[HN Gopher] How I ended up flying for Yemen's national airline -...
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How I ended up flying for Yemen's national airline - and survived
Author : techonup
Score : 151 points
Date : 2025-05-23 14:00 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.pprune.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.pprune.org)
| the__alchemist wrote:
| Great read! I'm a bit surprised the author (and others?) didn't
| get a bro-level warning from others who'd done this. Oops;
| hindsight is 50/50. I suppose this post is just that, and I bet
| no one else will walk into this with expectations otherwise!
| Granted, rapidly-changing field with the war...
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| I wonder if it's such an obviously bad idea, that nobody felt
| like they _had_ to issue such a warning.
| fortran77 wrote:
| I've worked with a bunch of ex-Yemini (who left around 1949 and
| 1950) and not once have I heard one say he was homesick for
| _anything_
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| > _Like many airlines, Yemenia use one of the major rostering
| apps, and rosters release 15 days before the end of the month.
| Even despite the rocket attacks, car bombs, mortars, and
| intermittent electricity and wifi, they do still manage to get
| the roster out on time, which is more than I can say for the few
| European carriers I worked for._
|
| Outstanding.
| scrlk wrote:
| The OP of that thread later went on to do a contract with Kam Air
| of Afghanistan, which is another good read:
| https://www.pprune.org/terms-endearment/662364-kam-air-expat...
|
| A highlight:
|
| > YA-KME for example, has a strange little thing where you'll get
| an ECAM Red ENG 3 FIRE after you detent into CLB. For f*ck sake,
| don't discharge the bottles, there's no fire. It'll shut up after
| 3 or 4 seconds. Again, reason unknown, everybody just kind of
| lives with it's quirks now. KME is commonly referred too as "Kill
| Me", as this is the aircraft with the most random issues. Brake
| temps breaking the charts when you start up from cold and dark in
| DXB for example. You'll get used to them, and you'll get used to
| which ones are "KME Normal" and KME actually trying to kill you.
| potato3732842 wrote:
| I'm sure the usual suspects are pounding away at their
| keyboards with condemnation but after reading that but I think
| that's a pretty gloving review, all things considered.
| 12_throw_away wrote:
| Agreed, unlike the Yemenia one, this one sounds like it's
| mostly professionals doing the best they can under difficult
| circumstances.
| 12_throw_away wrote:
| Found this part interesting:
|
| > somehow Kam Air can keep all of their APUs operating but
| European carriers I've flown with will go the entire Summer
| season hopping about the Greek Islands with it INOP
|
| If anyone knows: is it normal to allow dispatch without the
| APU? I kind of assumed it would be a required redundancy,
| especially on an airbus where the computers and electronics are
| what keeps the thing in the air ...
| jenny91 wrote:
| The APU is not on during flight, so not a safety thing. It's
| just for providing power (and bleed air) on the ground (if
| there's no other power source). E.g. can't start up at
| airports without external power with the APU INOP.
| sterlind wrote:
| if you don't have a RAT you need the APU for emergency
| power if your engines fail in flight.
| rwyinuse wrote:
| Another great read, thanks for linking!
|
| I remember reading report from another captain, flying for Kam
| Air or some other Afghan airline about a decade ago. I recall
| his hotel got attacked by Taliban suicide bombers, but other
| than that the contract went fine. I guess things are calmer now
| out there.
| 2Gkashmiri wrote:
| Its interesting.
|
| I live in "kashmir", India side and the place is on a similar no-
| go by both UK and US governments travel advisory.
|
| https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/india
|
| https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/...
|
| Us has a level 4 do not travel.
|
| The point is, we are around 10 million souls living in this place
| and we call it home. It may not be for Americans and British but
| its our home.
|
| Reading this article, im sure travellers here last month could
| give similar "harrowing" accounts of escaping from the valley and
| the stuff they did.
|
| Yeah, terrorism tourism is real and its "extremely cheap"
| compared to last month. More safer I would assume but yeah.
|
| The air fare has dropped to like 30%, hotels are empty so they
| will offer you sweet deals.
| jajko wrote:
| Last time I was backpacking in India and wanted to go to
| Kashmir (2008), violence just flared up badly after long period
| of peace and was outright told not to head up north from
| Amritsar. I've read few articles how tourists in Srinagar (our
| goal) were all gathered by army in barracks and flown away.
|
| Makes sense from Indian army point of view. I wouldn't expect
| its easy to even get there, especially if westerner, we stick
| out of crowd properly even when skin tone may be similar,
| clothing is obviously very different. There is a reason why
| those prices are so low. Maybe nothing happens, maybe something
| does. Flying is probably safest, if one ignores the possibility
| of ground-air or air-air missiles, intentional or not.
| 2Gkashmiri wrote:
| When was the last time a commercial airline was attacked in
| Kashmir?
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_union_ter.
| ..
|
| These are the crime stats and even while our stats are skewed
| by jammu, overall its still a much safer place.
|
| Think of it this way. 26/11 happened in Mumbai. Who would've
| thought ? That hasnt stopped people from visting Mumbai or
| rest of mainland India ?
|
| I get it. The perception of threat is worse than an actual
| threat.
|
| So.... you know if since 2008 as you said, any tourist was
| caught up in the issue ? I dont remember.
|
| The only reason is tourists are not coming. I am a consultant
| working with the industry and EVERYONE has cancelled. Hotels
| have closed operations
| cjrp wrote:
| I'd read a whole book of stories like this, great writing.
| theyknowitsxmas wrote:
| Why you wouldn't get tf out of there on your first Cairo landing
| is beyond me.
| psunavy03 wrote:
| . . . because it's your paycheck?
| theyknowitsxmas wrote:
| Get out while you're still not extorted for your passport.
| Classic Arab employer mirage of promises.
| ignoramous wrote:
| > _Classic Arab employer_
|
| Doubt Arabs in Tunisia or Iraq do this? You probably meant
| the _Kafala_ ( "visa sponsorship"), usually abused by
| businesses (illegally so, in Bahrain and the UAE) employing
| blue-collar workers in ~4 GCC ("Arab") states.
| theyknowitsxmas wrote:
| Do you think those laws apply to foreigners? Locals only,
| temp foreign workers go in the can for reporting it...
| inshallah.
| psunavy03 wrote:
| There's a huge difference in potential blowback between
| mistreating some poor bastard from Pakistan who signed on
| as unskilled labor and a trained airline pilot from a
| Western country.
|
| Edit: And how in God's name are you going to extort the
| passport from someone whose literal job is to fly an
| airplane to other countries, where they not only need it
| to do their job, but can just land somewhere and be like
| "peace out, I quit, I'm not flying this thing back."
| hilux wrote:
| That was unexpectedly authentic and entertaining!
| FridayoLeary wrote:
| >Pleased with himself, he asks you how he did and is disappointed
| when you tell him that he didn't actually land the aircraft, some
| French computer engineer did.
|
| This.
| mattas wrote:
| Tried to figure out their routes: https://yemenia.com/flights.
| "No Flights Available"
| laiysb wrote:
| Hidden here for whatever reason:
|
| https://cairo.yemenia.com/
|
| https://mumbai.yemenia.com/
| Apocryphon wrote:
| Did he speak to his co-pilot before flights, though?
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(page generated 2025-05-23 23:02 UTC)