Can REDJET Crash?

Hopefully Not If You're Flying 

Recently, the Caribbean Blogger posted the announcement of RedJet Airone’s unbelievable low fare offer to islands in the Caribbean.   

Later this week, Trinidad and Tobago Transport Minister Jack Warner announced in a news conference that he knew nothing about the company or who allowed them permission to fly into Trinidad and Tobago.  

On face value, most citizens would think that the government minister was being over protective of their newest acquisition Caribbean Air Lines (CAL).   Jamaica has already banned Airone from operating within their territory.   

Below are some of the questions that arose from the research.

Remember the saying that "if it looks to good to be true it probably is"”.  

One post we found asked some very unsettling questions that every passenger should get the answers to before they hop onboard a RedJet. 

With respect to RedJet entering Trinidad and Tobago:

If the Transportation Minister did not authorize the airline to come into Trinidad: 

What preparation did the RedJet Airline make to maintain their planes in Trinidad and Tobago?

As we all know every plane must undergo through specific safety maintenance procedures after every overseas flight. 

 Is the company flying their own mechanics on the jet?  

  

What is the safety record of the MD-80 series of jets manufactured by MacDonald Douglass?  

Although the first of these jets were manufactured in the 1960s, most were built between 1980 and 1999.  According to one blog post:

Measured by accident data alone, the MD-80 is considered to be one of the safest planes in the sky. According to Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the plane has a fatal hull loss rate — meaning a crash involving fatalities — of 0.34 per one million departures, and an overall hull-loss, or crash, rate of 0.52 per million departures.

By comparison, the average record for all commercial jets is 0.89 fatal hull losses per million departures, and an overall rate of 1.64 hull losses per million departures, Boeing said.

The figures include today’s crash in Madrid of an MD-82, Spanair Flight JK5022, which appears to have killed more than 150 people, according to Spanish authorities.

The crash comes only a few months after American Airlines’ battle with the Federal Aviation Administration over the inspection of its fleet of MD80s, which put the plane in a spotlight with American travelers last spring.. Read More Here



But that report has to be view in light of some of other documented crashes.  For a detail list of crashes documented for the MD-80 series jets.   Click Here

Hopefully that would not stop you from boarding the jet for a cheap flight to Barbados.  Here are some other stinging questions that were quoted directly from another blog.

• Is it practical to operate MD82, old generation, aircraft on a 15 minute route structure?
• Are $9.99USD fares realistic or practical?
• Can REDJET compete with the heavily subsidized LIAT?
• Will the FAA grant the airline access to the proposed USA market?
• Why did Jamaican Government not allow Airone to set up operations in Jamaica?
• Who is the major Barbadian investor listed in the USA Exception Application?
• Does Barbados Government Civil Aviation organization have the expertise, experience, regulations etc. to approve, monitor and regulate a heavy commercial passenger carrier?
• Are two proposed aircraft sufficient to operate an on time scheduled passenger service considering weather, mechanicals, maintenance etc.?
• What Liability Insurance has Barbados demanded of RedJet?

The big question is $9.99USD or FREE would you hop on a jet that you felt uncomfortable with?

Thankfully that may not be a decision you will make because the way it looks now you may not ever have the chance to board a RedJet.

The story is still being told. .