[Peetwo]

Hoody moves on from AAI & MH370 -  

I've just been reading the ATSB updates on the updates, the number of same does not matter. What is clear is that the expected date of release of the final report to the public is always a few months hence. The longer the better because people die, get dementia, become careless and forgetful and generally tire of the whole sustained obscurant process. Spin it out long enough and even some of the instigating Senators will retire. This is what to expect out of 400,000 Can'tberrans from the most stratified, socialistic and souless capital city in the developed world. This no freehold, perfectly planned black hole tax sucking vortex of deceit and obfuscation is completely at odds with free enterprise, honest and careful work or sense of duty to the greater good. I'm afraid it is not just our aviation 'corporates', but other departments and Commonwealth bodies that I have had the misfortune to deal with. Sorry to say. The good old days were not that good but were much better in many ways. As Arthur Caldwell, then leader of the Labor Party and an honourable man, said, in farewell to Menzies, that in the Commonwealth public service under Menzies there was never even a hint of corruption.

Hoody and the Safety Piñata.

You’ve all seen ‘em; those supposedly ‘funny’ video shorts of kids, blindfolded, given a big stick, spun around until dizzy, then trying to hit an ‘elusive’ target they cannot see. They remind me of Hoody, trying to manage the ATSB, not only blindfold and dizzy, with NFI where to hit and the target being remotely controlled, he’s also handicapped by either handcuffs or blinkers; possibly both. Just a series of wild air swings, vainly trying to hit something.

The Pel-Air ‘aberration’ was not a single handed affair, although Hood would have gotten some blood spots on his hands while adroitly side stepping the main outflow; it must be said that he did, eventually, wake up to the unmitigated Cambers bastardry. But he was there and if anyone in this misbegotten saga knows where the skeletons are buried – Hoody does.

But he’s buggered for all money; now the self imposed handcuffs are golden and the blinkers fur lined. It is a strange, highly conflicted paradox^.  Now, ostensibly ‘in charge’ of a reinvestigation of a matter in which, even by default, he is deeply involved in. Continuing to allow Walker to run the ‘investigation’ and continuing to side-line the invisible ‘Manning’ simply add another layer of doubt to an already murky picture. When the ATSB come out with a statement like this:-

../ Updated: 13 October 2016 : The collection and analysis of a large volume of evidence for this investigation has taken longer than originally foreseen.  However, the ATSB now has sufficient evidence to establish findings across a number of lines of inquiry.  The ATSB is in a position to finalise a draft report which is expected to be released to directly involved parties by the end of the year.  Subject to comments made during the draft report review process, the final report should be released publicly in the first part of 2017.

/..a DDDDD minister may get a warm fuzzy feeling; the public will swallow it no worries; but what about the rest of the world who know, through study of the Pel-Air ‘aberration’ that not only does it stink to the high heavens; but it is not an isolated aberration, but is, indeed the ‘norm’.  The only difference is with Pel-Air, they all got caught out.

The Bollocks is clearly apparent “The collection and analysis of a large volume of evidence for this investigation etc.”  Read the line again, then ask at least two pertinent questions.

1) Why is the ‘second’ investigation suddenly dealing with a ‘larger’ volume of evidence than the first?  Shirley the volumetric difference between version 1 and version 2 would be minimal – had the first been done correctly.

2) Why does it take so long to ‘clarify’ and revisit evidence which must have been compiled to produce the first report?  What can possibly be so new and so intricate that the second version is taking as long to complete as the first?

Its bollocks. If the differences are so vast and numerous then clearly, without doubt the first report was so grossly flawed and manipulated, that takes the actions of both CASA and ATSB into the realm of criminal investigation. IMO this is no longer a matter for the ATSB to investigate, but the Federal police. Never happen of course, far to many eggs will be broken, starting with the ministerial eggs and ending with the lowly FOI’s who were involved in the  ‘audit’ process. Never happen – we cannot possibly have ‘organisational issues’ mentioned, certainly not the CASA ones.

No, this shambolic pantomime will continue to drag on, and on and on until as Sandy says Booze, bad living and Alzheimer’s wipe the shameful, disgusting event from human memory.  

Aye; all’s well that ends well; ICAO remain bamboozled; the never empty trough overflows and things like Senate Inquiry, Forsyth reports, IOSA audits, NTSBC peer reviews and the protests of industry can all be managed; with a little ministerial help, under advisement from ‘the department’.  

P2 – “Hmm...Coupled with MH370 questions, I reckon Hoodlum could be in for an uncomfortable (at least) half an hour ...

Dunno P2, the Senate inquiry into the Norfolk ditching failed to make anyone ‘uncomfortable’; just can’t see a thirty minute session, once every few months phasing any of those with dirty hands. I reckon the Senate crew questions will be the butt of 'in-house' jokes cracked at the ATSB/CASA favourite watering hole, thirty minutes after the ‘teams’ leave the parliament building.

Toot toot.

^[a] statement or proposition which, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems logically unacceptable or self-contradictory.

 Hoodlum a giant amongst his peers:Courtesy the ATSB

ATSB hosts marine investigators forum
Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) Chief Commissioner Greg Hood today welcomed international visitors to the 19th Marine Accident Investigators Forum in Asia (MAIFA) conference in Canberra.

MAIFA is a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting safety at sea and preventing marine pollution through the exchange of ideas, experiences and information acquired in marine accident investigations.

“I’m delighted to welcome participants to Canberra and I look forward to a fruitful exchange of ideas,” Mr Hood said.

“Australia’s reputation for high quality and rigorous investigations makes it uniquely placed to assist with transport safety in the Asia Pacific region.

“The ATSB has an active program of regional engagement with other transport safety agencies, over and above that required by our international obligations.”

As well as investigating marine accidents and incidents in Australia, the ATSB provides technical assistance to a range of countries in our region.

Nation’s participating in the MAIFA conference are Cambodia, the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.


 



Last update 11 October 2016

 

 
Update: An OP blog on that pic (above) courtesy Mike Chillit...  

ATSB to Asia: “We Can Fix You”
Posted on October 14, 2016 by Mike Chillit — Leave a reply
I was a bit stunned a few days ago to see a photo of an Australian “Bwana” standing in front of a group of mostly Asian men with the caption “ATSB hosts marine investigators forum” (sic).

I admit that Americans have become perhaps too sensitized to appearances, and often try to avoid even a hint of paternalism when no one but a BuzzFeed editor would claim it exists. It’s the times we live in on the northern side of the equator. It has gone much too far and many of us try to find some middle ground. But it’s a slow process.

Try as I may, I just couldn’t get good vibes from the message as a whole as I took in that enormous photo that seemed more like a Stanley and Livingstone parody than anything else that came to mind. Yes, the big Anglo Bwana, front and center, is the one who chose the photo and wrote the self-adoring text that accompanies it.

What makes it almost farcical is that by any assessment outside of Australia, the Land Down Under is hardly in a position to school any nation on planet earth in responsible aircraft investigation technique. ATSB has monumentally failed one of the most basic of all investigative responsibilities: openness. It has more in common with Enver Hoxha’s Albania than with modern democratic traditions.

Australia’s ATSB is still reeling from two horrific aircraft investigation fiascos: Pel-Air, and MH370. Yet the agency had the chutzpah to make this claim:

..Australia’s reputation for high quality and rigorous investigations makes it uniquely placed to assist with transport safety in the Asia Pacific region...

Oh, really? Why did all of the Sonobuoys dropped in the MH370 search area in early April 2014 fail to operate? Why has your agency remained in the same place SW of Perth while ordinary citizens recover the plane’s debris in the Mascarene area? Why, why, why? A million whys about your agency’s abysmal performance.

But of course, perhaps I’m over-reacting. Perhaps all of those Asians need someone of British descent to look after them from Canberra. But I really doubt it.

[/url][url=http://www.atsb.gov.au/media/5771632/maifa-pic.jpg]

ATSB’s Greg Hood stands front and center with his little band of mostly Asian invitees. No Indonesian representative, and no representatives from Pacific Island nations, apparently.




Footnote:
Perhaps Australia’s ATSB is just trying too hard to pretend it hasn’t spent more than two years searching in the wrong place for the still-missing Malaysia Airlines MH370.
There are striking similarities to a US FEMA incident in 2005 that centered around an American named Michael DeWayne Brown. To a rather informal President George W. Bush in 2005, Brown was simply “Brownie” and he oversaw FEMA when Hurricane Katrina flooded the New Orleans area. Mr. Brown’s management of FEMA’s response to the Katrina tragedy was widely regarded as slow, bureaucratic, and inept. Mr. Brown had very little training or education relevant to his FEMA responsibilities, but that seldom counts for much when a lucrative employment opportunity presents itself.

What makes the Brownie incident analogous is that after Michael Brown resigned in disgrace, he attempted to form his own company to provide Disaster Training to US cities and counties, ostensibly replacing FEMA. It was a childish reaction to a bad experience, and didn’t succeed, but is remarkably similar to ATSB’s effort to now provide training for aircraft accident investigations throughout the region when, in fact, it can’t even complete two pending high profile investigations of its own.

The text of ATSB’s Bwana moment follows, and includes a link to the source article.

ATSB hosts marine investigators forum

Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) Chief Commissioner Greg Hood today welcomed international visitors to the 19th Marine Accident Investigators Forum in Asia (MAIFA) conference in Canberra.

MAIFA is a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting safety at sea and preventing marine pollution through the exchange of ideas, experiences and information acquired in marine accident investigations.

“I’m delighted to welcome participants to Canberra and I look forward to a fruitful exchange of ideas,” Mr Hood said.

“Australia’s reputation for high quality and rigorous investigations makes it uniquely placed to assist with transport safety in the Asia Pacific region.

“The ATSB has an active program of regional engagement with other transport safety agencies, over and above that required by our international obligations.”

As well as investigating marine accidents and incidents in Australia, the ATSB provides technical assistance to a range of countries in our region.

Nation’s participating in the MAIFA conference are Cambodia, the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam

MTF...P2