Bid to keep flying foiled as firefighter falls sick
Monday 9th February 2009, 2:30PM GMT.
Flybe’s Barbara Parks with the chartered-in ATR brought in to counter a lack of airport fire cover. (Picture by Steve Sarre, 0716636)
AN AIRLINE’S plan to keep flying over the weekend was thwarted when another airport firefighter called in sick.
Forewarned that fire cover would be below the category six level required for its Dash 8 aircraft at the weekend, Flybe subcontracted in a category-five ATR.
But when the firefighter fell ill even ATRs were grounded, wrecking the plans of an airline that is already looking to claim up to £100,000 for the previous weekend when the airport failed to provide adequate fire cover for the Dash 8s.
This time Aurigny passengers were affected, too, when the level of fire cover fell to category four from 1pm on Saturday until the same time yesterday.
Eight hundred Flybe passengers were stranded while Aurigny flew its passengers to Jersey on Trislanders, from where they continued their journeys.
Last weekend only Flybe had been affected when the Airport Fire Service had been one man short, reducing cover to category five. But this weekend, the shift was two men down.
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sack the lot and get staff who will appreciate having a job in these hard times
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Flybe work like heck to ensure links and then all of a sudden………….another ‘firefighter’ falls sick. An incredible coincidence that only an utter cynic would read anything else into :)
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I agree with Ron Russell, if they were to be sacked they would probably think it unfair, without a thought for the passengers who have suffered as a result of their selfish actions.
I’m sure there are people who would be more than capable and happy to do their jobs. Especially when so many people, through no fault of their own, find themselves unemployed at this difficult time.
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“Incredible” is the right word.They don’t give a damn for their customers without whom they’d have no job!
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Firefighters ( have so much time on their hands due to the way the shifts work they have 2 jobs.) who sit around doing very little because of the nature of the job and demanding a joke of a pay rise. Disgraceful. I heard one fightfighter was complaining about how he was supposed to live on £21,000 a year. There are people on this Island who get a lot less and work a lot harder than the fightfighters.
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