JAL face a costly lawsuit over sick pilots

JAL faces a costly lawsuit over sick pilots Agence France-Presse-Tokyo International/ The Nation March 13, 2003 Asia's largest carrier Japan Airlines (JAL) is facing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit over allegations it broke aviation safety rules by allowing a pilot to fly while sick. The flagship Japanese carrier vehemently denies the all gegations, but airline captain Jack Crawford and flight engineer Martin ventress claim a co-pilot was permitted to fly two aircraft packed with hundreds of passengers despite losing consciousness at the controls several times. The co-pilot, Jeff Bicknell who was allegedly carried out of the cockpit twice during one JAL flight, was diagnosed with a brain tumour a few days after landing the second air craft, which belonged to a JAL subsidiary, JALways. Crawford, 60 worked with Ventress for a Hawaii-based firm that contracts crews to airlines. The pair filed the lawsuit against JAL, JALways, and their employer Hawaii Aviation Contract Services in California last December. In the suit Crawford and Ventress also claim they were harassed by their employers and unfairly lost their jobs after kicking up a fuss about the supposed safety breaches, which they say happened under the command of Captain Kazuo Hanami, a JALways vice president and pilot. Crawford and Ventress are seeking a total of around US$7 million (Bt298.8 million) in damages for alleged wrongful dismissa, emotional distress and legal costs. "My clients... [who were flying as on-duty passenger] observed one Jeff Bicknell exhibiting obvious extreme symptoms that incapacitated him to fly a plane", said Martin Cervantes, the pair's lawyer. "Captain Hamami, who is a safety officer, would not allow him to be moved so that someone else could take over the controls and in doing that he not only jeopardized the lives of my clients but the lives of those nearly 300 people who were on the plane", he said. Hanami declined to comment on the delegations. Crawford and Ventress allege that Bicknell, who was training to become a captain under the instruction of Hamami, had trouble landing the flight from Bangkok to Osaka on June 17, 2001, because he was sick. "When [after one failed attempt] he slammed the plane onto the ground, overhead doors popped open and people screamed", said Ventress, 49. The second incident, which was witnessed by Ventress, occurred on June 20 on a JALways flight from Honolulu to Hirushima and Osaka. Bicknell, who was again piloting the plane under Hanami's guidance, looked very sick and fell asleep during the first leg to Hiroshima three times, according to Ventress. After another poor landing by Bicknell, Ventress asked Hanami to take over the controls for the short hop to Osaka, but the captain allegedly refused and allowed Bicknell to continue to work, In Osaka, Bicknell was immediately admitted to the airport hospital where he was told he was too sick to treat. Flown back to Hawaii, the co-pilot was diagnosed with a brain tumour and is now totally incapacitated, Ventress and Crawford said. The pair said they filed a safety report to JAL, which was rejected. They also sent further reports to the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) and the US Federal Aviation Bureau. The JCAB rejected their allegations and the pair decided to sue, alleging JAL set out to terminate their contracts. Crawford said JAL gave him a string of flying tests which, despite an unblemished record of 40 years flying, he failed. Ventress said he was asked to undergo a series of physical and psychological examinations in the United States, which he passed, but was then declared unfit to fly by Japanese psychiatrists. Picture: A JAPAN AIRLINES jetliner parks on the tarmac at Tokyo Airport at Haneda.

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