Update: Oman Air Paris Airport Incident

I kept quiet about this until I was sure that the incident happened in the same airport blackspot that I thought it has occurred in. 

There have been no less than 6 taxiway excursions with 4 (now 5, yanni) needing to be removed by a tow-truck. 

The NO LEFT TURN signs are massive and I fail to see how these could have been missed by the crew. 
Are Oman Air still taking the "quick-thinking professional crew" line? 

This was such an issue at Paris that the airport authorities released an international warning about it!
Was this crew provided with a copy of that circular to read? 
And even they never read it, did they not see the sign? 
So many questions. 

A genuine error is all well and good. Every crew has the ability to make mistakes, but don't start lauding incompetence! 
Respect the NO RIGHT / NO LEFT TURN signs. It's not the Muscat Expressway, boys! 

Oman Air Pilots Save The Day…

Well, I just saw this wonderful article in the Times Of Oman with Oman Air tweeting about the quick thinking and professionalism of the Oman Air Airbus A330 crew who averted significant damage to their aircraft after its landing gear got stuck in the grass at Paris Charles De Gaulle airport. 

But surely the key question is: How did this situation arise in the first place? 
Was it an Air Traffic Control error, or was it due to a mistake by the crew? 
With such quick thinking and professionalism on board the aircraft, it can only be the former? Right?

I think I will forward this article to the Guild of Airline Pilots and Navigators in the UK for consideration for their Superior Airmanship Award. 
Such professionalism deserves international recognition. 
It would be a great boost for the current Oman tourism drive, especially as, according to my sources, the crew are Omani. 

"Safe In Our Hands".

Unless of course, there was a cockpit balls-up and this is a PR disaster aversion operation by Oman Air, (who must clearly be unaware of the hundreds of aviation professionals who read the newspapers). 

One awaits further news as the Times of Oman and Oman Air have yet to explain what actually happened… 

Because I is hard!...

When last in Oman, I caught sight of this gem outside City Centre. 
He got out and had all the combat gear on and the shades as well. 
(Hard men need shades.)

I found the dictionary definition of the word to be quirkily apt for some of these boys.

Bless!

OMRAN in talks to revive Salam Yiti

Quick post:

I had to laugh out loud at this in the Muscat Daily this morning. 
It would appear that it's time to get the Qataris involved in the failed, sorry, "shelved" Salam Yiti Project. 

Let me state this man's opinion: No one - NO ONE - in Oman should be trusted with a $2bn dollar project unless His Majesty is sitting next to them, every step of the way!

"The original plans for the 4.19sq km Salam Yiti project, which was expected to be completed by 2013, included three five-star hotels, more than 1,000 apartments, 720 townhouses, around 400 villas, a golf course, leisure centre, a 150-berth marina and a 25,000sq m commercial area." 

Remind you of anything? 

Maybe they should rename the project "Blue Yiti".

We don't need tourists anyway...

Have just been looking at the Times of Oman report about the Majlis Al Shura pushing to ban the sale of alcohol in the Sultanate in an attempt to curb the spread of alcoholism. 

What a stroke of genius!

The group was put into place to give the Omani people a proper voice so that they could air their views and have them carried up the political ladder albeit in a "Chinese Whispers" kind of way. (With no personal or business concerns added on, of course.)

The Majlis are likely to recommend a ban on alcohol in public places like bars and nightclubs. 
When you think about it, this perfectly compliments the removal of dance bands from the above bars, effectively turning them into silent, empty rooms. 

The flip side is, those rooms could then be used as alcohol treatment centres, and once rehabilitated, the patients could be given jobs by the same companies responsible for giving them alcoholism in the first place. (Assuming they have jobs available in an empty frickin' hotel!)

The impact on the tourist trade will be minimal according to the scientists down there "...because tourists mainly come to experience the country." 

And I loved this gem of justificational logic:

"It may be recalled that Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have completely banned the sale and consumption of alcohol." - and just look at how sky-high their tourist revenues are. Oh, but wait, they don't need tourists because unlike Oman, they both have a massive revenue stream from fossil fuels. 

"No! In Oman we are the same, yanni. We have oil and gas and Bee-Dee-Yoh….." - Shut up! You're not and you don't!

Let's just remind ourselves of the standard behavioural pattern of the average tourist in Oman. 
They want to get up early, drive to the interior, go for a walk and take a few photos and then go back to their five-star hotel, sit by the pool and order a non-alcoholic beverage, followed by a $100 steak dinner washed down with a Coke. 
Yeah… right!

Anyway, I could talk rings around this, but I don't have time today. 
(I wonder if they could also push to ban a certain organic element to curb the spread of stupidity while they're at it.) 

Undercover Dragon summed it up a while back with the phrase "Creeping Wahhabism". 

"The best argument against democracy, is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."

So….How are we all doing?

Well, well, well - what a blast it has been to see Undercover Dragon and Suburban back on the Oman blogosphere. What joy! 
Kind of makes ya want to start pecking at a keyboard and get blogging again, doesn't it? 

I miss the old days. Oman still has so much potential. I got back a few months ago and hadn't even gotten out of the airport before seeing that nothing had changed.

As a friend of mine says, it's all about the question of "How much can I get away with?" 
"This much?" "How about a bit more?". 
I like to extend that question to "How much can he get away with, and still argue the toss when he's collared and told to stop being such a wanker?" (Cue: Wild gesticulation and threats to call the 'Bleese')

The above photo, is typical of where we are at now. Brand new jeep, bought on tick, driven by "Below Average Ahmed" who has gone to Dubai for the weekend. The guy behind and in front of him are effectively boxed in, but who gives a fuck, right? Because it's "Triple A" - All About Ahmed. 

You can bet your bottom dollar that he will get on the plane and sit in the aisle of an exit row and then start a shouting match when told "It's not your seat". 
"But I'm tired, yanni" - "So am I. Sod off!". 

There are awesome Omanis out there, working hard, playing by the rules and yet you just sit there and let shits like this do shit like this. 
Why?... WHY?

I like coming back to have a look around, see friends and talk about where they think the place is going. 
The corruption cases are a very good move and as UD says, HM has gotten the prisons, money laundering and embezzlement rules all sorted out, so no one has a leg to stand on when it comes to serving a spell behind bars. 

But again, everyone appears to be scared shitless about going after the Blue City crowd and the real high-rollers. They tell me the reason for that, is because some of them have enough shit about all the others, to bring down the whole Oman house of cards, and that wouldn't be a good thing… or would it? 

So, there you have it, more of the usual from me. 
Same old same old in Muscat as well. 
As I have said before, it gets old, there is more money outside of the region now, and that's why I left. Oman isn't, despite what they try to sell you, the centre of everything. 
And with these new visa rules… good luck getting expats to come in and work for you. Oh, but sorry I forgot, you don't need us.

Bring on your comments...

Sweet Infestation

Amusing, or maybe sadly a classic example of the "I couldn't be arsed to do any quality control on this." attitude within the region.

Sigh!