Qatar Airways Fires Pilots Responsible For Miami Accident

I'd say it is a cultural thing. Akbar Al-Baker fully understands the issue and he is equally concerned as any of us. That's why he fired the pilots. The fact of not acknowledging this mistake publicly is a cultural issue in the middle east in general.

I completely agree to you - this behaviour of Akbar is indeed a big security risk. In Airlines the best guarantee for security is an open and non-threatening mistake culture, in which mistakes can be discussed and eliminated, instead getting fired. This will lead to pilots that are afraid of getting fired and not openly discussing mistakes, and in consequence to no mitigating measure. For myself I will avoid them going forward - because exactly this open mistake culture is what makes American and European Airlines more safe than others.

Hard to believe the pilots didn't notice the nice, lighted runway distance markers to realize they were starting at eight or nine thousand feet instead of 13,000 ft...

I don't think you should fire pilots because they had an accident. You should definitely fire pilots because they didn't adhere to the safety regulations. I.e they should have been fired even if there was no accident, if it was determined they didn't follow safety regulations. I have no issue with his explanation.

Man O Man Ben, tough couple of days for Qatar on OMAAT. The next time you fly them they are going to toss you from the plane at 35000! Keep up the great work!

Please fly Qatar sometime soon so we can see how they treat you 😉

Ok, since you keep poking at FAA for calling this an accident, here's the definition from Code of Federal Regulations, Title 49, Part 830:

§ 830.2 Definitions.
Aircraft accident means an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, and in which any person suffers death or serious injury, or in which the aircraft receives substantial damage. For purposes of this part, the definition of “aircraft accident” includes “unmanned aircraft accident,” as defined herein.

46cm tear in the fuselage is pretty substantial damage.

As far as safety culture goes, yes, pilots messed up big time. No distance remaining markers would be of use if they made a conscious decision to do an intersection takeoff - of course they will show what they show.

Yes, Al Baker is just trying to put a good face on this ugly ducking by pretending it's a big deal.

Yes, the safety culture at middle east airlines and, more so, at everyone's favorite Asian carriers is abysmal. Even with expat pilots flying some of the planes, what happens behind the scenes is horrendous. For a peek behind the curtain of your recent favorite Hainan group, check out this "Flying Upside Down"
http://www.scribd.com/doc/273231452/Flying-Upside-Down-pdf

While I believe they currently have safe, modern, and well maintained equipment, I do believe Qatar and Emirites care more about image than anything (hence the "bling" and constant clamoring for things like "longest flight"). Its very Kardashian/Trump/New Russian Millionaire. I wonder how this tactic will play out as the equipment ages?

I heard the plane was overweighted with credit card applications. V

At least he was able to fire the pilots. Here in the US, an arbitrator would have probably put them back to work.

Regardless what Al Baker said, he knows that this was a very serious incident and I assume that he has enough brains to know this. In that sense his excuse is a bit lame, but on the other hand, could he unlike Western corporate leaders admit that this was a major issue?
What we can say for sure:

The aircraft was around max take off weight (MTOW), given that long flight to DOH.
MTOW is calculated enabling the aircraft to still take off and climb safely after experiencing an engine failure after V1.
The MTOW is calculated based on aerodrome altitude, temperature, runway length and any obstacles close to the runway.
Given that the crew entered the RW after a considerable length and therefore had far less RW length available, in case of an event after reaching V1, or even before V1, they would not have had enough RW available to come to a complete stop.
We now must imagine an aircraft full of fuel overshooting the RW.......

From the accident investigation report, it is also known that the crew saw the red RW lights, indicating that they were coming close to the end of the RW and they increased thrust beyond the pre set take off thrust. This clearly shows that they must have noticed that something was very wrong.

Ben, I'm glad you've raised the issue again. The airline's handling of this situation couldn't be worse. If they acknowledged the seriousness of the incident straight away and were open and transparent, they probably would have scored some respect. The best airlines have incidents, it's how they respond to them that matters.

Mr. Al-Baker is starting to sound a lot like Mr. Donald Drumpf.

@Dima
OMG! I have heard that flying in China was challenging. Flying Upside Down makes my former job of Captain (read Instructor pilot) for SpiceJet (SG) and living in Delhi seem like child's play. Truth to the "no matter how bad you think you have it, somebody has it worse."

akbar likes firing people just to have someone to blame, but at the same time he says there is no fault to his airline. if there is no fault, then why did he sack the pilots? he is trying to save face but at the same time not doing anything even internally to solve the issue in a proper manner. sacking people doesn't solve problems.

Al-Bakar was probably busy molesting his favorite flight attendant at the time. Runway end lights had to be explained to him later.

These are not airline Pilots they are contract Pilots. The ME3 carriers have inherent safety problems with contract pilots in command of their aircraft who are dependant on their performance rather tenure. You have a much greater risk of never screening out a German Wings type pilot (or a Captain who would depart midfield in a heavy) in the cockpit without a seniority based system. Overall ME3 carriers and anyone who staffs via contract is not as safe as a tenure based seniority system where safety comes above the blame game and Pilots operating aircraft with fear of losing their next contract offer.

All fair criticisms. But to be fair, none of the airline executives including the US or European would do exactly the same in case of pilot error. Rest is all posturing. Al Baker is generally notorious thus the extra scrutiny.