VO SCRIPT ENGLISH: REPORTER – RYANAIR PART I

00:18
Airport director:
A very good morning on Maastricht-Aachen Airport.

00:24
We're at the airport of Limburg, because it has something to celebrate.

00:28
Airport director:
So again, we are very happy today...

00:31
The airport director is in high spirits because Ryanair is opening  its first Dutch base.

00:39
Ryanair representative:
We're here today to celebrate the inaugural flight. It is our first base in Holland. It's the first base we're opening here...

00:46
An aircraft from Dublin receives a big welcome and rightfully so, according to the parties involved.

00:54
Ryanair representative:
We'll be transporting over half a million passengers here.

00:57
Ryanair promises to bring planes full of tourists to South Limburg. A great economic boost. And so everyone's in high spirits.

01:08
Ryanair girl:
Are we ready? Are we happy?

1:11
Including at the Maastricht Christmas market where Ryanair is giving away free tickets.

01:17
Ryanair girl:
So we start a countdown. One more minute and we have 200 free tickets.

01:22
Reporter:
Why do you think tickets with Ryanair are so cheap?

01:25
Passer-by 1:
Because… I don’t know?

01:27
Passer-by 2:
You don't get any food, but that's okay.

01:31
Passer-by 3:
If you put the chairs closer together, reduce the amount of luggage you have lower fuel costs. It's like competing supermarkets. The less you get, the less you pay. If you go for simple, you pay the least.

01:43
Reporter:
Where are they cutting costs?

01:45
Passer-by 4:
On personnel.

01:48
Reporter:
Where are they cutting costs?

01:50
Passer-by 5:
Not on safety I hope.

01:53
Astons: Thursday, July 26 flight FR 2054

01:57
On the evening of July 26th 2012 flight 2054 left Palma de Mallorca at 20.50 hrs with almost 200 passengers on board bound for Madrid.

02:11
David Guillamo:
On the 26th of July, weather conditions were really bad at Madrid. It was a very stormy weather, which complicates very much the operation. It got too bad to make safe landings because one of the stormy clouds got into the approach area just in front of the runway so traffic wouldn't be able to land safely and he had to hold over Madrid skies. When the cloud got on to that position we wouldn't be able to tell the pilots very accurately which expected time approach could they expect. You make an estimate and the pilot in every aircraft has to decide if he sticks to the destination airport or he diverts to an alternative airport.

03:06
Reporter:
In this case, what did the Ryanair captain decide? Did he decide to divert?

03:10
David Guillamo:
Yeah, he decided to divert.

03:14
The Ryanair aircraft diverts to Valencia in the southeast, just like eleven other flights.

03:22
David Guillamo:
You have to tell all your colleagues .who are controlling the sectors between Madrid and Valencia that this traffic is changing its plan and that he is going to Valencia. It's a very high level workload for us controllers and of course also for the pilots.

03:42
Flight 2054 approaches the airport without a problem but there it has to wait its turn.

03:49
David Guillamo:
He was told to hold over Valencia, because he was number 4th in approach. Valencia sectors were also very busy because another traffics had diverted before. So it was really crowded.

04:06
And that's when the Boeing 737 runs into trouble.

04:12
David Guillamo:
So when Ryanair was close to the point when he should hold he made mayday mayday. He declared he was short of fuel, so he was cleared for a straight-in approach.

04:28
The Boeing does not have enough fuel to keep flying. How did that fuel shortage come about? We ask four Ryanair pilots who are speaking with us anonymously.

04:41
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
There is pressure put on crews to take as little fuel as possible in order to save money for the company.

04:50
Reporter:
Why is it?

04:52
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
Profit… saving money.

04:55
Reporter:
How do you save money when you take little fuel?

04:57
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
For every weight extra carried you burn more fuel. So the less weight you carry, you burn less fuel. The less fuel you burn, the less it costs. Simple.

05:09
According to these pilots, they are pressured to take on as little fuel as possible in order to save costs.

05:17
Reporter:
Have you personally been in situations in which you felt this pressure to take less fuel   than you actually wanted to?

05:25
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
You feel it every day.

05:29
Reporter:
Why is it that you don't want to be recognized?

05:32
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
Because I'm afraid of losing my job. Pilots in the past have got in trouble or lost their jobs for raising issues or pushing other colleagues to organize and stand up with them.

05:48
The policy is working, because almost no one dares to speak out.

05:53
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
There is a fear culture deeply rooted in Ryanair.

05:58
Former captain Ian Somner speaks with us to encourage his former colleagues. He worked for Ryanair for seven years and knows its culture of fear.

06:10
Ian Somner:
Bullying, intimidation, threats, harassment... All of those.

06:21
Ryanair boss O'Leary likes to act the fool when cameras are around. But amongst employees he has a very different image.

06:21
Ian Somner:
It's an oppressive regime. It's a dictatorship really. At every level in the management structure there's this pressure and aggressiveness. Yeah, there's definitely a fear.

06:50
Yet four pilots are willing to break the silence despite their fear of the management, headed by O'Leary who said the following about previous whistleblowers:

07:02
O'Leary:
They are quoted anonymously because what they are telling are lies.

07:06
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
My response to him is that I'm here, I'm a pilot and I'm not lying.

07:11
Because they want to remain anonymous we ask them to visit a notary who can check their identity and that they do indeed work for Ryanair.

07:20
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
If we do not stand up together and with that I mean everybody within the company to join solid against the management, if we don't do that, nothing will change. And if nothing changes, the safety will slide down the hill.

07:35
Reporter:
So what you're doing here is in fact an emergency call?

07:38
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
Definitely.

07:40
Reporter:
In your opinion, are they right to blow the whistle now?

07:43
Ian Somner:
I think so, yes. Because otherwise, if this is allowed to continue I wouldn't like to say what the consequences could be.

07:53
It costs just 40 Euros to fly to Madrid where in July heavy storms prevented aircraft from landing. These passengers bought their tickets online because it's the cheapest option. But if your luggage doesn't fit into this thing you have to pay extra.

08:12
Astons: Thursday, July 26, Flight FR 2054

08:18
Let's go back to that evening in Spain. After the mayday call everyone at the airport is on edge.

08:25
David Guillamo, air traffic controller:
When there is a mayday, everybody, in the room or the tower, gets alert. Also the firemen at the airport get prepared for something bad, of course.

08:40
There are three aircraft that should land first but because the Ryanair aircraft is short on fuel, air traffic control takes action.

08:49
David Guillamo:
It does mean that we have to give this traffic absolute priority to land.

08:54
Reporter:
But what does it mean in terms of fuel?

08:57
David Guillamo:
Well, in terms of fuel, it means that they are close to the legal established reserve of fuel.

09:09
Reporter:
When a captain sends out a mayday call due to fuel shortage what is happening exactly?

09:15
Nico Voorbach, European Cockpit Association:
When he sends out the mayday call he expects to be unable to land with 30 minutes of fuel to spare.

09:24
Nico Voorbach is chairman of the European Cockpit Association. His professional association represents almost 40,000 pilots throughout Europe. During whatever time he has left, Voorbach is a pilot for KLM.

09:37
Nico Voorbach:
Whenever you expect those 30 minutes are at risk you must send out a mayday call.

09:46
Reporter:
Who decides how much fuel there will be in a plane?

09:50
Anonymous Ryanair captain:
The commander. The captain. The captain. That's what the book says, the captain.

09:57
Reporter:
How does a captain determine how much to take?

09:59
Nico Voorbach:
There is a standard amount specified by law, the bare minimum. He then examines the flight path and whether he expects diversions due to thunderstorms or possible delays at the destination. He can then take on additional fuel in order to fly safely.

10:22
Reporter:
So ultimately he is responsible?

10:26
Anonymous Ryanair captain:
Yes, by the books, yeah.

10:28
Anonymous Ryanair captain 2:
Yes, the captain signs the final fuel figure and decides the final figure.

10:32
Nico Voorbach:
Take my airline, KLM, for instance: They ask you to consider that taking more fuel on board costs more money. And that you don't always need more fuel. But if you think it's necessary to take more fuel, the airline supports you.

10:51
Reporter:
There's no pressure?

10:52
Nico Voorbach:
No, not at all. There shouldn't be any. No, because then the decision is not based on safety but on other factors, and that's indefensible.

11:03
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
There should be no pressure. A captain should feel his decision will always be supported by the company. That's not the case, which shows a serious barrier in relationships between management and the company and the way the management are doing their business.

11:16
Ian Somner:
It depends on. Yeah, I'll say it: Michael O'Leary. I mean, his character is stamped throughout the management structure. And his style of management filters down to the lowest level of manager. So it comes from the top.

11:34
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
People see the fact that the pressure laid on them by the company has influence on their career possibilities for later on.

11:44
Ian Somner:
It's wrong. But they get away with it. Because everyone has their own reason for complying. They're just coming up for promotion or they're worried about having their contract terminated. Or they've applied for a base transfer. So there's always a reason for someone complying.

12:05
Reporter:
Have you been in situations like that?

12:07
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
I've been in situations also like this. Mainly with a reason wheren you don't really have a weather related reason for taking extra fuel. And then I would start thinking: Okay, how can I justify this?

12:20
And because fear reigns supreme at Ryanair pilots can't stand up to the pressure to take less fuel than they would like.

12:27
Reporter:
Did you ever take less fuel than you wanted?

12:30
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
Yes.

12:32
Reporter:
You did?

12:33
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
Yeah.

12:34
Reporter:
And why did you?

12:36
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
Driven by the policy, driven by the fear. If you're getting uncomfortable in the seat because the amount of fuel on board which is nothing more than a tank of time, is If you're feeling uncomfortable, you may make the wrong decisions.

12:58
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
Fuel means time for us. More fuel means more time to think. And time to think it's very valuable within the equation of safety. Because if you have time to think you're more prone to take a better decision than when you make a decision under stress.

13:18
Passengers have no idea about the reality behind their cheap tickets. Most people think the low fares just mean less comfort and less service. Ryanair has gone from a small price fighter to Europe's biggest airline and last year made a profit of 560 million euros.

13:41
Astons: Thursday, July 26, Flight FR 2054

13:46
The situation becomes urgent. The amount of fuel on board the Ryanair aircraft is approaching a critical limit. Air traffic control wants to prioritize the aircraft, but that's easier said than done. With eleven other diverted aircraft it's busy in the skies above Valencia.

14:06
David Guillamo:
The only option you have is to improvise. One of the I mean, mayday situations for air traffic controllers, of course also for pilots are one of the most critical situations. And what you have to do is: in a very short period of time you have to make decisions, decisions, decisions, decisions. Take apart some aircraft that were going to land. Tell them to hold longer and give the traffic which has a problem the most direct route towards the runway.

14:39
A month later O'Leary gives a press conference in Madrid.

14:45
O’Leary:
There is this story going around Europe that somehow Ryanair pilots are under pressure to take less fuel. That’s not correct.  You have an official investigation here, which shows that three pilots, because of bad weather at Madrid at the 26th of July, took extra fuel. No pilot is told in Ryanair, ‘you must take 15 minutes extra fuel, you may not take 15 minutes extra fuel’. Every pilot in Ryanair is told ‘take whatever fuel you decide.’ This plane landed with more than 1000 kilos of fuel equivalent to a flight time of 28 minutes.

15:18
Nico Voorbach:
In any case, by law, it was not enough.

15:20
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
The public should know that those minutes, those times that have been mentioned in the conference are based on a number, based on theory.

15:30
Nico Voorbach:
And you're fast approaching a dangerous situation.

15:33
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
In practice we all know very well that those numbers are much less if something goes wrong, like if we have to go around for any reasons.

15:41
Nico Voorbach:
That's why we have the 30-minute rule. It gives you some leeway before you run out of fuel. But there's no margin for error.

15:48
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
For us pilots up there, it's not as cool as he made it look. It's an emergency.

15:58
O’Leary:
Not a dangerous manoeuvre. This was the manoeuvre that is set down by the European Safety Authorities for every pilot flying an airplane over Europe who thinks he may be in danger oflanding with less than 30 minutes of fuel. Our pilots followed that safety procedure.

16:14
David Guillamo:
One of the things we were a little bit upset with O'Leary is that he tried to sell that this was a kind of normal operation. And this was not normal. This was a very, a potentially dangerous situation.

16:36
Reporter:
How long do you work here?

16:38
David Guillamo:
I've been air traffic controller for 10 years.

16:40
Reporter:
How often did you experience such a mayday?

16:44
David Guillamo:
I have been asked for priorities several times but fuel mayday never in ten years.

16:55
Three Ryanair flights, carrying over 550 passengers made an emergency landing that evening due to fuel shortage. In September O'Leary gives a second press conference. This time, too, he points to the procedures as if they were a mantra.

07:14
O’Leary:
All three crew correctly declared an emergency procedure in accordance with EU Operations Procedures.

17:22
David Guillamo:
No, no. This is not…. I mean, OK, of course, everything followed the procedures because everything in aviation follows procedures. But we cannot forget that they were emergency procedures and emergency procedures don't occur normally.

17:40
O’Leary
I do accept that three fuel emergencies in one day for Ryanair is a very unusual event, it has never happened in our 28-year history before.

17:50
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
O'Leary will always say, we have an unblemished safety record for 20 years. However, that doesn't hide, that doesn't show the full picture. Stats can often hide the reality, and reality is, there have been many incidents over the years, which were very close to becoming the statistics that O'Leary does not want the public to see.

18:14
And those statistics came closer to reality on July 26 than we may have previously realized.  That much becomes clear when we reconstruct the events of that evening. Just after 23.00 hrs one Ryanair flight landed with a fuel shortage. The situation in the sky was as follows:

18:34
David Guillamo:
The LAN Chile was coming above a second Ryanair, like this. And when the LAN Chile declared emergency, we had to give him priority across the second Ryanair, and after the LAN Chile declared emergency this Ryanair declared emergency as well. And then the third Ryanair.

18:54
The LAN Chile aircraft, with one engine failure, is the first to start its descent. Due to their fuel shortage the two Ryanair Boeings also want to land quickly. They are just behind the Chilean aircraft.  And the airport in Valencia only has one landing-strip.

19:14
David Guillamo:
Just imagine that the LAN Chile with an engine failure wouldn't be able to vacate the runway so we would have had two traffic with short of fuel in the sky over Valencia and no runway to land.

19:28
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
I would be praying that that aircraft vacates the runway so I can land because I do not want to go around in that situation.

19:34
Reporter:
How much fuel does an aircraft use on an aborted landing?

19:37
Nico Voorbach:
The aircraft has more drag, because the landing gear is out and the flaps are down so it uses four or fives times the amount of fuel used for circling.

19:49
Reporter:
Like a car that accelerates? 

19:51
Nico Voorbach:
With screeching tyres, at full power.

19:55
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
You are not gonna have very much time left by the time you come back to land. You will be within 5 or 10 minutes fuel.

20:03
Nico Voorbach:
An empty tank won't be far off. There might be some fuel left, but not much.

20:11
Reporter:
Everything has to go your way?

20:12
Nico Voorbach:
No question.

20:13
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
You could have fuel starvation. It's not where you need to be.

20:16
Nico Voorbach:
You're getting close to a disaster.

20:21
During his second press conference Ryanair boss O'Leary again does not mention such a scenario. He chiefly cites this report by the Irish Aviation Authority.

20:34
O’Leary
It confirms that all three Ryanair aircraft took extra fuel on the 26th of July because of the weather conditions at Madrid.

20:43
The report only contains five pages and the Irish Aviation Authority tells us 'it was never meant to be published'. Evert van Zwol is chairman of the Dutch Airline Pilots Association and captain at KLM. He's surprised by O'Leary's comments.

21:09
Evert van Zwol, Dutch Airline Pilots Association:
As an airline you want to learn from these things. And to say 'we did everything by the book', 'we're not to blame' is premature.

21:20
Reporter:
What happened that night, is it fully investigated?

21:23
David Guillamo:
No, I don't think so.

21:24
Reporter:
Why not?

21:25
David Guillamo:
I don't think so. In my experience here, I don't think so.

21:31
Reporter:
Not everything that happened that night is fully clear to you?

21:35
David Guillamo:
Not really, no. The IAA report for instance, is really, really... It's not very accurate. It has a lot of data that is just not true.

21:48
The Irish investigators will not tell us if they had access to the objective data from the aircraft, like the flight data recorder.

21:58
Reporter:
If not, what does that say about the investigation?

22:02
Evert van Zwol:
Because it happened to three aircraft at the same time it's cause for a thorough investigation. If that did not happen, that's cause for concern.

22:13
What is also a cause for concern, is this report by the Spanish air traffic control describing events that evening in Valencia. The report also passes judgement on the quality of the IAA report. It states: 'In view of the inaccuracies in the IAA report one can safely say the report is based on the observations and/or memories of the pilots involved and the interests of their management, and was not based on an objective investigation.' So, questions remain concerning the emergency landings in Valencia. The pilots speaking with us see a direct link between the events in Spain and the fuel policy of their employer Ryanair.

22:57
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
We are always riding the edge, on the edge of the regulation. We are legal, yes, but we're constantly riding on the edge. And this is multiplied by 4 flights per day, 5 days in a row.
I hope by God, by all means that it doesn't take a crash of one of our airplanes to wake everybody up.

23:19
Nico Voorbach:
When I hear how much pressure the Ryanair pilots are under to take on as little fuel as possible, that's unsafe.

23:29
Evert van Zwol:
Safety is incredibly important for us and that includes the ability for pilots to make their own decisions. So, when that becomes an issue, that's what these people are saying then there's a big problem.

23:44
Nico Voorbach:
It's only a matter of time before an aircraft runs out of fuel.

23:47
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
There's something wrong when commanders have to come on television to tell you they feel pressure for final fuel figures. I don't think members of the public would like to know that their commander is taking off without fuel that they're comfortable with.

24:00
Reporter:
I totally agree.

24:01
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
Absolutely.

24:04
Nico Voorbach:
If things really are as the Ryanair pilots have described then that's unsafe for European passengers, crews and for everyone on the ground, because airports are close to cities. The safety of European citizens is the top priority of the European Commission.

24:24
Evert van Zwol:
I would like to call for a thorough investigation. In the Netherlands, but ideally in Europe. In order to find out what's really going on there.

24:39
We asked Ryanair to comment.  But they declined to comment on camera.  In the end we received one answer to all our questions: ‘The IAA confirms that Ryanair's safety  is on a par with the safest airlines in Europe.’

24:56
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
If I take off out of my base and seconds after taking off I get a message on my computer, that I don't have enough fuel on arrival, if that happens already on takeoff out of my base then I start to wonder: Hey, something must be wrong here.

25:17
Reporter:
Did that happen to you?

25:18
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
It happened last week.

25:22
Reporter:
Are you familiar with this?

25:26
Nico Voorbach:
I've heard of it.

25:28
Evert van Zwol:
This is the table of who takes how much fuel.

25:32
This is it: the fuel league. All of the 1200 captains of Ryanair are on it. The captain who has the lowest amount of fuel is at the top, in green. His colleague with the highest amount is at the bottom, in the red.

25:45
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
The less you save, the lower you’re on the league. Now, a league in my opinion, is something like a game. We battle for the best position. It adds up to the pressure. I mean absolutely.

25:59
The fuel league. According to pilots it’s a pressure measure to take in as little fuel as possible. But Ryanair CEO O'Leary says it's there for a noble cause.

26:10
O’Leary:
At each base we talk to the pilots who appear to be, who are at the upper edge, who take too much fuel than average, but also the pilots who take to little fuel, who are at the bottom end of the table, in terms of fuel usage. So that we can improve their fuel performance and ask them: ‘look, your high or your low, and we think you should be in the center or in the average.

26:37
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
As you’ve seen, in the fuel league table, people at the bottom are in the red. And people at the top are in the green. So why is there not red at the top and the bottom. Green is like a winner, its praise.

26:58
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
What happens when a new co-pilot joins Ryanair, is that before he starts making money, he has to spend huge amounts of money. Starting with 30.000 euros to pay for his own training.

27:12
Reporter:
When he starts to work with Ryanair?

27:14
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
Yes, in order for a pilot, a co-pilot, to start with Ryanair, he needs to pay for the training and that money.

27:22
Reporter:
Which training?

27:23
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
What you call type rating. You have a license as a pilot, but on top of that you need a type rating to fly on this particular aircraft, in this case the Boeing 737-800. The training for that, they put a price on that for 30.000 euros.

27:38
Reporter:
So you don’t make money you spend money?

27:42
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
You spend money. You spend 30.000 euros which you give them upfront for the training.

27:48
Nico Voorbach:
On average, a pilot has already invested 130,000 Euros in becoming a pilot and then they need to pay more. We don't think that's fair.

27:57
Evert van Zwol:
It's not right. We're talking about people who've already run up a huge debt.

28:02
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
You start the training, during which you’re sent all across Europe. You have to pay for your own hotels, accommodation and food, transportation to and from the hotel, which within a few months can add up to a few thousand euros more. They don’t get a salary, they don’t get anything. All the new pilots are contracted pilots, and by their training agreement, they do not earn anything.

28:27
Nico Voorbach:
They're providing a service for Ryanair, so they should get paid. Of course you can have a trial period, during which you can be fired. But if you work for a company, they should pay you.

28:39
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 1:
Over 70% of the pilot population are contractors. Meaning they are not employed directly by Ryanair. They work through a complex system set up by Ryanair, where they are outsourced through agencies to Ryanair. The company will say that as a contractor you negotiate individually with the company. However, in general it’s the same contract everyone will receive and if you want to negotiate, you can try but they will tell you that its take it or leave it. You need to enter agreement with a contracting agency, which forces you to open your own limited company of which you become a director. This is all in the same time as you train as a pilot.That’s when this whole game starts, because you’re making very little money in the beginning, the worries about being a company director at the same time as a pilot under training, and the responsibility that it bears with it meaning tax, social security, liability…

29:45
Reporter:
With a huge debt on your shoulders.

29:46
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
Exactly.

29:48
Reporter:
Which got bigger from the day you started working.

29:49
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
Exactly.

29:51
So life up above the clouds is now far removed from the romantic image of travel and wealth. Certainly for Ryanair pilots. They are small businessmen who are employed on a contractual basis. The company leaves them no choice. Because they are riddled with debt, they agree. Which leads to a lot of stress in the cockpit.

30:11
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
I’m a pilot, I should be worried about pilot things, problems during my day. I shouldn’t be worried about tax, social security, legality issues. Or where am I going to sleep tonight, cause the company is not gonna provide us with a hotel. We have not any food, cause the company….

30:29
Reporter:
You have to take care of that yourself?

30:30
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:   
Yes.

30:31
Evert van Zwol:
You don't want all that additional stress, because you could reach a point where your performance deteriorates.
   
30:40
A festive welcome for an aeroplane from Dublin. People are elated on this airport in Limburg. There are even some calendar girls. As of today, this is the first official Ryanair base. The beaming crew pose in their well-ironed uniforms.  A slick PR show for press and passengers who, according to our whistle-blowers, believe in fairy tales.

31:10
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:   
I think there is cliché among the general public about what we do, our jobs. They see us as overpaid glamorous, whatever, drivers, jet drivers, but it’s not the case. Definitely not with Ryanair.
There’s a reason for cheap ticket prices in one way that staff is not treated the same way as other companies. So there is a price someone is paying for cheaper tickets. And I think the general public should be aware of what happens when they step on their aircraft. They should look beyond what they see, their low fares type of thing only. It’s very close to exploitation of workforce.

32:14
Reporter:
Do you have a pension?

32:16
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
No

32:17
Reporter:
Do you have disability insurance?

32:19
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 1:
Yes.

32:21
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 2:
Yes on both. But made by me, not by the company

32:25
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 3:
No pension, no disability insurance

32:30
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 4:
No disability insurance, no pension.

32:32
Reporter:
Do you have health insurance?

32:34
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 1:
I pay my own private health insurance

32:36
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 2:
I pay for my own private health insurance

32:38
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 3:
To be honest, I don’t know.

32:40
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 4:
I’ve a health insurance.

32:43
Nico Voorbach:
If a company is employing you, they should arrange that for you. But Ryanair has a setup where you have your own company and you have to pay for it yourself.

32:54
Evert van Zwol:
You want the short break between flights from evening to early morning. You want to get to your hotel as quickly as possible, to shower and freshen up and go to bed, to catch at least a few hours of sleep. In the little downtime you have you don't want to have to worry about peripheral matters, which are really an employer's responsibility.

33:24
Reporter:
Do you get paid when you’re sick?

33:26
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 1:
No

33:27
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 2:
No

33:28
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 3:
No

33:29
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 4:
No

33:30
Reporter:
Why not?

33:32
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
It’s part of this structure they build. If you don’t fly, you don’t get paid. That counts especially for over 70 percent of the pilots, who are under contract. If you don’t fly, you don’t get paid.
If you don’t fly, you don’t make money. It’s as easy as that. Say you feel sick or unfit for flying, or you have personal problems at home. Somebody close to you feeling ill. You’re just not there with your concentration. This has got a negative influence on your income at the end of the month, it’s as easy as that.

34:10
Reporter:
So whatever happens, you do wanna fly?

34:13
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
Well, you don’t want to. But you have to. Because you have to support your family. You fly you make money. You don’t fly, you make zero.

34:21
Reporter:
How often have you been in the cockpit, while you felt not fit to fly?

34:28
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 1:
I have never been operating my aircraft when I was unfit for flying.

34:32
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 2:
I don’t believe I can answer you that question because to fly sick is illegal and pilots should not be doing this. Therefore I really am...would not be able to answer that question for you.

34:53
How much do the passengers on this flight know about the fear culture and working conditions at Ryanair? Are they aware that the cabin crew and the pilots are paying the price for their cheap tickets?

35:12
Ian Somner:
In other airlines, we were valued, we were respected. An airline without its pilots, it doesn’t have a business. So we had respect. And there wasn’t a fear factor you’ve in Ryanair. There wasn’t the stress you’ve in Ryanair. I mean, flying can be stressful. It comes with weather, technical problems, air traffic control. But in Ryanair there’s an extra layer. And this extra layer is directly attributed to the, really, the corporate culture and the management structure, and the way they deal with their staff.

35:47
Crews are working with the tightest schedules in the industry…

35:52
Ryanair announcement:
”Welcome! You have arrived on yet another on time flight.”

35:56
…and our informants say that they will not join trade unions or professional organisations for fear of reprisals.

36:06
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
Company freely says you are free to join a union, however when any significant number of pilots join a union we will receive memo’s on our internal systems, which will slay and try to damage the union’s reputations and pilots will get moved bases and they will do in my experience anything in their power to destroy any unity and prevent the union becoming strong.

36:36
Nico Voorbach:
We are getting the same indications: pilots are afraid to report things or say no to certain things. That they get called out for taking too many sick days. That they don't get any vacation if they're being 'difficult'.

36:52
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
There is no system for basing, for annual leave. For anything. And you don’t want your name to be known if you wanna get these things. People have young kids at the other side of Europe, they don’t know if they’ll ever get home to live with them. The company seem to drive off that.

37:14
Reporter:
Have you been flying a plane when you think you shouldn’t have?

37:17
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 1:
I am not going to answer that question.

37:20
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 2:
I don’t comment

37:22
Reporter:
Is a pilot who flies while unfit to fly punishable by law?

37:26
Nico Voorbach:
According to the law, he is. It says a pilot can only fly if he is fit to do so.

37:34
Anonymous Ryanair pilot:
If we have to be careful what we say, avoiding the answer to the question, I think that says enough.

37:43
Reporter:
If we rephrase the question: Did you ever fly while sick?

37:45
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 4:
Yeah.

37:46
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 3:
No comment

37:49
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 1:
Yes, I did

37:52
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 2:
Actually, I wóuld like to answer the question. I have flown when extremely fatigued. I discussed it with the captain and we both knew the reality was that if I refused to fly for fatigue reasons, I would end up in big trouble. So I flew.

38:08
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 4.
I will be very honest with you. I flew the airplane, operating a flight, when I actually shouldn’t have been operating that flight.

38:15
Reporter:
Why was that?

38:16
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 4:
Uhm, pressure due to feeling unwell.


38:23
Reporter:
So you went pass the safety limit?

38:26
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 4:
Yeah, unfortunately, regrettably, I went beyond my own safety limit. Yeah.

38:34
Reporter:
How would you define the risks that you’ve taken?


38:38
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 4:
Too high. Way too high.

38:41
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 3:
The same here.

38:43
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 2:
Commercial pilots are not be taken this risks.

38:46
Reporter:
But you’ve done?

38:47
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 2:
Yeah.

38:48
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 1:
There’s way too much at stake to take this kind of risk, but we do. Every day.

38:56
Reporter:
You did it as well?

38:57
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 1:
Yeah.

38:59
Reporter:
What do you think of that?

39:00
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 1:
Very negative. It’s demoralizing, demotivating. It makes you feel like a, almost like a slave.

39:10
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 2:
The company culture puts pilots in the position, that shouldn’t happen. 

39:16
Reporter:
So, there is a chance you will be in a plane in the same condition?

39:20
Anonymous Ryanair pilot 2:
I think as we speak, there’s a few guys in this conditions flying around. Right now.

39:26
Ian Somner:
In Ryanair, there’s lots of things which collectively add up. The fact that the guys being paid, only when they fly. There’s issues over annual leave. There’re guys being based in foreign countries who are stressed because they are not where they want to be. All these things add up and I feel - yes definitely- that could lead to a serious incident, or accident.

39:54
Evert van Zwol:
The question is who is at fault, the individual or the company. But whichever way you look at it, whoever is at fault it's very bad for safety and the authorities should take action.

40:12
Reporter:
It needs to be investigated?

40:13
Evert van Zwol:
Yes.

40:14
Reporter:
By whom?

40:16
Evert van Zwol:
It should happen at the highest possible level. The European Commission, the European Aviation Safety Agency. But also the inspections in the various EU member states, in Holland too.

40:32
Nico Voorbach:
We want it to happen as soon as possible in order to increase safety.

40:37
Reporter:
How soon should that be?

40:39
Nico Voorbach:
Preferably yesterday.

40:41
Reporter:
Because there are planes flying right now, with such pilots?

40:45
Nico Voorbach:
Yes. If this turns out to be true, it needs to stop right now.

40:50
Ian Somner:
There’s a model used in aviation safety, called the Swiss cheese model. And the idea is, it’s like layers of Swiss cheese, with holes in it. The holes one day will line up, and each layer is like safety, weather, technical. If all the holes line up, then you have an accident. And in Ryanair, I would say there is a lot more holes in the Swiss cheese model, than in other airlines I’ve worked for. So the chances of getting them all lining up, are greater.

42:00
END
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