'The control surfaces were 'free floating ' and in icing conditions froze up solid and became immovable '

'The control surfaces were 'free floating ' and in icing conditions froze up solid and became immovable '

Mike Mahon describes problems with his airline's planes.

Mike Mahon

Trinity College Dublin

1975

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Mike Mahon

Work and Employment

Life Story

Milan

1970s

We were all excited when the managing director told us that we were getting a new fleet of aircraft, but less so when they arrived. They were the Bristol Britannias, the first four engined turbo - prop aircraft built by the Brits. They were in service with the RAF Transport Command and finally retired after many years. Of course Paddy's airline bought them at knock down prices. Their electrical system was a nightmare, components were prone to failures and spares were in short supply as they were no longer in production. The control surfaces were 'free floating' and in icing conditions froze up solid and became immovable. The only way out of this was to descend the aircraft to a warmer altitude and hoping to reach this before coming in contact with the land or sea.  At that time aviation in Ireland was regulated by the Department of Transport and Power and the aircraft and crews were constantly monitored by their inspectors They were all civil servants and the crews maintained that the wheel barrow had been invented to teach these guys to walk on their hind legs Milan Airport lay on the southern side of the Alps and on a departure from that airport heading north aircraft were required to reach a certain altitude to clear the mountains. Now this was no problem to modern jet aircraft, but to our clapped out Britannias it was impossible to climb directly on course, so we would have to orbit until we got sufficient altitude to proceed. This caused Swiss Air Traffic Control many problems. Their methodical controllers just could not understand our plight and dreaded hearing our call sign, we called ourselves Paddy Powerless Airlines. On these flights climbing out of Milan it was one of the co - pilots responsibilities to ensure that the aircraft was being pressurized correctly by gradually closing an outflow valve at his feet. One new co - pilot forgot to do this and the aircraft continued to climb unpressurized . The Captain, in the left seat failed to notice and continued to smoke heavily on his Blue Gitannes. He was a big heavy man with a bread and jam face , and it was only when the Flight Engineer noticed the back of his head was turning blue and he was coughing continuously that disaster was averted. The Captain was actually expiring due to lack of oxygen

Irish Research Council for Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (IRCHSS)

Dr Kathleen McTiernan (Trinity College Dublin)

Dr Deirdre O'Donnell (Trinity College Dublin)