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Emirates flight dumping fuel
Flying to from London to Dubai on Saturday morning was another interesting flight. I make this flight a lot at the moment and the last 3 flights have been interesting to say the least.
One flight was delayed by 5 hours which was a pain but not too bad. Flying from Dubai to London 3 weeks ago, we were about to take off when we had to go back to the gate to off load a passenger who was unwell, again, a short delay but glad the passenger was off loaded so they could get the medical help.
On saturday of this week, we were 15 minutes into the flight from Heathrow to Dubai when there was an announcement. “Are there any medically trained Doctors or Paramedics on board please, if so please make yourself known to the cabin crew.” Already I knew that this wasn’t going to be good for everyone.
Eventually it transpired that we had to get this passenger on the ground and quickly. He needed medical attention and he needed it fast. (He was having chest pains and sat a few rows in front of me).
The Captain had to make the decision to divert the flight to Frankfurt airport and get this person the help he needed. At this point we had to turn around and head back to Frankfurt which took 35 minutes and we also had to dump the fuel we had. (Landing with full fuel tanks is not recommended as the plane is just too heavy). So we dumped the fuel (see picture) and then landed.
The man was taken off the plane and to hospital. We then found out that the plane had an issue with the right engine (great to find this out on the ground, NOT in the air 🙂 ) so we had a further delay of 50 minutes (over two hours in total) before taking off.
All the while the Cabin Crew and Captain kept us all up to date with what was happening and even ensured those who were connecting flights in Dubai were being taken care of as soon as we landed.
Just after we landed and as we were taxiing the Captain announced the passenger was doing well in hospital, which I am very pleased about. Sure we landed 4 hours later but the crew of that flight made the right decisions and then communicated it in the most effective ways.
Whilst it was a pain arriving late, I hope that if I was ever a person who needed medical help on a flight it would be handled in the same way
…Average performance.
No one I have ever asked on my training courses, has admitted to doing the following.
Wake up on a Monday morning, look in the mirror and say, “This week I will have an AVERAGE week. I will perform averagely.” Yet, without exception, every single person I have asked has admitted to having AVERAGE weeks at work.
And I include myself in this.
There are day’s and weeks when I haven’t hit top form. When, if I was a sportsman I would have got knocked out of a competition. Not because of my skill level or not knowing what I had to do. But because of my attitude and mindset.
The challenge though is for many business average performance has become the benchmark NORMAL. And this is killing businesses today and killing peoples desire to achieve great business results.
Sure the economic challenges are there for everyone to see, yet the economic situation won’t change for the better with AVERAGE results. Average results come from AVERAGE performance.
Great leaders understand the impact of average performance and do what is needed to get the best out of their staff every day. Not by shouting or moaning at them (though this 1970’s style is still adopted by many below AVERAGE managers), but by creating a climate where staff feel they WANT to perform and deliver.
One way to create this climate of peak performance is for managers to look at their own behaviour and how they influence their team and the culture.
As a leader and manager in business this is VITAL. Managers and leaders set the tone, the focus, the culture of how their business and staff operate.
Think about the following when you turn up for work:
- What message am I sending out through my body language today?
- What words would people use to describe me?
- Do I like those words?
- What DO I WANT people to say about me when (a) things are going well, and (b) when I am under pressure
- HOW can I influence people to be saying those things.
All this is one thing we can do to start performing at a level that will bring professional and personal success.
Average performance is NOT good enough anymore and I am lucky enough to work with clients who know this to be true and want to learn how to perform at the top of their game more often than not
Darrentoms's Blog 