[Peetwo]

The new ATsB hey? None of this precious 'correct the record' bullshit took place when Stray looked after the place. Back then the ATsB wod investigate thoroughly, providing a factual and succinct report, and by their actions not leave themselves open to scrutiny. And if people did judge them or comment about them, well they would ignore it, life moves on, they couldn't have given a shit what the knockers had to say. And rightly so, they set the bar, they knew their shit, well. But under Beaker and now Hood, well dear oh dear, what a clusterf#ck.

He said she said

The 60 Minutes piece was interesting to watch, but mostly covered old ground. But I had two observations from the story;

1. Foley never looked at ease, not for one second. His body language mirrored that of a man who had just had a broomstick shoved up his ass sideways. And;

2. The lines were very very blurred as to who is running this effing investigation. The Aussies, Malays, or the god damn French?? One piece of wreckage goes to Australia directly, another piece goes to Malaysia and then to Australia. Another piece goes directly to the Frogs and after a year the Malayaians still don't have that piece in their possession and the Aussies can't answer why that is the case!

Seriously, who is sitting in the left hand seat?? What an embarrassment. The whole  investigation is in a state of flux, and the way it is being managed is a pathetic joke. And by default ICAO are a pissweak joke. Sitting idly by while nobody is sitting in the left hand seat.

The 60 Minutes reporter, although on the money for most of the grilling, is in my opinion not a formidable foe, in other words 'not a Richard Carlton' and Foley should have handled him without raising so much as a sweat. But Foley looked rattled, or was it pissed off, or was it both? Either way he didn't look or sound comfortable at all, in fact I thought he almost looked relieved when subtly casting doubt over the entire sordid mess. Or am I over-reading things? My impression was that there most definitely is a bigger game being played here by those in high places and the responses from Foley may indicate that those at the ATsB at his level and below might be getting somewhat sick and tired of the entire shambolic game and having to be the proverbial 'meat in the sandwich'?


TICK '60 Minutes' TOCK

To follow on from Gobbles line of ATSB criticism & observations, the following was Byron Bailey's quite understated spray in the Oz today:

Dear Dazza cc Wazza - L&Ks Byron Bailey

Via the Oz today:

MH370: enough of the spurious counter-theories

• Byron Bailey
  
• The Australian
  
• 12:00AM August 2, 2016
  

Fiction is easier to manipulate than fact. When the MH370 ­flaperon was found on a beach on Reunion, and shipped to France, amazingly the ATSB sent one of its experts to Airbus in Toulouse.

I did not know that the ATSB had any B777-qualified pilots or engineers so what was the purpose of the trip?

The real experts in Toulouse concluded the damage to the trailing edge of the flaperon was consistent with its being in a lowered position during an attempted ditching. It was not the hand of God that moved the lever to lower the flaps, but a human hand very familiar with the B777.

Shortly after, a report ­appeared in The Daily Telegraph, attributed to an ATSB spokesman, stating damage to the trailing edge of the flaperon was consistent with high- speed flight and therefore not the result of a ditching.

I immediately pointed out the absurdity of this claim, only to have the ATSB’s cheer squad spend an inordinate amount of ­effort to come up with alternate theories showing why I was wrong.

I have been supersonic thousands of times. Flying a B777, I have experienced M. 9 — 90 per cent of the speed of sound — during slight overspeed conditions. In certification the B777 is taken to more than M. 95.

But a B777 with an unresponsive pilot and engines dead from fuel exhaustion definitely would not be able to exceed — due alone to gravity in a dive — the huge transonic critical drag rise that ­occurs around M. 97, because of the huge drag of those big engines.

A flaperon in the streamlined position definitely would not suffer damage to its trailing edge and control surface flutter to rapidly destroy or detach the whole surface. In other words The Daily Telegraph report, if it was from the ATSB, was a figment of someone’s imagination.

I have been attacked in the media by aviation industry people with their own agendas, some billed as aviation experts though they have never flown an aircraft.

Those self-appointed experts have variously described as ­“malicious”, “scurrilous” and “hysterical rubbish” my ­attempts to make the ATSB ­recognise what it was feeding the public was just plain wrong. The ATSB, described by one of those experts as “the best of the best”, accused me of causing ­anguish to the MH370 families. Look in the mirror, ATSB and then transport minister Warren Truss; I am waiting for your apology.

In addition read & absorb from Sandy:

As many of us from the aviation industry have been saying for a number of years our 'independent' aviation oversight bodies leave much to be desired. It is truly disgraceful that the facts have been obscured for reasons we can only guess at. Perhaps questions of insurance liability, follow the money type concerns. Perhaps deference to the Malaysian's state owned airline and its reputation. Overtones of Malaysian politics may be involved.

Evidence appears to point to controlled flight, certainly from what we know this seems to be a more plausible scenario. What's known of the flight path never looked like a random, out of control meandering because auto pilots don't meander. But what do I know?

Having had a long career in General Aviation, I do know that the independent Commonwealth corporations, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau and Air Services Australia have wasted millions of industry and taxpayer moneys in more ways than one. They are failed models of governance.

CASA has half killed General Aviation with an unworkable and ever changing rules, criminal and strict liability provisions plus huge fees for permissions. ASA huge expense and riddled with union controlled procedures which are dangerously behind the times.

Plenty of instances where good luck has narrowly averted tragic outcomes, Qantas and Virgin landing in fog at Mildura with little more than fumes in the tanks. Qantas Boeing south of Canberra below lowest safe altitude. Plenty more search the PAIN website.

Then the one directly involved spending umpteen millions in the search: ATSB, well used to covering and putting spin on issues that might point to the fallibility of CASA or ASA, must be greatly embarrassed by this revelation of material evidence in the MH 370 search which puts a big question mark over where the search has been conducted.

Dear Hoody might I suggest that now be a good time to pull, the obviously Dolan initiated, 'correcting the record' bollocks webpage and that you harden the duck up, steer clear of the running MSM commentary on investigations like MH370, the Mildura or ATR top-cover duck-ups. Simply put the ATSB is meant to be a fully independent (which includes government & other agencies), no fear nor favour Annex 13 principled AAI - but from where I'm standing that is simply a lie and deceitful deception of the public purse.

In the past words (not sure if he is still there?) of a Jetstar Perth based Senior Base pilot - "Toughen up Princesses!"


MTF..P2