Belgian Defence to replace its A330 by an A321

[Ecam]

It is already operating from MB for training flights.
First operational flight was sheduled for later this week, but is cancelled. A HiFly A310 arrived at MB earlier this week as the A321 is receiving maintenance.

[Ecam]

The Belgian flag has reappeared by now, on the vertical tail where it initially was

[Boavida]

So why did it disappear in the first place?

Knowing the professionalism of our military, the flag will probably be gone again next week...

Ps: why are the other planes of the "white fleet" (Embraears, Falcons) not painted in the same (grey) color? A bit strange to have 2 different colorshemes...

[Passenger]

Belgium is sending its B-Fast Team to Kathmandu. VTM reports that the flight will take off around 20h on Sunday evening, and that the flight will make two fuel stops: in Cairo and Dubai.

Maybe it wasn't a good idea to replace the A330 by a A321? CS-TRJ, the Belgian Army's A321, had to make two fuel stops to get to Nepal, and then also had to go on hold near Kathmandu. But soon fuel limitations made them divert to New Delhi, where the aircraft and B-Fast is now grounded: crew overtime.

Meanwhile, the Dutch rescue team (http://www.USAR.nl) left from Eindhoven to Kathmandu also on Sunday evening, with a KDC-10. They arrived at Kathmandu at 04h23 this morning, and were operational almost immediately after landing.

[Lenoest]

Well, at tender for contract renewal, there was belgian airline proposing a B757 for this service, but it has not been the minister preference...

[b-west]

As was predicted by the people who actually have to fly the plane... The A321 lacks the cargo capacity and range to perform a successful mission and our B-fast team is now stuck in Delhi. The A330 wouldn't have needed 2 stops on its way to KTM, and would have gotten there earlier. Short sighted decision to replace the A330 has lead to this joke...
A VRT journalist on board the plane tweeted a picture showing bottles of water stuffed under every seat as there was no more space in the cargo hold

[Passenger]

They have now received a slot at Kathmandu - departure from Delhi is about now (11h BRU-time)

http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/960/Buitenland ... epal.dhtml

[Flanker2]

Where do you park all those A330's at KTM? There is hardly any ground equipment to handle widebodies too.
Fuel stops were hardly a factor in this case, it's just that B-Fast's logistics are very slow to come into action and that has costed them the early slots. If they had to load an A330 full of equipment, they would still be in BRU now.
Crew overtime is just a further reflection of the poor organisation of the BAF in these situations.

B-Fast has almost always been one of the last teams to reach the disaster area's.
See the typhoon disaster in the Philippines, where it took them more than a week to reach the disaster zone, owing to poor logistics management.

De eerste noodhulp in de Filipijnen bleek tergend traag te gaan… en ik schrok wel even toen ik las dat bijna een half miljoen Euro ging naar B-fast terwijl ze daar amper 12 weken verbleven hebben. Het duurde dan nog een 4 tal dagen om hun veldhospitaal op te zetten. OK, men sprak wel van een logistieke nachtmerrie maar ze hadden toch een 20 tal logistieke helpers, enkele verpleegsters en een paar dokters mee. Maar goed, ik wil hier allerminst kritiek geven op mensen die al echt iets goed willen doen. Toch roept dit natuurlijk steeds vragen op…

http://doctorsonmission.org/nl/2014/02/ ... uari-2014/

In the Haiti disaster, B-FAST reached Port au Prince 12 days after the earthquake... when the first teams were already leaving...

They had an A330 at their disposal in both cases BTW.

A VRT journalist on board the plane tweeted a picture showing bottles of water stuffed under every seat as there was no more space in the cargo hold

Sure, the A321 isn't the best cargo hauler in terms of weight, but then again, why would you carry bottled water under the seats to a country with one of the richest supplies of water in the world? It doesn't take a genius to put one and one together you know? This again illustrates poor logistics management...

Nepal is among the richest in terms of water resource availability and it is one of the most important natural resource of the country. Water resources are abundant throughout the country in the form of snow covers, rivers, springs, lakes, and groundwater.

http://www.wepa-db.net/policies/state/nepal/state.htm

If anything, they could use mobile water purification and storage stations and helicopters to carry the water locally.

IMO B-Fast should limit themselves to carrying doctors, SAR personnel and SAR/first aid equipment, as they are not suited up for emergency logistics. Otherwise, they should rename it to B-Slow.

[sn26567]

If you think the Belgians have been slow, you should look at the Norwegians: the Norwegian search & rescue team on board of a Norwegian (of course!) Air Shuttle 737-800 (flight DY1) is just nearing Kathmandu now after having been stuck in Baku...

[sean1982]

If you think the Belgians have been slow, you should look at the Norwegians: the Norwegian search & rescue team on board of a Norwegian (of course!) Air Shuttle 737-800 (flight DY1) is just nearing Kathmandu now after having been stuck in Baku...

What's with the "off course" after Norwegian??
Point proven once again

[sn26567]

The point is that the Norwegians do not fly with an SAS or an Army plane, but with a "Norwegian" plane. What did you try to prove, sean?

[sean1982]

The point is that the Norwegians do not fly with an SAS or an Army plane, but with a "Norwegian" plane. What did you try to prove, sean?

Which was provided, btw, free ... By an LCC.
Amazing isnt it?

[sn26567]

I'd say "Well done, Norwegian!".

[Ecam]

In the Haiti disaster, B-FAST reached Port au Prince 12 days after the earthquake... when the first teams were already leaving...

They had an A330 at their disposal in both cases BTW.

Not true. Better stick to facts in stead of writing half truths and ridiculing the B-FAST team:
The Belgian B-FAST team departed the day after the Haiti disaster, not 12 days later. That was the second team that arrived then.
The earthquake happened in the night of 12-13 januari.
"Op 13 januari al vertrok het B-FAST team. Vanaf 17 januari werd het militair detachement toegevoegd ter beveiliging van het B-FAST personeel en materieel. Op 23 januari loste een tweede medisch team de eerste ploeg in het veldhospitaal af. Deze eerste ploeg, samen met USAR en de drinkwatertechnici, keerden terug naar België."
http://b-fast.be/nl/content/verwoestend ... ving-haiti.

So they were pretty fast, the guys from B-FAST, not 12 days late.

[Flanker2]

Actually you are right. I even remember how the B-FAST team was pulled out from the field hospital at night due to "security reasons", just about as it was set up, leaving Dr. Gupta from CNN and the camera crew to deal with the injured.

The injuries and deaths were in the 6 figures. So even supposing that that they arrived there at D-Day +2 with 60 people, the sheer magnitude of the disaster would make it pretty insignificant.

As a nation like Belgium and given the magnitude of the disaster, the least you can do is to send a few thousand people to go help there. So pardon my mistake about the dates, it still doesn't make a big difference in the great scheme of things.

I'm not criticising B-Fast volunteers, but the organisation of it.
It's a great thing that they have such an organisation, but if they're going to do it, they should do it right.

And no, we don't need a A333 sitting idle at BRU to play private jet for B-FAST when something happens.
That's what charter airlines exist for.

[Ecam]

Actually you are right. I even remember how the B-FAST team was pulled out from the field hospital at night due to "security reasons", just about as it was set up, leaving Dr. Gupta from CNN and the camera crew to deal with the injured.

The injuries and deaths were in the 6 figures. So even supposing that that they arrived there at D-Day +2 with 60 people, the sheer magnitude of the disaster would make it pretty insignificant.

As a nation like Belgium and given the magnitude of the disaster, the least you can do is to send a few thousand people to go help there. So pardon my mistake about the dates, it still doesn't make a big difference in the great scheme of things.

I'm not criticising B-Fast volunteers, but the organisation of it.
It's a great thing that they have such an organisation, but if they're going to do it, they should do it right.

And no, we don't need a A333 sitting idle at BRU to play private jet for B-FAST when something happens.
That's what charter airlines exist for.

For one, the fact that there was a problem with security is not the fault of the B-FAST team, nor the organization. That's the job of local law enforcement. If you are going to a disaster area to help, you don't expect to get shot at by looters trying to steal your medical equipment.
So how many people did the CNN crew treat ? I bet they were very good at it.
BTW, the military security personnel was sent to Haiti in the remaining A.310 that was "obsolete" after the reception of the A.333, because the leasing company wouldn't allow arms and ammo in their airplane.

Why are you "supposing" ? They did arrive, not at D-day +2 but +1.
" the least you can do is to send a few thousand people to go help there". So you say Belgium should have send a few thousand people ? Right ! LOL.

"That's what charter airlines exist for." Ever heard of EATC ?
http://eatc-mil.com/140/Aircraft
Plenty of transport aircraft available, But why rent an aircraft if we have a shiny Airbus sitting idle most of the time. That wouldn't make a good image, would it, arriving in a foreign aircraft. No no, lets gamble and take the tourist bus.
Maybe a statement by Belgian Defense to show that the small Airbus was not a good choice to replace the A330 after all, which was in turn not the good choice to replace the 2 A310. Had those two remained operational, they would have made a difference, and not only for B-FAST.
You see, minister of Defense, it's clear we really need the A330 MRTT, better buy three, just to be shure.
After all, it's all politics.