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Problems with Auric Air on Kenya & Tanzania tour
We are currently on the Kenya and Tanzania trip, and I want to make readers of this forum aware of an issue with air travel from Seronera Airstrip at Serengeti back to Arusha on Day 6 of the tour. We were told this was a charter flight, with three Cessna Caravan 208 aircraft (12 pax each) carrying our group of 28 back to Arusha from the stay at the Four Seasons Serengeti. We were told the night before our 7 am flight that planes would be assigned at the airport, which made me uneasy because it did not sound like each plane would have a manifest (important to me as an experienced aviation lawyer). I persuaded myself it was OK, because it was a charter and all folks on the three planes would be Tauck guests. We arrived early, before the airport opened, and once processed by the airport, we boarded the three planes, in random groups, decided by our tour director and us seconds before we boarded the plane. We boarded, and as the first plane took off, the pilot in the second plane, which I was on, said we had to turn back from the runway to get some leftover bags. As we got closer, it wasn't only bags, it was a group of 8 Asian tourists and their very large suitcases (not Tauck dufflebags like we were limited to) that were trying to get on the two remaining planes. We said no. Our Tour Director was on the first, departed plane, so the Tauck guests were left to deal with this situation. The Asian tourists were very late for the flight, and we believed they were not supposed to be on the flight at all. Auric Air pressured the pilots to take the late arriving tourists on our flights, and they boarded without being on the manifest. The pilot of our plane refused to take any of the Asian tourists, and said he wanted only Tauck passengers. The more senior Auric Air pilot took all of the Asian tourists on the third plane. However, the pilot of our plane, the second plane, read us his manifest, and it did not have the names of the passengers actually on the flight, even though all names he had were Tauck guest names. They were the wrong names. My husband daughter, and I were not on the manifest, but we were on the plane. We flew to Arusha, and complained to our Tour Director. He then told us that the planes were not Tauck charters, but were regularly scheduled flights. Even if that was true, Auric Air should not have gone back for the late passengers at the expense of the Tauck passengers, and they should not have flown with inaccurate manifests, and with unmanifested passengers on board, which they did. This is a violation of aviation rules and raises serious safety concerns about how Auric Air is operating. Separate from the safety issue, it is clear that Auric Air does not value their relationship with Tauck, or have respect for Tauck passengers. They chose to go back for non-Tauck passengers who failed to show up in time to be on the scheduled flight. Auric Air decided those 8 tourists were more important than the 17 Tauck guests on board the planes, who got up early, had to have bags ready at 5 am, and left for the airport at 5:45 a.m. We have serious safety concerns about the remaining flights on this trip based on this morning's experience. We almost left the tour in Arusha this morning, but have decided to stay because we are told that the remaining three flights are scheduled flights, not charters, on Air Kenya, and Tauck has represented to us that Air Kenya has no relationship with Auric Air.
Tauck has yet to address this situation, but they need to stop operating with Auric Air, an unsafe airline in my view. Future Tauck guests should refuse to fly on Auric Air. The planes say Auric Air on the outside, but the safety briefing cards say Air Excel.
Tauck has yet to address this situation, but they need to stop operating with Auric Air, an unsafe airline in my view. Future Tauck guests should refuse to fly on Auric Air. The planes say Auric Air on the outside, but the safety briefing cards say Air Excel.
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When I go on the K and T tour for the second time in one year, it will be nteresting to see if anything has changed, but I doubt it, because that is how the bush planes appear to operate in Africa.
As British stated, your Tauck TD will often not know flight times, aircraft, etc. until just before the flights- as the saying goes, this is Africa- you gotta chill and roll with the punches. Airlines come and go, buy-outs and bankruptsies are routine. Young pilots come here (and other similar places around the world) to get their first jobs and start building hours. Unless you were bumped, missed Tauck activities, incurred additional expenses, etc., because of the passenger/flight issue, or the pilot was unsafe, I would just write this off to experience and enjoy the remainder of your trip.
P.S. I am not a lawyer, but I have a lot of civilian airline passenger time, single engine aircraft private pilot time, and several thousand hours of military tactical jet crew time.
I am just an experienced aviation lawyer, but my husband has been President of nine airlines.
Our family is passionate about aviation safety and believers in aviation personnel following the rules. There are airlines in Africa which share this philosophy, but Auric Air appears not to be one of them, based on our experience.
If we have to be willing to "chill" and roll with the failure to follow aviation regulations, then Tauck is not for us. Appreciate you helping us to put this in context!
i am not a expert passenger but i do not see the fact the manifest was not on the plane ,( i would hope the T d and the airline administration would have one ) is some sort of CHILL
i have not been on any commuter train that carried a manifest
tauck is the most caring and expert travel co we have used and i trust their due diligence
Pat- these flights are primarily from dirt strips, no taxiways, and few have anything you could call a terminal. Most have a shack with one unmanned, small locked room and no RADIO. More often than not, before takeoff one of the safari vehicles will need to chase zebra, gazelles, etc. off the runway. ????
Final thought- manifest aboard the aircraft? It may be a requirement for a number of reasons in the modern aviation world, but pretty useless if you are in a small aircraft and crash and burn????
to British. I am a life member of the S.A.R. and even if you were British, I wouldn't mind .
Things that are not clear to me in this post:
1. If the airport was closed when the group arrived, how did they get ‘processed’. (We were not ‘processed’.)
2. Why arrive before the airport opened, if you needed to be processed?
3. If the airplanes held twelve, then there would have been two groups of 9 Tauck guests and one group of 10 on each airplane. (Tauck was a group of 28.). One airplane had departed so there was a maximum of 6 seats left for the 8 Asian tourists.
4. But one pilot refused to take them, so they all went on the third airplane. (3 empty seats available.)
5. None of them were on the ‘poster’s’ airplane, so how does she know who was on the manifest or not on that manifest, of the third airplane?. (No manifest was apparent or revealed on our flights.)
6. Do you have any questions about why my bs light is flashing?
Perhaps there are simply a number of missing details. (;-)
P.S.
Oh, by the way. I don’t know the rules and regulations of Tanzania, but U.S. airlines will not normally reveal the names of passengers on a flight to a third party other than law inforcement ... like homeland security, or the agency of a foreign country for international flights.
K kooreny, I want to here about what you thought of the rest of the tour and the other flights.
I do hope that K Koorenny keeps the forum informed of her investigations.
Statistically, people who make their first post to a forum with some off-the-wall story usually don't return.
Auric Air receives BARS GOLD certification by Flight Safety Foundation
We are delighted to notify you that we have completed the latest BARS audit and have received our BARS GOLD certification for the coming year, 2018-2019, kudos to our entire team for making this possible!
https://flightsafety.org/bars/
https://www.dallasnews.com/business/airlines/2013/07/26/meet-kathryn-koorenny-the-lawyer-who-may-have-saved-american-airlines
Say it isn't so! : ) "Buckle up ladies!"
Maybe it was the tone, the strident nature of the OP telling those of us who have taken this tour that what we experienced was somehow terrible, and not like we experienced?? I may not have been successful, but tried to come up with some parallels:
"I'm a sommelier, all the wine on XX ship was swill."
"I'm a travel writer, and the offering by XX tour company was just so-so, e.g. the turn-down service was so lacking."
"I'm an art critic, and frankly the tour company wasted my time by taking us to the Vatican museums."
You get the idea.
I find the Dallas News article referenced by Judy to be interesting and it raised more questions. In her position at AA I would think that she would be aware that boarding “irregularities’ happen all the time that result in the ‘manifest’ being less than accuarate. They happen less often with the present day systems, but they happen. I took a man to Oakland who thought he was on a flight to Aukland. I took a man to San Jose, CA who thought he was on a flight to San Jose, Costa Rica. Before 911, I once travelled to New York on a ticket with someone else’s name on it. That would have made the ‘witness protection program’ proud. It occured to me when I arrived in New York that I had effectively disappeard from San Francisco. People still manage to get on the wrong airplane with or without a ticket. You say, “How do they get through TSA? Hmmm. I’m pretty sure Tauck provided Auric with a passenger list with the names of the people on the three airplanes. On the twelve or so Tauck flights I’ve been on, who was on which airplane was never a concern. And no one checks the ID’s of the people boarding the airplanes, so how is the pilot supposed to know who he is really carrying? And guess what? There is no bullet proof cockpit door.
please forgive me but i am further along then pre K
What... I do get from your report is a little frustration & unwillingness to let the situation go... (thanks for sharing your unfortunate experience ... but if this was the norm, "I know Tauck would have done something about it.. "
Just be gratefull you got to the next town safe and that you had the chance to do this AMAZING!! trip.
and be more kind to other passangers. * What goes around... comes around! *
For everyone who is reading this Post about *** the experienced aviation lawyer, whose husband has been President of nine airlines......., experience.... ***
Please, have your own story to tell.... enjoy this amazing trip, live your own experience and enjoy the animals.....