Post by Deleted on Dec 14, 2014 23:25:18 GMT 1
Part 1
Two and a half hours by jet to the west of Lisbon lie a group of nine islands known as the Azores. They are owned by Portugal and despite the fact that they lie in the middle of the Atlantic, have a benign climate. There is only a 350 mile difference between the distance from the Azores to Newfoundland and the Portuguese mainland.
Each island has an airport, though some are better equipped than others. Lajes, which is shared with the USAF, is well-known, as is Santa Maria. Ponta Delgada, (PDL) the capital, has a runway capable of handling wide-bodied aircraft, though its runway is shorter than the other two and thereby hangs the tale. The SATA saga really falls into two distinct parts:
SATA was the airline which had kept the group of islands together since the early 1970s, more recently with a fleet of three 748s. At that time, SATA was not allowed to fly outside the Azores, even to Lisbon, so their concentration was entirely on the island group. The 748s had done sterling service, but these were the 2A series and we now had the 2B series with improved performance and fuel consumption, which was just what was required for the smaller airfields. To ensure that no claims of impropriety could be brought, SATA interviewed the usual suspects, ie, F-27, Dash 8, and the ATR-42.
So the discussions began. The F-27 was once again eliminated early on, not least because SATA felt that a high-winged aircraft was not the right choice for a group of islands which were subject to strong winds. As this was 1986, the Dash 8 was still quite new at the time and again unproven for such an operation, which left the ATR-42 as the only other serious competitor. The basis of the deal was that we would take two of the older series 2A 748s in part-exchange.
We did some estimates on the potential resale value of the 748s. They were in good condition, well-maintained, and had a useful amount of well-catalogued spares – or so I thought! Many of you will be familiar with the green-lined computer paper with the holes in the side which existed in the early days of computers. I was given a box full of these, which in effect was a computer print-out of their spares holding. I spent the evening going through the list and I noticed the word 'mono' appeared frequently in the lists, but it had a part number against it, which was rather confusing, because mono in Portuguese means monkey! At the meeting next morning I brought up the subject with the Chief Engineer. There was much shuffling of feet and embarrassed looks and the CEO said to the Chief Engineer in Portuguese, “You'd better confess – he speaks Portuguese!”* It transpired that the items were screws, nuts, bolts and other fastening material on which they'd put a higher value than was realistic. A compromise figure was eventually agreed, not without some humour it should be said. We then got down to the nitty gritty of the trade-in values and a price for the whole package. Basically it's very similar to trading in your old car for a new model. You agree a price for the old one, (and the spares) and a price for the new one and set up the financing to cover the difference – simples! We got the numbers to work to the satisfaction of all concerned and drew up a draft contract.
The usual negotiations took place, the pencils were sharpened and a deal was agreed. We went back to Woodford, drew up the contract and returned. Two days were spent going through the new contract and finally everything was agreed. The contract was to be signed the following morning, following which SATA would be holding a press conference. The BAe team went out for dinner, had a drink or two and returned to the hotel. For some reason, I hadn't really enjoyed the evening and thus hadn't drunk very much. At about 2330, the phone rang in my room. It was the CEO of SATA, who said, “I've just had some disturbing news which I need to discuss with you urgently. I'm sending my car round for you now.” I was taken to his house and shown a fax which referred to the accident of N748LL of Air Illinois in November 1983. I was aware of the situation, but not in detail. The report (which had clearly been doctored), blamed the aircraft for having a poor electrical system which had been the cause of the accident. Well, it was true that an electrical system had been at fault, but it was equally clear that the NTSB had determined that the cause was pilot error. It was also clear that, having come this far, SATA were not about to change their minds, but they knew that the question would be brought up at the press conference the following day, because Aerospatiale had a 'plant' amongst the reporters. It later transpired that, unknown to us, an Aerospatiale team were still on the island ready to pounce if SATA had changed their minds, which was obviously part of their cunning plan!
My boss was in Washington, fortunately just three hours behind in time zones and with the help of my Filofax
I managed to find him in a restaurant over there which we used a lot. He agreed to go to the office, dig out the report and fax it over. The signing was postponed for 24 hours, while we all got some sleep and waited for a copy of the NTSB accident report to arrive by fax. The next morning, the faxes had arrived, we had another meeting with the CEO who said he was satisfied that the aircraft was not at fault, and the signing went ahead the following day – phew!
All was well and we climbed aboard the late-night flight back to Lisbon, where, despite it being well after midnight, the agent was waiting to take us out for a celebratory meal. Back at Woodford, c/ns 1782 and 1790 were allocated. Somewhat ironically, I always thought, 1782 became CS-TAP!
*I should perhaps explain the background to the Portuguese-speaking thing, since it is an unusual language for a 'foreigner' to speak. Before I was bitten by the aviation bug, my aim in life was to join the merchant navy as a navigating officer. I joined the Booth Line, who were then based in Cunard Buildings and whose ships regularly sailed up the Amazon. It was of course necessary to be able to speak the language if you were going that far, so I was sent to night-school to learn it. Despite the unintended change of career direction, it has proved very useful over the years!
link to Air Illinois accident report
Two and a half hours by jet to the west of Lisbon lie a group of nine islands known as the Azores. They are owned by Portugal and despite the fact that they lie in the middle of the Atlantic, have a benign climate. There is only a 350 mile difference between the distance from the Azores to Newfoundland and the Portuguese mainland.
Each island has an airport, though some are better equipped than others. Lajes, which is shared with the USAF, is well-known, as is Santa Maria. Ponta Delgada, (PDL) the capital, has a runway capable of handling wide-bodied aircraft, though its runway is shorter than the other two and thereby hangs the tale. The SATA saga really falls into two distinct parts:
SATA was the airline which had kept the group of islands together since the early 1970s, more recently with a fleet of three 748s. At that time, SATA was not allowed to fly outside the Azores, even to Lisbon, so their concentration was entirely on the island group. The 748s had done sterling service, but these were the 2A series and we now had the 2B series with improved performance and fuel consumption, which was just what was required for the smaller airfields. To ensure that no claims of impropriety could be brought, SATA interviewed the usual suspects, ie, F-27, Dash 8, and the ATR-42.
So the discussions began. The F-27 was once again eliminated early on, not least because SATA felt that a high-winged aircraft was not the right choice for a group of islands which were subject to strong winds. As this was 1986, the Dash 8 was still quite new at the time and again unproven for such an operation, which left the ATR-42 as the only other serious competitor. The basis of the deal was that we would take two of the older series 2A 748s in part-exchange.
We did some estimates on the potential resale value of the 748s. They were in good condition, well-maintained, and had a useful amount of well-catalogued spares – or so I thought! Many of you will be familiar with the green-lined computer paper with the holes in the side which existed in the early days of computers. I was given a box full of these, which in effect was a computer print-out of their spares holding. I spent the evening going through the list and I noticed the word 'mono' appeared frequently in the lists, but it had a part number against it, which was rather confusing, because mono in Portuguese means monkey! At the meeting next morning I brought up the subject with the Chief Engineer. There was much shuffling of feet and embarrassed looks and the CEO said to the Chief Engineer in Portuguese, “You'd better confess – he speaks Portuguese!”* It transpired that the items were screws, nuts, bolts and other fastening material on which they'd put a higher value than was realistic. A compromise figure was eventually agreed, not without some humour it should be said. We then got down to the nitty gritty of the trade-in values and a price for the whole package. Basically it's very similar to trading in your old car for a new model. You agree a price for the old one, (and the spares) and a price for the new one and set up the financing to cover the difference – simples! We got the numbers to work to the satisfaction of all concerned and drew up a draft contract.
The usual negotiations took place, the pencils were sharpened and a deal was agreed. We went back to Woodford, drew up the contract and returned. Two days were spent going through the new contract and finally everything was agreed. The contract was to be signed the following morning, following which SATA would be holding a press conference. The BAe team went out for dinner, had a drink or two and returned to the hotel. For some reason, I hadn't really enjoyed the evening and thus hadn't drunk very much. At about 2330, the phone rang in my room. It was the CEO of SATA, who said, “I've just had some disturbing news which I need to discuss with you urgently. I'm sending my car round for you now.” I was taken to his house and shown a fax which referred to the accident of N748LL of Air Illinois in November 1983. I was aware of the situation, but not in detail. The report (which had clearly been doctored), blamed the aircraft for having a poor electrical system which had been the cause of the accident. Well, it was true that an electrical system had been at fault, but it was equally clear that the NTSB had determined that the cause was pilot error. It was also clear that, having come this far, SATA were not about to change their minds, but they knew that the question would be brought up at the press conference the following day, because Aerospatiale had a 'plant' amongst the reporters. It later transpired that, unknown to us, an Aerospatiale team were still on the island ready to pounce if SATA had changed their minds, which was obviously part of their cunning plan!
My boss was in Washington, fortunately just three hours behind in time zones and with the help of my Filofax
I managed to find him in a restaurant over there which we used a lot. He agreed to go to the office, dig out the report and fax it over. The signing was postponed for 24 hours, while we all got some sleep and waited for a copy of the NTSB accident report to arrive by fax. The next morning, the faxes had arrived, we had another meeting with the CEO who said he was satisfied that the aircraft was not at fault, and the signing went ahead the following day – phew!All was well and we climbed aboard the late-night flight back to Lisbon, where, despite it being well after midnight, the agent was waiting to take us out for a celebratory meal. Back at Woodford, c/ns 1782 and 1790 were allocated. Somewhat ironically, I always thought, 1782 became CS-TAP!
*I should perhaps explain the background to the Portuguese-speaking thing, since it is an unusual language for a 'foreigner' to speak. Before I was bitten by the aviation bug, my aim in life was to join the merchant navy as a navigating officer. I joined the Booth Line, who were then based in Cunard Buildings and whose ships regularly sailed up the Amazon. It was of course necessary to be able to speak the language if you were going that far, so I was sent to night-school to learn it. Despite the unintended change of career direction, it has proved very useful over the years!
link to Air Illinois accident report
) and anyway it wasn't the whale-watching season, though we did see dolphins swimming in the bay at Ponta Delgada.
