Keeping it in the family
Another scandal has caught up with the national carrier of Serbia which once again illustrates the immense political interference, corruption and unprofessionalism on behalf of the airline's management.It has been revealed that for the past eight months a pilot at Jat Airways has been carrying out his duties and piloting aircraft without a license. The pilot in question, Predrag Premović, was employed at Aviogenex before transferring to Jat. However, Premović only has a license to operate a Boeing 737-200 while in the past eight months he has been carrying out duties on the B737-300 series. In fact, Premović has in such a short time been promoted to the position of the Vice Head of Safety at Jat Airways all thanks to strong political ties. Predrag Premović is the son of the advisor to the Minister of the Interior in the Serbian Government. None of this is too surprising since the acting CEO of Jat Airways is the nephew of one of the founders of the ruling Democratic Party, Vida Ognjenović, who is currently serving as the ambassador of Serbia in Denmark. The CEO Vladimir Ognjenović went from being a ground handler at Belgrade Airport to Jat Airways representative in Copenhagen and then became Head of the airline’s Commercial Department before taking up the position of Vice CEO and finally CEO, all in the past five years.
The Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate, which has also been heavily criticised for its handling of the latest fiasco, tried to defend its decision not to act earlier. The PR of the Serbian Aviation Directorate, Katarina Andrić-Milosavljević, wife of former Minister for Trade Slobodan Milosavljević, tried to defend the pilot on national television yesterday morning with little success. Andrić-Milosavljević came to the directorate herself when her husband became the Minister for Trade in 2007.
Pilots at Jat Airways have been speaking publicly since news of the scandal broke several days ago and have said that absolute chaos has prevailed in their department since Premović was promoted to Vice Head of Safety and that they want to stop political interference in their profession. Neither the acting CEO, the head of the airline’s Safety Department or even the pilot in question Predrag Premović have found it within themselves to resign. The government authorities have also not found it necessary to dismiss anyone for the abovementioned violation nor hold anyone responsible for now. EX-YU aviation news has previously reported on political interference at Jat in the past ten years.
Head of Dafety flying without licence??? Cccccccc....
ReplyDeleteHead of Safety flying without licence??? Cccccc....
ReplyDeleteHopefully, this will speed up Government in ending Jat`s saga and put Serbian airlines on track where BEG airport is already.
ReplyDeleteElections are coming nad this is the best possible moment for doing such a thing
What did you expect from a SERBIAN airline?
ReplyDeletePorazavajuce... Ali nista me ne cudi. Politicki zivot Srbije je ocajan. Ja sam u konstantnom soku i neverici da nekome Palma ili Velja Ilic mogu biti opcija koja se zaokruzuje. Grozota i strahota kulturnog, poslovnog, socijalnog i svakog drugog oblika zivota u Srbiji, ali na zalost postoje ljudi kojima su oni vrsta uzora. Licno poznajem coveka koji je bio u upravnom odboru aerodroma Beograd 2003. da bi vrlo brzo izasao iz njega sa gomilom para... ne pricam s njim od 2004, a lik je i dalje u strukturi vlasti.. Ova vest ne treba nikoga da iznenadi, jer ce taj pilot nastaviti da pilotira zbog tetke, strica, ujaka, babe koji ce mu dozvoliti. On bi meni cucao u zatvoru, zajedno sa inspekcijom, celnicima JAT-a, i svim ostalim rukovodecim ljudima u sluzbama koje su zaduzene za nadzor i kontrolu osoblja u JAT-u. Ali ovo je sve besmisleno sto pisem jer ipak zivimo u zemlji u kojoj su politicari poluobrazovani, a neki cak i polupismeni. Za vreme uzasne vladavine Milosevica smo leteli za Peking, a danas za destinacije tipa Pafos, pa hocemo/necemo Portoroz, pa ajmo malo da letimo za Trs, pa cemo jedno deset puta godisnje da snizavamo cene da privucemo putnike, pa cemo davati besplatna osiguranja, obmotavati kofere za dz itd, itd..a ka istocnoj Evropi JAT ima jednu jedinu destinaciju. Posle mi ovde neko skoro pise kako je menadzment JAT-a super obrazovano i pametno, ali kao ne smeju nista jer je u igri politika. Ma nemoj, pa to onda znaci da sede, nista ne mogu, nista ne rade, a svakog meseca po soma evrica u dzep. Jat je kompanija sa konstantnim gubitkom. Trebalo bi svima dati lepo otkaz, pa karte prodavati samo preko neta, ali ne moze jer Perin i Djurin sin nemaju posao, pa moraju negde da rade, tek su zavrsili fakultete sa kupljenim ispitima ili cak diplomama. Bljak, gade mi se ovakve price.
ReplyDeleteoh boy. dear serbian friends, we feel your pain. Croatia is (hopefully) sorting out the same type of methastized tumor of political corruption as we speak.
ReplyDeleteHence, for that at least I am excited about entering the EU. If nothing, poeple will be forced to behave with some sense of common decency, and will hopefully follow rules and regualtions.
No system is ideal system, but this what I've seen happening in Croatia at least, with ex Prime Minister stealing tens of millions of Euros, is un-f-ing believable !
Ajde, barem nismo jedini :)
That is why the privatization is needed. And that is the one of the most important reasons why Belgrade Airport privatization is needed.
ReplyDeleteNista bolje ocekivate od Jat-a i Srbije!
ReplyDeletePozdrav svim Bosnjacima, Hrvatima i Slovencima!
this kind is in use also in JP! so... no shock at all!
ReplyDelete@ zadnji Anonymous
ReplyDeleteNe znam zasto mislis, da su Slovenci, Hrvati i Bosanci nesto bolji po tom pitanju. Slovenija se trudi, mada i tamo dosta ljudi dolazi na polozaje preko veza. Hrvatska se tek pocela boriti sa tom korupcijom i trebat ce godine, ako ne i desetljeca da se nesto promjeni. O Bosni da i ne pricam. Tamo je jos gore nego u Srbiji. Rodica mi neki dan govori kako joj traze 5000 KM da dobije redovan posao u drzavnoj firmi. Stanje je jako ocajno. Nama izgleda bas treba neko, tko ce vladati sa "iron fist" i da nas non-stop mlati, jer drugog jezika ne razumijemo.
Pozdrav svima.
Very disgusting! What is happening in Jat is a simple indication of what has plagued the Balkans for numerous decades. The EU integration process certainly has the positive impact on decreasing corruption, though the example with Ivo Sanader and Hungarian MOL demonstrates the lack of progress made. Based on personal experience, much of the anti-corruption measures are a hand-waving exercise; heavy bureaucratic processes tend to legitimize otherwise corrupt employment practices.
ReplyDeleteAs for Jat, it is very ironic that the Head of Safety is not adequately certified. Who will take accountability for this - the tax payer.
Everybody who thinks EU membership will resolve corruption will become very disappointed ....not that Croatia does not deserve it !
ReplyDeleteBut example of Greece shows that corruption is not only thing
of ExYu ! Then think about Italy and France ...corruption is there national tradition !
And of Croatia Sanader was corrupted by Hypo Alpe Adria which is a German-Austrian company and MOl is Hungarian company...all countries which are part of EU !
@ Visit Bengaluru
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. Just because someone becomes an EU member it doesn't mean they are no longer corrupt. Just look at Bulgaria and Romania. I still can't believe they are part of EU. It's a problem that is rooted in country's society. It reflects country's culture, values and mentality. It takes years if not decades of hard work to change it.
Scandal? This is normal @ Balkans, nothing new or shocking
ReplyDeleteofftopic :
ReplyDeleteWill flydubais flight tomorrow fail again ?
I have heard that out of 189 seats 164 were booked which would have been a very good loadfacter of about
ReplyDelete80-85%...
if it had flown !
I hope this faux pas will not have bad impact on bookings now...
i heard rumours that people are
booking with other airlines.
Everything depends now on further
performance .
Biggest problem is that no one gets informed ...so rumours can spread
but rumours are not the truth ! Myself have still big hopes in Flydubai and will fly them next week !
maybe Ex yu Aviation can offer us some informations..we would be very thankful !
A meni se Palma i Ilic veoma svidjaju. A Seselj pogotovo, on je genije,
ReplyDeleteThe FlyDubai flight did take place. It was canceled yesterday, but the plane took off this morning.
ReplyDeleteAs someone already mentioned, because of the fog in Belgrade, the flight was delayed (had to the a stopover in Sofia), thus the crew couldn't perform the return leg to Dubai (mandatory rest).
After a night in Belgrade, the flight took place as you can see:
http://www.beg.aero/putnici/letovi.231.html?flightId=113415
"Nista bolje ocekivate od Jat-a i Srbije!
ReplyDeletePozdrav svim Bosnjacima, Hrvatima i Slovencima!"
A bolan ti se ne sjecas sto su vama radili Bosnjaci za vreme rata? Oces da te ja podsetim, nevjernice?
@ Petar from Croatia. Dont't put too much hope into joining the EU. Corruption in Romania and Bulgaria is worse then ever and Hungary on it's way to right-wing totalitarism. I think that everything south of the Alps is hopeless.....
ReplyDeletelast anonymous - :) I hear what you are saying, bu I believe there's hope. It's a process...
ReplyDeleteI would personally start with the generation that is being born now. For example, in schools I would teach them about morality, hard work, creativity, discipline and persistence. I would expell all the ones who commit hard honor code offenses (plagerizing papers etc.).
At the same time, I'd continue promoting excellence of inovators, good business people and punish the corrupt ones.
Hell, if Guilliani managed to resolve NYC crime from when it was at its worst in late 80s ... this is possible too.
Maybe by 2030, ha ? :)
@ Petar
ReplyDeletethat is the problem with America. I live here and see in school the kids are not taught any of that, and the parents or most of them do not do such a good job either!
Petar...although I am very sceptical about what you say I am happy that people like you exist...even if situation looks terrible..we have to grab the problems !
ReplyDeleteWe will never solve them..but you can stop them becoming bigger and
bigger !fighting corruption will never end but has to be done !
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ReplyDeletethnx anonymous. I think so too. The thought becomes a word which gradually turns into an action, and eventually a new reality. it never worked unless something got started. :)
ReplyDeleteCorruption will never die while countries are under a capitalist system there is too much money to be made from it until someone works out a modern democratic system that replaces capitalism and is not as blatant as socialism then we can just listen to the news AND BITCH!!!
ReplyDelete