The man in front of all the bronze

It was a genuine national celebration when the Latvian national men’s ice hockey team returned to Riga in May having earned bronze medals in the Ice Hockey World Championship. airBaltic captain Jānis Krištops was invited to bring the team home, and it was his idea to show the team and the fans a special honour by flying around the Freedom Monument in central Riga. It is estimated that around 30,000 hockey fans gathered in the centre of Riga on that day to congratulate the team.

You were working and had to concentrate on the flight, but how did it feel to know that the passengers on this airplane were very special?
Of course, this team is special – it’s the first time the Latvian national team has won bronze medals at the World Championship, and these guys will always be the first. Our spirits among the cabin crew were also very high. But the day before, when it was clear that the approvals had been received and that we had managed to coordinate this not-easy flight, I called First Officer Jēkabs Krastiņš, and he said, ‘All we have to do is do our job well.’ Krastiņš is a great new first officer who used to work in the IT department atairBaltic, but he knew from day one that he wanted to become a pilot and fly.

What were the main challenges of this flight?
Commercial flights are mainly operated according to instrument flight rules. However, visual flight rules also exist. This means that the aircraft can fly in all weather conditions using radio navigation or GPS.
    Sometimes, like when an airplane flies into a cloud, you might think that the pilots have no idea where they’re going because they can’t see anything. But that’s not the case, because everything is controlled by using the instruments. However, our arc around the Freedom Monument was a purely visual manoeuvre – we had to rely on the sensors in our own heads and hands. We knew the lowest altitude we were allowed to fly at, and then we determined the geographical coordinates of the Freedom Monument and formed an arc around it. The task was to keep the whole orbit visually neat and then fly out. Around the monument we flew at an altitude of 1000 feet above sea level, which is about 300 metres. This is the minimum altitude at which an airplane is allowed to fly over a populated area. Riga Airport had also given clearance for a visual approach and landing.

Had you ever flown over Riga before?
When flying into or out of Riga Airport, we fly over the city almost every day, but at a much higher altitude, of course. We also do visual approaches from time to time, if the weather and volume of air traffic allow it. During heavy air traffic, air traffic control doesn’t allow visual approaches, because airplanes have to enter and leave in a certain order. You can’t have one hooligan out there doing whatever he or she wants, while everyone else continues marching in a nice and tidy line(laughs). But I’ve also flown on Latvia’s birthday, Independence Day, when the airplane is escorted by fighter jets over central Riga.

You had very little time to prepare for this flight.
The specific flight plan had been made in advance, but the idea of doing a special greeting around the Freedom Monument only came the day before, on Sunday. On that same evening, we planned the flight and coordinated it with the relevant authorities.
    When you open any aeronautical chart, there are certain no-fly zones where you cannot fly under a certain altitude, and the altitude we were at on that day was under that limit. In addition, the presidential palace lay on our flight route. The bodies responsible for these regulations are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defence. I therefore say a big thank you to the Latvian Civil Aviation Agency, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Defence, and the Military Police for coordinating the route very quickly and efficiently, and for being so accommodating!

And when you finally landed at Riga Airport?
As my colleague and I laughed, we only had one chance to land beautifully. There would be no second chance, and our cargo was very important. But Riga Airport, airBaltic, and the government representatives who were present had prepared a very special welcome. In addition, Riga Airport gave the airplane a water salute as a special gesture. The fire trucks parked along the runway facing each other and used water cannons to create a beautiful water arch that we drove through.
    Never before on any other flight have I heard such loud emotions, so much positivity, and so much joy inside the cabin of an aircraft. We don’t usually hear anything outside our cockpit door, but this time we did.

Have you ever played hockey yourself?
I have, when I was still in school. I attended Ogre Secondary School, and our physical education teacher organised hockey competitions between the classes. In winter, we turned the school stadium into an ice rink; we all helped to build it, put up the boards, and even took care of the ice ourselves. But we didn’t have nice uniforms, nor did we have masks or helmets, so I remember very well what it’s like to get hit in the face with a puck, as happened to our hockey player Jānis Jaks in the World Championship game against the United States. We put snow on our busted lips, and if we needed stitches, we’d go to the hospital and get stitched up.

How long have you been working at airBaltic?
It’s been 15 years; I began working here in 2008. The company was completely different back then, and it also flew with completely different aircraft, which were also some of the most modern aircraft at the time. Back when the Fokker 50 was still being produced, it was ahead of its time. It was a turboprop aircraft, and even though the engine power was considerably lower, it had very advanced technical solutions for the time.

But you have other duties besides being a pilot. You’re one of the people who conducts type rating exams for new pilots and simulator checks for existing pilots.
And in addition to these, my duties at the company also include the job of safety manager. Among the people in my team are those who, put simply, study the black boxes in aircraft…which are actually orange. These boxes record all of a flight’s parameters, and they’re looked at to determine whether a flight was carried out well and correctly. If any deviations from the flight parameters, standards, or limitations are detected, an investigation is carried out. My team analyses the data and investigates if necessary. But it’s also an opportunity to observe various trends and take proactive action if necessary.

I also see a good link here with my work as a trainer. By knowing what happens in real life, I can used specific cases as examples when training future pilots – why certain situations developed and what can be done to prevent them from developing in the first place.

What keeps you motivated in your work?
Above all, it’s the desire to develop further. For myself, I’ve formulated three main pillars on which my professional life is based. First, I’m very happy that Latvia has its own airline, and thanks to that I can fly from home and always return home after work. The second is my passion for flying, which is an activity that brings me a lot of joy. No matter what kind of aircraft I may fly(laughs)! And the third pillar is seeing the fruits of my labour. These are the people whom I have taught and who are now flying on their own.
    I remember one year during Shadow Days, a boy interested in becoming a pilot shadowed me at work. This past April, as I was flying home from a conference in Berlin, I realised that the first officer on the airplane was the same guy who had shadowed me several years ago at work. He had graduated from the airBaltic Pilot Academy and is now a pilot. Now we have two pictures: in the first one, he’s on the flight deck as my shadow; and in the second one, he’s wearing a pilot’s uniform and sitting in the first officer’s chair on the flight deck, and I’m there next to him as his shadow (laughs)! That makes me happy.

First Officer Jēkabs Krastiņš, Cabin Crew members Dzintars Duksis, Elvis Kristers Mitjakovs, Baiba Lasmane, and Captain Jānis Krištops
On the flight deck during the flight to Riga