorized to speak about its operations and asked not to be named.
Nayet said he quit Georgian partly because of work schedules that left little time off or rest between flights. He said he also encountered chronic maintenance problems with the planes, and pressure to fly even when pilots questioned the aircraft’s safety.
According to Nayet, his emergencies included a flight that took off with one of two thrust reversers inoperable.
He said that as the jet was about to land at Charlottetown’s unusually short runway, the wing flaps also failed, meaning two of the systems designed to slow down the descending plane were out of service.
“It is kind of stressful,” Nayet said. “You have to be really, really on your toes.”
Air Georgian, though, questioned the pilot’s credibility, saying that he quit after failing to be promoted to captain partly because of a lack of knowledge of the company’s operating procedures, making him a poor judge of its performance.
And it denied the Charlottetown incident was an emergency, saying neither Nayet nor the captain filed an internal aviation safety report or declared an emergency.
Georgian said it undergoes “rigorous” safety audits conducted by the International Air Transport Association, an industry trade group. Those reviews cover safety systems, in-flight operations, training programs and maintenance.
Air Canada also carries out quarterly safety and maintenance reviews, said DiPucchio, Georgian’s lawyer.
Transport Canada said Air Georgian holds a valid air-operator certificate, having passed the requisite inspections to ensure it is following Canadian Aviation Regulations.
The agency is not aware of any instances where crew members were discouraged to report safety or maintenance problems, said spokeswoman Marie-Anyk Côté.
But critics say a shift toward letting airlines take on much more of the responsibility for overseeing safety means Transport Canada may not be fully aware of what happens at Georgian and other airlines.
The Safety Management System (SMS) implemented in 2005 required companies to set up internal safety oversight that was supposed to augment — though not replace — up-close, unannounced reviews by Transport Canada.
The inspectors who used to regularly sit in cockpits and tour hangars now largely just review documents provided by the airlines, said Greg McConnell, president of the Canadian Federal Pilots Association, which represents government inspectors.
If employees have concerns, they can file internal “aviation safety reports,” but those are considered confidential company documents and regulators would not necessarily see them.
“Transport Canada has divested itself almost entirely of hands-on oversight of airlines,” said Virgil Moshansky, a retired judge and aviation-safety expert who headed the inquiry into a 1989 Air Ontario crash that killed 24 people on board.
Now defunct, that outfit was one of the regional airlines that used to ply shorthaul, feeder routes for Air Canada, most as fully owned subsidiaries.
Today, four independent companies operate the planes that carry relatively small loads of passengers to Canadian and U.S. cities as Air Canada Express, and compete to get flights under what are called “capacity purchase agreements.”
Air Georgian’s lawyer said it is “factually wrong” that Georgian bids for Air Canada routes. But a 2013 news release from Air Canada states that it had picked Georgian to operate a number of additional routes after “a competitive bid process” that enabled “more cost-competitive” service in key markets.
Regardless, Eugeni said his first taste of what he called Georgian’s cost-conscious approach came just after he was hired in May, 2015, and was receiving simulator training through a company based in Germany.
‘WE HAVE RECENTLY HAD SOME OPERATIONAL CHALLENGES … BECAUSE SOME CAPTAINS HAVE REFUSED TO TAKE AIRCRAFT WITH UNSERVICEABLE APUS’
‘THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH DAYS IN THE YEAR TO MAKE THIS WORK UNLESS WE INCREASED OUR PILOT NUMBERS TO A POINT WHERE THE BUSINESS MODEL DOESN’T MAKE SENSE ANYMORE’
—PETER FITZPATRICK, SPOKESMAN, AIR CANADA TO DATE WE HAVE NOT IDENTIFIED ANY ISSUES THAT RAISE CONCERNS
HE DID NOT, IN FACT, EXPERIENCE ANY EMERGENCY LANDINGS — ROCCO DIPUCCHIO, LAWYER, AIR GEORGIAN
Georgian’s slots on the simulators were in the middle of the night, using trainers he alleges were so unfamiliar with the company’s standard-operating procedures that they asked the student pilots — some of whom had never flown a jet before — to fill in the gaps.
The training outfit recommended an extra 10-20 hours of “sim” tutelage; when Georgian declined, the trainees took matters into their own hands, Eugeni said.
“We set up our own makeshift simulator with chairs, a desk and pictures of the cockpit in our hotel room for more practice, reminiscent of simulator training circa 1920.”
He said he later discovered Georgian also skimped on “plates” — the charts kept in each cockpit that provide crucial information about airports. Instead of buying one of the three most reputable brands, it used cheaper versions that often don’t include key information, Georgian pilots say.
For example, on an approach to Nashville International Airport, Eugeni said his flight was using the wrong frequency — supplied by the discount plates — for the instruments that guide the plane to the ground. After an intervention from a puzzled air traffic controller, he entered the correct data, and the plane suddenly veered onto the right course, according to Eugeni.
Nayet said he once piloted a plane that sat for 20 minutes at the incorrect gate because the plates had him talking to the wrong agent inside the terminal.
Georgian also uses a relatively old fleet; used planes that are cheaper to buy. Of its 30 aircraft — Bombardier CRJ jets and Beechcraft 1900D turbo props — 11 are at least 20 years old, another nine are 19 and the newest were built in 2005, according to Transport Canada records.
Older planes can be flown safely, but, not surprisingly, require more upkeep, pilots said. But maintenance at Georgian is often delayed or overlooked, they said.
“I fear for Georgian,” one mechanic wrote in a text to a crew member after he left the company. “I was trying my best to keep anything bad from happening but I couldn’t take the B.S. any more … I think something bad is coming down the pipe with the way they do their maintenance.”
Nayet recalls a day his flight from Toronto to Kansas City went through three planes. According to Nayet, a piece of metal fell off an engine on the first, the second was grounded for other defects and the third, though eventually deemed airworthy, had mechanical problems that further delayed the trip.
By that time, four passengers demanded they be let off the aircraft, he said.
In many cases, addressing problems is simply put off, crew members alleged.
Rules followed throughout the aviation world set up a “minimum equipment list” of parts that must be working before takeoff. Because some pieces of equipment have back-up systems, regulations allow planes to fly with those parts broken for a set period of time (known as MELs in cockpit jargon).
The defective gear is supposed to be fixed as soon as possible, but crew members said that doesn’t always happen very quickly. Nayet said he once had a flight with 15 MELs; Eugeni said he once had nine. Both provided photographs that appear to show just that.
Each MEL is noted with an orange sticker next to the relevant switch in the cockpit, leading to a joke among pilots that the plethora of colourful markers was a new decorating scheme, Eugeni said.
“For an airline that carries paying passengers, I don’t think that should ever happen,” Nayet said.
All the pilots and flight attendants interviewed complained about one particular type of MEL: brokendown generators which leave planes without air conditioning on the ground in summer. Sometimes, air conditioners used in flight do not work, either, they said.
One pilot described landing his aircraft in scorching heat without A/C, the copilot so dazed that he was slurring his words as he talked to air-traffic control and forgot his flight number.
Another pilot claimed he had to make an emergency landing because an elderly passenger was suffering chest pains that seemed linked to the cabin’s high temperature.
Georgian said no pilot could make that connection between heat and health problems, especially since they are legally required to stay in the cockpit.
In an August, 2016, memo, Georgian noted that while some captains had declined to take planes with malfunctioning air-conditioning systems, they had no right to refuse to fly even if on-board temperatures topped 29 C.
“There are some days where we enjoy a career that many people pay thousands of dollars to do as a hobby, and there are some days in the ‘office’ where we earn our money,” the memo said.
Air Georgian said Eugeni never filed aviation-safety reports on any of his alleged four emergency landings — though it said doing so was a “regulatory obligation” — and called his charges “demonstrably false.”
But the pilot said he was the first officer, or secondin-command, on each flight and it is typically the captain’s role to file such reports, part of the internal SMS system.
He showed photographs of the personal logbooks he filled out after flights, which appear to note each of the four incidents, including flight numbers and locations, as well as the names of the three different captains involved.
One of those captains is now an executive at Air Georgian, which declined to make management available to comment; the other two did not respond to emails and phone calls for comment.
One emergency incident caused by a burst tire on Oct. 20, 2015, was documented in a Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Report System (CADORS) report, which is filed with Transport Canada, typically by air-traffic controllers. It noted that aircraft rescue and firefighting had been alerted, and that there was “extensive damage” to a wing flap.
Most of the pilots interviewed also reported regularly discovering problems with low levels of engine oil — an issue that crew at major airlines rarely if ever have to worry about, said a senior captain for one such carrier, who asked not to be named.
At one point, the company’s safety-management office acknowledged there had been a number of incidents where engine-oil problems in flight had required planes to return to the airport they had just left, or be diverted to another city.
In some cases, engines have to be shut down in the air because of low oil, pilots alleged.
They also balked at a memo issued by Georgian earlier this year that suggested they think twice before aborting a takeoff after an amber “master caution” light illuminates in the cockpit.
Pilots said they are trained to immediately reject takeoffs when the warning comes on, as long as they are below a set maximum speed as they race down the runway.
The memo noted there had been a “significant amount” of rejected takeoffs (RTOs) at Georgian. Though it conceded the captains who stopped their planes couldn’t be faulted, it said the decision should not be automatic when the amber light flashes on.
Transport Canada said the memo “is consistent with industry norms,” adding that the onus is on the pilot in command to decide whether the plane can take off safely.
But Georgian pilots said the advice could prove dangerous for a young captain without the experience to know when to ignore the master caution and that it seemed mostly designed to improve the airline’s ontime performance.
“The real problem, why pilots are doing RTOs, is the poor maintenance on these old planes,” said a crew member who had three aborted takeoffs in two months. “So, asking the pilot to think twice before performing an RTO is a very bad thing, allowing a lot of safety issues.”
But DiPucchio said Georgian has made it clear to pilots that it is concerned about rejected takeoffs only because they can be dangerous themselves. He also referred to another memo that said the airline was not trying to “stifle or challenge” the captain’s final say in such situations.
“The discussion on this topic is an example of the impeccable approach taken by Air Georgian to aviation and passenger safety,” the lawyer said.
If safety and maintenance problems weigh heavily on some Georgian pilots, bringing them to the fore is not always easy, they said.
All the pilots interviewed said airline headquarters urged reluctant captains to fly planes they felt might not be safe, or to hold off noting a defect in the aircraft’s logbook — an action that legally requires the problem to be addressed before the aircraft can fly again.
Nayet said some of the pilots even recorded their phone calls with management about such issues, worried about being held responsible should something go wrong.
Crew members also complain they often don’t get enough rest, working long hours and frequently unable to take allotted holiday time, except in cash. Georgian said in a memo last November it had only been able to award 25 per cent of pilots’ 2017 vacation.
“If you are low on the (seniority) list … there are not enough days in the year to make this work unless we increased our pilot numbers to a point where the business model doesn’t make sense anymore,” the memo said.
Nayet said the medevac outfit he worked at before going to the airline paid better and had a healthier attitude toward safety, as does his current employer, Ontario charter airline Skycare.
“I fly for 25 years and I think it’s the worst job I’ve ever had,” Nayet said about his stint at Georgian. “It’s like bush flying.”