High talk in Bangkok

It is a Thai Air A-330 from Karachi to Bangkok. The airhostess in sarong softly mumbles a Thai greeting clasping her palms in a prayer like gesture as I enter the airplane. I am awkwardly embarrassed by such a show of humility and can only come up with a muffled ’Thank You’. The engines get started as aircraft is pushed back; and the sing-song of the safety belts, oxygen masks and exit doors begins that no one seems to be listening. Unlike PIA, there is no metaphysical touch of a prayer in Arabic. I quickly get checked out on the buttons, switches and entertainment devices fitted to the seat. It is past midnight. I pick up a blanket and call it a day.

We are heading for the Asia-pacific ICAO seminar on ’Aviation Medicine and Personnel Licensing’. My companion, the flight surgeon, says that he can not sleep during a flight. We are already on the Thai territory. He begins his proceedings with Red Wine.

After four and a half hours, I am woken up from the slumber by the commotion that usually begins as the airplane begins the descent. Lights coming on, cabin crew collecting head phones, distributing forms and public address system going crazy with all kinds of information ranging from the local temperature to the regulations about the drugs. The airhostesses are now in skirts unlike the sarongs they wore in Karachi. I wonder whether the company has a policy of head-to-foot attire when docking in the conservative states.

The Seminar opens up with the usual introductions. There are the Chinese, Australians, Malaysians, Koreans, British, a Bhutani, two from Fiji, one doctor from Indian Airlines and reps from International Airlines and Pilots associations. The Asia-Pacific regional director is Lalit Shah from Nepal. The ICAO rep from Montreal is Roger Lambo, a Mexican, Chief of Personnel Licensing and Training.

Our Hotel, Amari Watergate, is right in the middle of the city with spacious rooms. And in keeping with that great tradition of the Far East, each room has a kettle for coffee or tea. One is saved from the headache of ordering a cup of tea from the room service. I open up the side table and find a Bible and a book on teachings of Buddha. I leave the bible alone and pick up Buddha. I skim through a few pages. It is all appealing but I have no time at present. I plan to buy it and read it later.

Jarnal Singh, the flight surgeon from Singapore, gives us a talk on crew fatigue on the long haul flights. He has a thundering clear voice, his slides are colourfully animated and has a pleasing sense of humor. His research recommends that during the long-haul flights, which carry multiple sets of crews, there should be two rest periods and aircraft should have comfortable bunks for sleep. And each such flight must terminate with a 48-hour layover at the destination with no more than two such flights in a week. There is a constant struggle between the Operators and the Regulators on the duty time limitations of the crew.

I find that since I last visited Bangkok, there are now many double-decker roads but these do not seem to have reduced the traffic congestion. And with a $2000 per capita income, there is still some visible poverty, chaos and smell from the water channels that flow through the city. This misery is familiar and is comforting. Half of Bangkok seems to be selling trinkets and other half making noodles & soups. The rest are gainfully employed in massage parlors. Some specializing in foot or thai massage with rates ranging from $ 40 to $ 200. Ten millions tourists visit this 60 million nation annually. I am surprised to learn that there are over 300 four-star hotels in the city. But the environment is peaceful – no ideological conflicts. Except that anything related to film ’The King and I’ is an illegal possession. Every one respects the King and the democracy is doing just fine.

An Australian speaker, Mr. Crosswait, suggests in his talk that ICAO needs to formulate Regulations for civilian commercial use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Most of the participants feel that ICAO should first focus on the manned flights. Most, including me, submit that UAVs need to be first clearly defined. Are we talking about something with a weight of few hundred KGs or some contraption destined to carry passengers? For obvious reasons, the rep of the International Pilots’ Association is outright against such unmanned aerial vehicles for passengers. Most feel that the UAVs issue be presently left under the state control and UAVs not be permitted for commercial international civil use for a variety of reasons – security being one.

We prefer to use the taxis and not the tuk tuks. The tuk tuks, more spacious than the Pakistani rickshaws, have no meters and their drivers do not understand English. One day, we even came across a taxi walla who was unable to read an address in Thai. Our free evenings begin with a few shots of duty free ’Red Label’ and when I find the Doctor at the right level, we set out for food. Obviously, searching for the spicy desi food. We settle on ’Shalimar’ which has all the heavenly desi mano-salva including the green chilies. Later, we learn that even our hotel has ’Parathas’ which they call Indian Bread.

Roger Lambo gives a talk on the newly introduced ’Multi-pilot Licence (MPL)’. With the induction of automated glass cockpits and a worldwide anticipated shortage of pilots, this seems to have come out of a necessity rather than pure good intentions. For MPL, a new pilot would only fly 70 hours on actual aircraft and then do 170 hours on the Simulator followed by 12 take off and landings on the aircraft. The multi-pilot licence privileges would be to only co-pilot a multi-pilot aircraft.

Many old timers felt that 70 hours of actual aircraft flying was too less and this probably is signaling the end of the classical romance of flying with the seat-of-pants feelings. Others felt that flying was now more of a management of avionics and computerized systems rather than the traditional gung-ho flying skills. Roger Lambo said that it was up to the states whether to use this Licence or continue with the old system; or use both.

The Doctor takes me in the evening to his favorite ’Sardarjis’ tailor shop from where he had been getting his Safari Suites stitched for decades. He is also keen to take me to the ’Charlies’ which gave cheap chilled beer, where people sat on the stools in the open and kept ordering ’Tikkas’ & ’Kababs’ from nearby hotel. The Sardars of the ’Bangkok Fashions’, father and his two sons, look extremely graceful in their black trousers, white shirts and black turbans. They casually speak in soft Thai, occasionally break into Urdu and come into their very own when in Punjabi.

The elder Sardar explains that Safaris are no more in fashion and people now buy suites. He is not too happy with Chinese who have flooded the market with cheap suites, which are poorly stitched with wide shoulders. But the Doctor is insistent. I goad the Doctor to forget about the Safaris and get modern. Finally, he buys both. The Sardars deliver the suits in the hotel right on the dot. Since I am not into shopping, the Doctor one day escapes quietly and brings back shoes for his wife and daughter. He is excited over the killing that he has made.

On one of the days, I am a guest speaker with the first talk of the day. Our taxi walla gets lost and I get butterflies in the stomach. I am re-scheduled in the second half. My topic is ’Some working ideas on Annex 1’. Annex 1 is the basic ICAO guidance material, containing the ’Standards & Recommended Practices’ in Personnel Licensing. My theme is simple and straight forward. I humbly submit that the ICAO has lagged behind the aviation technology and aviation industry. Its main document, Annex 1, requires to be updated and the gaps filled to bring more standardization among the contracting states of the Chicago Convention.

To begin with, I suggest, and give a list of some simple English words which are understood differently in different states; and which need to be defined. The privileges of CPL and ATPL require to be made comprehensive. The Licensing process, though understood universally, needs to be stated and put on record in the Annex. The guidance on defining a course needs to be included. Similarly, there is little guidance on the validation of foreign Licences and Flight Radio Telephone operator Licence.

The Aircraft Maintenance Licence is too open ended in the Annex and different states follow their own models creating a difficulty while assessing the equivalence. The Cabin crews functions are no more confined only to serving meals or for marketing purposes. They have a great deal else to do like the actions during fire, evacuation, during unlawful interference etc. They need to be properly trained and Licensed.

There were many other points like the categorization of simulators, standardization of theoretical knowledge, Licensing of operations Engineers, universal designation of aircraft designators, abolishing of non-expiry type Licences, abolishing of Class Ratings etc. I guess the talk went OK because it conveyed what most other participants were hesitant to put across. It is to the credit of Roger Lambo who agreed to most of points raised and promised to work on the areas highlighted.

The Doctor and I daily devote at least one hour exclusively for lobby time in the hotel. We smoke, sip coffee, listen to the soft strings of thai music and watch that lazy slow dance, Indian style, with a star-like head dress. We watch all the comings and goings and occasionally bump into the new PIA crew checking into the hotel. As for other entertainment, the Doctor gets the massage. I am content with an adult movie in the room.

The Thai language does not bother me. I can make out the story. I had thought that I would never get used the Thai food. It seemed too watery for my taste. But the daily ICAO working lunch gets me somewhat hooked on to it. Menu is simple but quite comprehensive. One dish each of Chicken, fish and vegetable and the inevitable boiled rice. The crowning glory are the accompanying spices which are out of the world and bring sweat and tears with an exhilarating and intoxicating ’chili high’.

One day there is a discussion on the recently introduced ’English Language Proficiency’ levels by the ICAO. Level 4 is the minimum requirement for the aircrew and Level 5 is required for the Air Traffic Controllers. The Korean rep gets into a hot argument asking ’Why English. It is disenfranchising our language’. He seems too angry and emotional.

There is a hush in the room. Roger Lambo defends by saying that it was the decision of the council. My submission is that English language is no more owned by one or two states. It is now an international language with different flavors ranging from the Queens English to the American, Chinese, French or the Indian English. The fact is that airspace and air corridors are shared; and are a common heritage of the mankind. And It does not contribute to safety in you have Russian or French or Korean communications taking place in the same shared airspace with no one understanding each other.

One day, the aviation medicine wallas featured a BBC documentary about the consumption of alcohol by the flight crew. The BBC had planted a mole within the British Airline pilots. She befriended the crew, spent evenings with them, stayed in the same hotel, traveled on their flights and captured this on video.

We saw the crew drinking till the early hours and then flying a morning flight. In one case, the Captain slept throughout the flight and the co-pilot flew the entire flight. There was a point of view in the audience that BBC should not have aired this documentary because it affected the public perception and confidence in flying. And media should avoid such unethical practices. Many felt that the solution lay in recognizing it as a civil offence with the civil police carrying out random checks of the flight crew departing or arriving at the airports.

The four days are quickly over. We leave the soft spoken Thais, Sardarjis, ICAO bureaucracy, noodles and rice behind. And take the Cathay Pacific Air Bus 330 direct Bangkok-Karachi flight. Surprisingly, the flight is full of Pakistanis – businessmen, families, tourists. It seems the we are shifting our gaze towards the East. The West and the Middle East seem to be the stories of the past.

All action is now in the Far East.