Would you take the risk (Afriqiyah airways)?

bigturnip

whatmichaelsays wrote: »

Which would affect any aircraft attempting to fly into Tripoli, including the alternative Air France flight.

But the Air France flight wouldn't fly into Tripoli, it would fly into Paris CDG, Tripoli isn't the final destination, just a possible stopover.

Voyager2002

End of story: a colleague had lots of frequent flyer miles that he couldn't use, so a few quid changed hands and now I shall be flying Air France (part of the way in Biz) for around the Afriquiyah fare.

cactusdust

Voyager2002 wrote: »

End of story: a colleague had lots of frequent flyer miles that he couldn't use, so a few quid changed hands and now I shall be flying Air France (part of the way in Biz) for around the Afriquiyah fare.

Nice! Have fun.

Dave_Z

I wouldn't fly Afriqiyah or Air France. Both have questionable safety records and not renowned for quality of service. I've heard Tripoli doesn't have ILS, but any good pilot would not need this. It's purely an aid to landing.

Gloomendoom

Dave_Z wrote: »

I wouldn't fly Afriqiyah or Air France. Both have questionable safety records and not renowned for quality of service. I've heard Tripoli doesn't have ILS, but any good pilot would not need this. It's purely an aid to landing.

I may be odd, but I've always regarded landing as the most important part of any flight.

Dave_Z

Gloomendoom wrote: »

I may be odd, but I've always regarded landing as the most important part of any flight.

It may well be, but ILS just helps line the plane up for landing. All pilots are trained to land without it, even if they can't see the runway. Many holiday destinations around the world don't have ILS at the airport. That island where the planes pass extremely low over the beach is a good example.

peterbaker

If the pilot is unable to see the runway properly (due to sun straight into the eyes at one extreme to white out due to snow or fog at the other) then there should be no landing full stop at airfields like Tripoli or any other when there are no sophisticated instrument approach and landing aids being used.

Quite simply, in such conditions, ILS (Instrument Landing System) is not simply a "nice to have", it is completely essential, and furthermore, if a landing without being able to see out of the window even to the point of touchdown is to be executed, then both the ground ILS installation and the aircraft have to be equipped to the correct category of ILS and the pilots and controller must be using it exactly as advertised from many miles out.

I am not sure what training can equip a pilot with a hundred and thirty odd passengers behind him to land without the right instrument data or being able to see outside other than a military talkdown on Precision Approach Radar! I don't think you'll find many of those outside military airfields or onboard aircraft carriers

Voyager2002

Dave_Z wrote: »

I wouldn't fly Afriqiyah or Air France. Both have questionable safety records and not renowned for quality of service. I've heard Tripoli doesn't have ILS, but any good pilot would not need this. It's purely an aid to landing.

OK, so the only other airline available is Royal Air Maroc, who I've heard are like Afriqiyah with old aeroplanes. Or maybe I could try to do it by bush taxi?

ScottySmog

Voyager2002 wrote: »

OK, so the only other airline available is Royal Air Maroc, who I've heard are like Afriqiyah with old aeroplanes. Or maybe I could try to do it by bush taxi?

Not sure when you want to travel but if you can hang on until 3rd July, Brussels Airlines start a service to Cotonou which would give you another option - via Brussels strangely enough

HouseHuntr

Voyager2002 wrote: »

I shall fly next month, and Afriqiyah airways would charge about two hundred pounds less for my journey than would Air France. Afriqihay are the Libya-based airline that suffered a catastrophic crash recently (all dead apart from one young boy). My journey would also involve landing at Tripoli early in the morning (which is when and where the crash happened) and some postings on the 'net indicate that Tripoli does not have adequate aircraft guidance systems. Of course the crash investigation will not report for months, so I don't really know what happened.

Afriqiyah are no safer/less safer than any other airline out there. Tripoli doesn't need the full spectrum of landing aids due to it's location and weather record. Pilots all over the world flying with ALL airlines have some issues with weather whether it be sun, rain, snow, ice, clouds, hail, lightening, wind etc
You've more chance of killing yourself in your own home than dying on board an Afriqiyah plane or at Tripoli.
Why people worry or even think about things like this is beyond me !

Statistically your chances of dying have now increased due to the extra flights involved