[Peetwo]

Comet's comment , COTY??- “…the main casualty will be our democracy”

Combined with the "V" post (above) and in light of the atrocities in Paris, I thought the following chain of excellent commentary on Ben's blog piece - ATSB now has only one set of black boxes lost at sea; or here on AP - ending with perhaps a nomination for 'comment of the year' by comet was worth regurgitating..    
 
The Pel-Air story is about government opaqueness.

We don’t know – and can only guess – why the governent safety investigator didn’t want to get to the truth, or why two government ministers (Albanese and Truss) took no interest in forcing the ATSB into line.

Unfortunately the atrocities in Paris will give governments around the world the cover they need to become more opaque and less open, while at the same time monitoring their citizens’ every move, and introducing harsher penalties for whistleblowers.

A bad event gives governments the excuse to start other bad events (eg Iraq wars). Aviation will suffer, but even worse, the main casualty will be our democracy.

Update - 25 November 2015: Courtesy of Planetalking..

Pel-Air 2nd final report now has data, and a stab at a date

Ben Sandilands | Nov 25, 2015 10:35AM |


The aft section of the ditched jet as seen early this year

The disgraceful saga of the ATSB inquiry into the ditching of a Pel-Air Westwind jet in 2009 now has black box data, and an indication of a date, for its second and forced final inquiry into the accident.

This update has been posted on the ATSB website:

Data from both the CVR and FDR from VH-NGA has been successfully downloaded at the ATSB’s technical facilities in Canberra. The CVR data is of just over 2 hours and 4 minutes duration, covering the period up to the aircraft’s ditching into the waters off Norfolk Island. The FDR contained 116 hours of data, which included the last four flights of VH-NGA, which were undertaken in the period between fitment of the particular recorder to the aircraft on 3 November 2009 and the date of the accident (including the accident flight). The evidence obtained from the recorders will be analysed as part of the ongoing investigation and relevant information will be included in the ATSB’s final report, which is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2016.

The previous post on Pel-Air can be read here.

 

MTF...P2