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– It was like a scene out of “Top Gun”.

A German aviation watchdog is scrutinizing a fly-past by Air Berlin’s last long-haul flight to its hub in Duesseldorf, which German media said was the pilot’s unique way of saying “goodbye” to his passengers and the insolvent airline.

The pilot of the flight from Miami on Monday (October 16) pulled up the aircraft above the runway in Duesseldorf and made a low pass over the airport before coming around and landing.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for Air Berlin said the Federal Aviation Office was investigating, but declined to provide further details or confirm reports that said the maneuver was an intentional “lap of honor”.

The Federal Aviation Office said while go-around maneuver were a normal procedure in air traffic, it had asked Air Berlin for details of Monday’s incident involving the A330 plane because it differed from ordinary go-arounds.

Air Berlin, which has struggled to turn a profit over the last decade, filed for insolvency on August 15, and a government loan has kept its planes aloft while its administrator negotiated with prospective buyers for parts of the business, with German flagship carrier Lufthansa signing a deal last week to buy large parts of Air Berlin for 210 million euros ($247 million).

I saw this on the local news. They said the plane had requested and was granted permission for the fly by.

I hope they notified all the passengers on board of this stunt and everyone agreed it was ok.

I would be furious if the pilot pulled some crap like this. Probably wind up in prison furious for assault on a pilot.

I had heard that those guys were suspended, with the explanation that they were unnecessarily increasing risk.

It’s a cool video, and I’ve seen similar things done, but their job isn’t to screw around and fly their own private air show with the company’s jet. In aviation, if you want to screw around, you need to do it on your own time, and you certainly shouldn’t put it in your logbook. Someone is always watching.

quote:

Originally posted by gpbst3:
I saw this on the local news. They said the plane had requested and was granted permission for the fly by.

I hope they notified all the passengers on board of this stunt and everyone agreed it was ok.

I would be furious if the pilot pulled some crap like this. Probably wind up in prison furious for assault on a pilot.

Ehh, I wouldn’t call it permission, per se. They asked specifically for a left turn, should a go around “become necessary.” That seems a little fuzzy.

My initial thoughts on watching the video were the same as yours; did they brief the pax? There are too many nervous fliers out there, and for crews to be subjecting them to this sort of behavior is borderline unacceptable. A lot of folks have been killed while trying to show off.

"Gosht-rider the pattern is full." Was the first thing I thought of. Although looks like he got permission although I wonder if permission was granted for a perceived safety issue that didn't exist.

I will admit I think it's funny as hell. Although I have been on a flight where you heard the gear go down and ready to land when suddenly you hear the engine spool back up, gear coming back up and it's another 30 minutes until you land. Now if we had buzzed the tower it would have been fun.

I WANT SOME BUTTS!

IMHO, dumb-ass move, and unprofessional.

One does not EVER do showboat maneuvering with a load of passengers onboard unless they all specifically signed up to experience it.

So your company is going out of business. Suck it up and go out with a sense of professional pride. As long as someone else is paying for the plane, I fly in the manner they hired me to.

Besides, most pilots I know don't do go-arounds nearly often enough to take them for granted. I've probably done two no BS go-arounds in the last 10 years while I was at the controls. Though, I will admit, I don't do the number of legs per month that most folks do.

He'll be fliegen rubber Hunde-Scheisse out of Der Hong Kong by next week!

Well, if the tower didn't say "Negative Air Berlin, the pattern is full" that's on them.

They saw a protected species of bird on the runway, good thing they planned a left turn go-around should it become necessary!

A low pass/go-around over the runway should have been a non-issue. I can see how the left turn over the airport/tower buzz ruffled feathers.

quote:

Originally posted by YellowJacket:
I WANT SOME BUTTS!

AND I WANT THEM NOW!!!

Different views

After watching those video, fuck that guy. Flying over the terminal like that low enough that the gear wasn't even up. Fuck him, and if the rest of the crew went along with it, fuck them too.

And watch out about the rubber dog shit cracks...I make a pretty good living doing that!

quote:

Originally posted by Otto Pilot:
After watching those video, fuck that guy. Flying over the terminal like that low enough that the gear wasn't even up. Fuck him, and if the rest of the crew went along with it, fuck them too.

And watch out about the rubber dog shit cracks...I make a pretty good living doing that!

Seriously? That looked so tame I thought I was watching the wrong video.

^ Says the military aircraft guy with"cowboy" in his handle to the commercial aircraft guy with "pilot" in his handle, noticed the layman.

quote:

Originally posted by arabiancowboy:

quote:

Originally posted by Otto Pilot:
After watching those video, fuck that guy. Flying over the terminal like that low enough that the gear wasn't even up. Fuck him, and if the rest of the crew went along with it, fuck them too.

And watch out about the rubber dog shit cracks...I make a pretty good living doing that!

Seriously?

Yes.

I've done go-arounds that were sketchy as hell with alternate procedures, but there were very good, safety related reasons for venturing off charted procedures. Some pretty smart folks come up with go around procedures, it behooves one to use them unless they will put you in more danger.

You don't get to make showboat shit up with a jet that belongs to someone else and folks who didn't sign up for that nonsense onboard. Want to put on an airshow? Sign up for your time slot the next time the Blue Angels come to town.

Doing what they did is BS, and all the "it didn't look that bad" in the world won't change my mind.

I don't know, but I've got some VHS video in a storage box somewhere I took of the Concord full of passengers doing a touch-n-go at an EAA Fly In in Oskosh, WI sometime in the early 80s. The commentary of the people around me is a riot. One guy says the tower just gave them perrmission to do a touch-n-go, my dad says there's no way they are going to do a touch-n-go in the Concord. We were at the far end of the runway and it started off a speck in the air. Then the Concord just kept getting larger. It was a straight in approach and it got lower and lower. We must have been at the bottom of a hill because we lost sight of it. The next thing we see is it comes up screaming over our heads. I about fell over trying to keep the video camera on it and you can hear my dad say, "Holy shit, I can't beleive they just did that".

For $400 you could have flown from Oshkosh into Canada, broken the sound barrier, and come back.

Yep, it was '88 or '89. Rides were about $400 and we flew to Canada, went Mach >1, returned to OSH for multiple low flybys, touch and go's and (of course) a landing on 36

Paying to do that very thing is cool. Wish I could have done it!

It was planned.
It was approved.
It was trained.
It was sold.

Passengers knew what they were getting and a good time was had by all I can only imagine.

I was on a flight out of New Orleans in 1973 and on take off something when BOOM. The Capt came on the intercom and said we think we blew a tire and we are going to circle the tower let them look. Being young and dumber at the time it didn't bother me too much. They said it would be ok to continue so off to Atlanta we went and no more problems

The video shows an inappropriate act.

The profanity laced melt down over the video is an excessive overreaction.

The crew shouldn't have done it, except that they did receive permission to execute a left turn, which they did do.

I'd be at a loss as to why the gear remained down through the maneuver.

With passengers, it's unwise to execute unnecessary maneuvers, and certainly prudent to pre-brief whatever is out of the ordinary, as well as issue an explanation as soon as possible after. Informed passengers are happy passengers.

There was nothing about the video that would have made me excited, but it doesn't indicate a normal flight operation, and it appears inappropriate. In context with other information, it certainly seems inappropriate.