Tell us the last challenge you faced?

As a captain, I was the pilot flying on my five hour flight

from Cairo to Berlin, near Athens, we lost Pack number 2,
we followed the checklist and then after 5 minutes, we
lost the other pack too. We declared an emergency due
to loss of pressurization. We descended to a lower
altitude of 10.000FT and contacted the operations and
they advised us to return to Cairo.

Tell us a time you took control of the aircraft.

Once on a flight, during the landing, the first officer was
the pilot flying and I was the pilot not flying, the weather
was very good, wind was calm and visibility was 10km or
more. The first officer was flying well until the
touchdown, he came to land but didnt close the power
and continued to float over the top of the runway
without lowering the aircraft, I told him to land and close
the power but he didnt listen, I took over the control and
landed before the end of the touchdown zone. After the
flight I spoke with him and he told me that he wanted to
make a smooth landing, I explained that landing on the
central line and within the touchdown zone is more
important than a smooth landing. I explained that safety
 is the priority and he should never forget that and he
apologized for his mistake.

Describe a time that you had to make a difficult

decision.
I recently lost my father to cancer, he was sick and I took
him to Paris for treatment. About 10 days before he died
he became very sick, however, we had lots of flights at
work and I decided to continue flying as the company
needed me as there were many pilots unavailable to
work. For me, that was a difficult decision, however, I
believe it was the right one.

Tell me about a challenging situation you faced

with another crew member.
Once, when just leaving Cairo airport on the pushback,
the purser called me on the intercom and told me that 2
crew members were shouting and fighting in the AFT of
the plane, the purser said she could not control the
situation, and I could hear them in the background
shouting. I contacted the tower and told them I needed
to return back to the gate. I decided to remove both crew
members from the aircraft because of the safety of the
aircraft and passengers. We still had 4 crew members and
 the minimum was 3, so we continued the flight and
everything was fine.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I have a list of four things. The first is to be fit and
healthy, in my job I would like to be the Captain of a wide
body aircraft, I would also like to be an instructor as I
believe I have lots of experience that I could pass on to
new pilots and finally, to see my family living the best life
that they can.
Why do you want to quit your job/ why do you
want to leave your company?
I love my present job, I have worked there for 13 years, I
know many people and have great relationships with all
types of staff in the company, however, I want to be a wide
body aircraft captain and my company has no plans for new
wide body aircraft, The only plans for aircraft in the future
are for 9 Boeing 737-800s.. Because the upgrade flow Is
moving very slowly, people have to stay for maybe 10 years
in the same position. I cannot live without planning for the
future and in my country, there are major changes
happening and because of this there are not many tourists
which make it hard for any long term goals within my
company .
Finally, I am thinking of my family I want them to live
in a safe environment, in a place that has first class
education, studying in Kuwait would just be like
studying in Europe or the USA.

How will you integrate into a multinational

society?
My dad had a tourism company and when I worked
with him, I dealt with different people from different
cultures and countries, Kuwait has people which come
from all over the world, so that would not be different
for me. After 13 years I still love travelling to different
cities all over the world. I love going to local restaurants
and coffee shops and trying local foods, I think it adds
to the joy of travelling, being a part of the place you
visit and not feeling like an outsider. I think for a
multicultural environment there are positives and
negatives
Let us start with the positives I can learn new
languages; I have the chance to have friends from all
over the world in the same place. I have the chance to
learn about others customs and traditions. I think by
mixing and working with different people we all
become more educated and this just improves
everyones way of thinking. As for the negative the
only negative I can see is if people dont take advantage
of the chance and choose to only mix with people from
the same background, this could lead to problems. I
really cant see any other negative point in working in
such an amazing environment. I think that in the
cockpit, we work using CRM and S.O.P. and because of
 this, it doesnt matter where someone comes from as
we are all following the same rules also, as a captain I
have worked with many pilots with different
personalities and we just do our jobs.

What is CRM?
C.R.M is Crew Resource Management and it is used to
improve air safety. I have an excellent CRM record.
C.R.M training uses a wide range of knowledge, skills
and attitudes including communications, situation
awareness, problem solving, decision making and
teamwork.

How will you integrate into a multinational

society?

My dad had a tourism company and when I worked

with him, I dealt with different people from different
cultures and countries, Qatar has people which come
from all over the world, so that would not be different
for me. After 11 years I still love travelling to different
cities all over the world. I love going to local restaurants
and coffee shops and trying local foods, I think it adds
to the joy of travelling, being a part of the place you
visit and not feeling like an outsider. I think for a
multicultural environment there are positives and
negatives
Let us start with the positives I can learn new
languages; I have the chance to have friends from all
over the world in the same place. I have the chance to
learn about others customs and traditions. I think by
mixing and working with different people we all
become more educated and this just improves
everyones way of thinking. As for the negative the
only negative I can see is if people dont take advantage
of the chance and choose to only mix with people from
the same background, this could lead to problems. I
really cant see any other negative point in working in
such an amazing environment. I think that in the
cockpit, we work using CRM and S.O.P. and because of
this, it doesnt matter where someone comes from as
we are all following the same rules also, as a captain I
have worked with many pilots with different
personalities and we just do our jobs.
Tell us for a time you deviated from S.O.P.
I NEVER deviate from S.O.P. These are rules and
regulations for the safety of both the airplane and also
the passengers. We should never break these rules as
they keep us all safe. When I was in training, a very
good captain taught me something that is still with me
now, he said, we can be friends, we can go out for
dinner, we can go shopping and have a good time,
however when we are flying there is S-O-P and only S-
O-P. We do not have friends on the flight deck, so if I
ever saw something outside of the S-O-P I would always
report it, there is no 2nd chance. There was one
situation that I made a slight deviation, I was the
captain flying from Accra to Cairo and the tower gave us
clearance to enter the runway and backtrack, while we
were taxiing on the runway, the tower ordered us to
expedite our taxi because there was an aircraft on final
and he wanted us to clear the runway. We increased
our taxi speed to 40 knots to make the takeoff; this was
slightly over the company taxi speed policy. I wrote a
report when we arrived back to Cairo to explain the
situation.
Have you ever flown with a 1st
officer/Captain who didnt follow S-O-P?----
Tell us a time you did not agree with the
captain/First officer?
Yes, once on a flight, I was the first officer, pilot not
flying, we were on the approach for landing and the
captain was making an unstabilized approach as the
glideslope was more than one dot below 1000 feet AGL,
I told the captain glideslope but he continued the
deviation, I told him again we needed to make a go
around, he refused so I told him a 3rd time and he still
refused, I told him we were unstabilized and he made
the landing. When we had finished the flight I informed
him that as per the rules, I would be reporting the
situation to the chief pilot and I did and I also wrote a
safety report.

Tell me about your diversion/ tell me about

a diversion:
On a 5 hour flight from Cairo to Casablanca, I was the
captain, pilot flying, there were patches of fog at the
destination and visibility was 200 meters and I couldnt
land and had to divert to Marrakesh as the first officer
and I were CAT 2 approved and visibility for CAT2 is 300
meters. I sent a message to the company and they
approved, I then informed the purser of the situation
and I spoke to the passengers; I explained to them we
were diverting due to bad weather and we would land
within 30 minutes and apologized for that, when we
landed, there were buses to transfer the passengers to
their destination.

Tell me a time you made a sacrifice for the

company?
Once, I was just starting a 3 day vacation, I had planned
to travel with my family and we were just getting ready
to leave at 2pm when the company called me and told
me they needed me to fly to London. The flight leaves
at 5pm and has to leave London at 11.00. The problem
was that they couldnt have a delay as Heathrow
Airports runway closes at 12.00 and to put all the
passengers in London in a hotel would have cost a lot of
money. I explained the situation to my family and
apologized for that. My family was not very happy but
my work is my family too and when family need help,
we go and help them.