[Peetwo]

MH370: Senate wet lettuce inquisition update.    


Via 'that man' in the Oz:

Bureau faces heat on MH370

EAN HIGGINS

Australia’s air safety bureau has failed to explain an ­apparent double standard surrounding questions over the MH370 disaster.

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MH370 questions unanswered

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has failed to explain an ­apparent double standard in which its officers divulge material supporting their theory of what happened to Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 but say information that runs against their hypothesis is restricted and cannot be ­released.

Pressure is mounting on the ATSB ahead of a Senate estimates hearing tomorrow where Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick intends to canvass claims the ­bureau allegedly ignored evidence about MH370 that should have changed its strategy for its failed $200 million search for the plane.

MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, on a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, and primary radar and automatic satellite tracking data showed it ended up in the southern Indian Ocean. At Malaysia’s request Australia led the first subsea hunt for the Boeing 777, and the ATSB defined a target zone based on a theory that the pilots were incapacitated and the aircraft flew on autopilot until running out of fuel and crashing down rapidly in a steep dive.

Senior airline pilots have long disputed that conclusion, saying the evidence points to captain ­Zaharie Ahmad Shah hijacking his own aircraft, flying it to the end and ditching it.

Last week, The Australian published extracts from a new book by veteran Canadian air crash investigator Larry Vance that claims a wing flap and flaperon from the aircraft found washed up off Africa in 2015 clearly show the aircraft was ditched by a pilot.

Mr Vance says ATSB investigators should have recognised their theory was wrong, but the bureau carried on with its original strategy.

Officers of the ATSB have had no hesitation in releasing information they claim supports their “ghost flight” and “death dive” theory.

In September 2016, when international experts were still examining the flap, the ATSB’s leader of the search, Peter Foley, said Australian analysis suggested it had not been deployed when it hit the water but was retracted inside the wing. A pilot attempting a soft landing would have extended the flaps.

“If it’s not in a deployed state, it ­validates, if you like, where we’ve been looking,” Mr Foley told Australian Associated Press.

But when The Australian recently requested any factual ­material that might have come over the past two years that indicated MH370 had been ditched, the ­bureau said that “to the extent documents exist they are likely to be classified as restricted information under section 3 of the Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003 and exempt from ­release”.

Subsequently it said “the documents sought do not exist in the records of this agency.”

Among other Freedom of Information requests ­refused by the ATSB was one seeking the opinions of a panel of international ­experts of satellite data the bureau claims supports its “death dive” theory. The original request was refused because their release could “cause damage to the international relations of the commonwealth”.

ATSB media spokesman Paul Sadler did not respond to emails.

 - I guess I'll have to tune in tomorrow to see what variety of wet lettuce is being presented by Senator Rex to HVH and his motley minions...  

For those remotely interested the ATSB is listed for an hour of wet lettuce slapping from 15:30-16:30 tomorrow and can be viewed via this link: https://www.aph.gov.au/News_and_Events/W...tent-panel

Please keep in mind that the Estimates timetable is nearly always running late, especially if the Chair Barry O'Obfuscation is running interference -   


MTF...P2