[Peetwo]

Captain's Log 17.04.17: Hoody plays the TSI card on MH370 -  

Well I'll be?? Hoody threatening sanctions on those considering leaking/whistleblowing on MH370...

Via the Oz today:

FOI plea on MH370 scotched

12:00amEAN HIGGINS

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has invoked draconian legislation in refusing to release material on its hunt.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has invoked draconian legislation in refusing to release material about its search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, warning that any bureau ­employee who provides such ­information to the public or a court could face two years in jail.

ATSB chief commissioner Greg Hood has used the statute to reject a plea from the families of the Chinese passengers who died on MH370 that he grant a Freedom of Information request from The Australian, with the families claiming failure to do so makes Australia complicit with a cover-up by the Malaysian government.

Some ATSB officers are having second thoughts about the agency’s official line that MH370’s ­pilots were unconscious or dead at the end of the flight.

Mr Hood has declared the Transport Safety Investigation Act covers the FOI request for critical documents the ATSB claims support its “ghost flight” and “death dive” scenario, which holds the Boeing 777 went down in an unpiloted crash.

The theory has been rejected by many commercial pilots and international air crash investi­gators who believe captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah hijacked his own aircraft and flew it to the end.

The documents sought are the opinions of international experts, including from the US and British air crash agencies, Boeing, aerospace group Thales, and British satellite group Inmarsat, about satellite data that automatically tracked the course of MH370.

The ATSB says the satellite data shows MH370 was in a rapid unpiloted dive at the end, but experts such as former US captain and crash investigator John Cox have said the data is not good enough to reach that conclusion.

ATSB general manager for strategic capability Colin McNamara in February refused The Australian’s original FOI ­request, claiming release of the ­information could “cause damage to the international relations of the commonwealth”.

The association representing the families of the 153 Chinese ­victims who died when the plane went down on March 8, 2014, ­issued a statement after The Australian reported Mr McNamara’s decision, saying “we react with extreme displeasure and ­annoyance”.

“Is avoiding offending the ­Malaysian authorities more important than discovering the truth?” the families asked in the statement.

Mr Hood, in an internal ­review of Mr McNamara’s decision, also refused to release the documents. “The activities of the ATSB with respect to assisting the Malaysian investigation are covered by the TSI Act,” Mr Hood wrote in his decision.

He advised that the act holds that if a serving or former ATSB staffer or consultant “discloses ­information to any person or to a court; and the information is ­restricted” they have breached the act, which stipulates a penalty of two years in prison.

In response to an earlier ­inquiry, Mr Hood would not say whether he would allow any ATSB staff who no longer agree with the “ghost flight” and “death dive” theory to publicly express their views.

MH370 disappeared on a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, with its radar transponder turned off and radio communication cut after about 40 minutes.

Military radar and the satellite tracking data shows the aircraft deviated back over Malaysia to the Andaman Sea, before a long track south to the southern Indian Ocean. A $200 million search directed by the ATSB based on its “unresponsive pilots” theory failed to find the aircraft’s wreckage and was suspended in January.

When last year it was revealed the FBI had discovered Zaharie had plotted a course quite close to that track on his home computer flight simulator, the ATSB joined the Malaysian government and Malaysia Airlines to hose down suggestions this pointed to the “rogue pilot” hijack theory.

   
UDB!

Here is some recent comments that reflect the general disbelief of the average ATP in respect of the bizarre Hood statement (above):

Walter
9 hours ago

If the ATSB are merely concerned with protecting Australian relations with Malaysia, then they must be concealing something that would cause Malaysia some problems.
It will come out in the end. This Government must release all relevant information.

Tim
1 hour ago


Perhaps the ATSB should actually be concerned about their relationship,with their employers ie the citizens of this country and not so much behaving like an " alphabet agency" normally associated with the murky world of international intelligence gathering .

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William
3 hours ago

This is absolutely disgraceful.

Everybody could see from an early stage that the Malaysians lost the plane 'easily', weren't all that fussed about finding it and then rushed to the exits when the search was 'completed'.

The constant head in the sand stuff from the ATSB is the most disappointing. Weren't they meant to be neutral and objective?

Australia is making itself complicit in Malaysia's cover up and I think our government needs to be told that Australian tax payers expect more.

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Peter
2 hours ago


How much of our money as the taxpayer has this agency spent in this search?

What an absolute disgrace and abuse of power.

All should note that the ATSB has powers granted by statute which are extremely draconian, such as preventing individuals from releasing information/ opinion even to a court / judge!

MTF...P2