“You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but the blurb told me quite a bit!”
In August 2007, I was asked to go to Montreal, Canada, to deliver the first A320 into the Etihad Operation. Air Canada was the current operator, and I was charged with conducting the aircraft physical inspection and technical records review. I had already dispatched a team of six employees to start the process. On arrival, I met the team and asked them if they had encountered any major problems.
“No, David, everything is under control” was the unanimous response.
This aircraft was going onto the Maltese registration for various airworthiness reasons, and a freelance consultant had been hired to represent the Maltese interests. He entered the room wearing a loose Hawaiian shirt, chinos and open-toed sandals. This man looked ready for a holiday rather than inspecting a commercial aircraft. To say I was confused and concerned was an understatement! Still, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but the blurb told me quite a bit! After introductions, I asked Jimmy (not his real name) if he had any concerns.
‘Not at this time, David,’ he said, ‘everything is all good.’
I then went out and looked at the aircraft myself. It had been in service for about 15 years, but was nevertheless in very good condition, so I was satisfied. On the second day, both the records and the physical inspection team were making great progress. Then, Jimmy strolled in and stated he had some concerns. I asked him what they were.
‘I’m worried about two airworthiness directives (ADs), ’ he responded.
I asked for the numbers of these ADs so my team could check them out. Half an hour later, my team assured me that there was nothing wrong with either of these directives. I informed Jimmy, but he stated that he still had some concerns and would need at least a day before he could get back to me. We were on schedule so far, so I was happy for Jimmy to go away and review the directives.
Two days later, Jimmy returned and told me he was unable to sign off on the tech docs as he was still concerned about these two ADs. Something was starting to niggle at me by this point, as everyone else, including myself, couldn’t see any issue with these ADs. I asked my team to get all the other records closed, which they did. Meanwhile, I decided to investigate Jimmy’s past, as something wasn’t adding up. I quickly discovered that he had no fixed abode and goes from hotel to hotel depending on the contract he is working on. And he only leaves the contract he is on once he has another contract to move onto. At this point, he had nothing to move on to, so he was deliberately stalling. I called my technical director and informed him.
‘What do you suggest, David?’ he asked me.
“Put a contract in place with Air Canada to fly the aircraft to Abu Dhabi, then we have the full resources of Etihad Airways on hand to deal with this situation.”
I also requested they call Air Malta to alert and focus their attention on Jimmy and what he was up to.
‘Leave it with me, David.’ He said before hanging up.
It would be several hours before this contract was in place, and as the rest of my team knew exactly what they were doing, I took the opportunity to go and see my good friend who lived in Putnam Station, which is in upstate New York.
I drove to the border, where I was asked by US immigration about the purpose of my visit.
“I’m going to see a good friend for lunch.”
‘Where does your friend live, sir? And how far is it from the border?’
“About 100 miles.”
‘100 miles?! I hope you have a good lunch!’
“So do I!” was my response.
The drive down from Canada to Putnam Station is probably one of the most scenic and beautiful drives I have ever done in my life. It was almost meditative, exactly what I needed to clear my mind and forget about this Jimmy problem for a bit. I met my friends and had a fantastic lunch, but chose not to drink. The return journey was equally beautiful until I got to the US border. The officer saw the time on my entry stamp and asked where I had been and what I had been doing. Again, I explained I had gone for lunch.
‘I hope it was worth it,’ he mumbled.
“It was! The food and the company were exquisite!”
He nodded, stamped my passport and waved me through. Whereas the Canadian officer greeted me with an enormous smile, stamped my passport and waved me through. The stark difference over a few feet of ground. I went back to my hotel and saw that the contract to fly the plane to Abu Dhabi had been approved. I couldn’t wait to tell Jimmy!
I went in early the next day, and so did the rest of my team. They had all been informed of the new situation, and I had prepared everything for the aircraft’s departure at 10 am. At 9 am, Jimmy rocked up. I couldn’t contain myself any longer.
“Jimmy! Good morning!” I said with a big smile. “How are we doing with those ADs?!”
He wasn’t ready for my enthusiasm.
‘Oh! Yes, Good morning, David. Erm, I’m afraid I still need a couple of days to think about it.’
“No rush, Jimmy. You take your time, but the aircraft is leaving in about 40 minutes!”
‘What?! Leaving?! Where?! Y-You can’t do that!’
“Oh yes, I can! The aircraft is on Canadian registration, being flown by an Air Canada crew to Abu Dhabi.”
‘What about me?!’ he exclaimed.
I was done with this joker’s games.
“What about you?!” I said. “The aircraft is going, and so are we! The choice is yours: come with us or stay here!”
We left him on his own, in his office, wondering what to do with himself. The aircraft arrived in Abu Dhabi 2 days later via Iceland and Amsterdam. Jimmy arrived the following day. He continued with his AD scam until two days later, when he finally admitted, ‘No problems with the ADs, everything is clear, no issues whatsoever.’
We knew this already. He never elaborated on what his issues were, and sure enough, the very next day, he moved on to his next contract and hotel. We were heartbroken to see him go. I forgot all about Jimmy until the following year, when I had to go to Paris to deliver another A320 from Martin Air, a Dutch airline. When I walked into the meeting room to see how the tech records team were doing, there he was, Jimmy, still looking like a tourist on holiday, working on behalf of Martin Air. The aircraft that we were working on had to go to Châteauxroux for painting, but there was no rush as the paint slot was two weeks away. So, I wasn’t in a hurry to accept the aircraft. I spoke to the Quality manager at Martin Air, who informed me that Jimmy was on a fixed contract, not on a daily rate like he had been in Canada a year ago.
The following day, I went into the meeting room and informed Jimmy that everything was good apart from a concern I had about 2 AD directives.
“I need to really think about these two for at least two or three days,” I said with an enormous, bordering on absurd smile on my face.
Jimmy was not a happy man as he had another pending contract and needed to finish this project asap. He should have thought about that when he was in Canada! As we have discovered and talked about before, Karma is magnificent! I delivered the aircraft on my time frame and flew it on schedule for the allotted paint slot. I never saw Jimmy after that, but I’m sure he is concocting a scam in a hotel room as we speak!
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