Marc Ong 2i218

My CA interview was on the 26th of April(if I'm not wrong), with Andrew. We discussed the responsibility of countries' respective Governments in compensating their airlines for losses incurred when all air traffic was stopped for a 5 or 6 day period due to the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull. Overall, I think it went pretty well. My stand was that the Governments are at least partially responsible for the airlines' losses and should compensate them partially, while Andrew felt that since the eruption was a natural disaster, the Governments should not be blamed for the airlines' losses.

Without going too much into the details of the discussion, I basically felt that since the Governments were so disorganized, they should also pay partially for airlines' losses. However, I feel that I could have improved my discussion as I was slightly too harsh toward the various European Governments. Although I still feel that they assessed the risk of the volcano badly and could definitely have met and organised themselves sooner, in hindsight, I feel that it was unrealistic to expect all Governments should have been perfectly ready for this sort of massive disaster. However, Governments should definitely take this disaster as a learning experience.

When a massive cloud of volcanic ash obscures a large part of Europe, Governments and people would definitely be in disarray. With thousands of people stranded and thousands more shipments delayed indefinitely, a communications breakdown is expected. I realize now I was slightly harsh in criticizing Governments for taking 5 days to organize a conference call, as for some of them, key personnel were stranded overseas. This was a good example of how technology can be used to overcome physical barriers and distances. During the interview, I suggested that an International Organization should be set up to synchronise the actions of airports worldwide in the case of a disaster such as this.

However, as Miss Soh pointed out to me, the real reason for the long delay was the self-interests of various countries. Countries such as Britain, with the most profitable airports, would not like to be restricted or constrained by an Organization with and treated like other, less developed members of such an organization.

This was a very interesting topic for debate, as there is no clear solution to the problem. Instead, we have to weigh the pros and cons of each possible solution, and decide which one is the best overall.