Air France 447- Coming Soon, Just the Facts, and Nothing But the Facts

Tomorrow we’ll post the BEA’s statement regarding the latest in the Air France 447 crash saga. After the crash, the $50 million search operation to recover the black boxes that took two years, after a successful data recovery, a misfired unjustified conclusion of pilot error, finally, on Friday, the BEA promises more news.

The data analysis will probably be as grueling as one could imagine, considering all of the data that has been recovered. The new data that has been recovered does not overwrite the messages received by Air Traffic control, but it will have to be logically coordinated so that the chain of events can accurately be determined, whatever lead up to the crash that ended up killing all 228 people on board. We cannot expect the analysis too soon.

There are many hypotheses floating out there in the blogosphere, and myths and conjecture; but we have to give the investigators and engineers time to study the data and write the most accurate report that can, which they promise to produce by the summer. It is an ambitious promise, but one that the world expects the investigators to fulfill in a timely fashion. It is by virtue of the BEA’s history as one of the better governmental aviation institutions. They do have a history of publishing their reports, in accordance to international guidelines, following not just Montreal protocol, but also IATA and EASA.

There are other crash investigations going on in which the agencies do not have as strong a history as the BEA. (Just consider the Concorde Disaster–it took ten years to resolve the criminal case but Continental had to pay more than 1.3 million in civil damages and a $265000 fine. Under French law, damages to 750 dependents were resolved in 11 months and the interim report completed after 12 months.)

The DGCA is responsible for implementing, controlling, and supervising airworthiness standards, safety operations, crew training in India. Indian aviation has been plagued by safety issues, personnel issues, and they have not yet established for themselves a reputable track record regarding the timeliness of their accident reports (at least, not if you ask the families of Air India Express flight 812. )

Likewise, in Pakistan, the families of Air Blue Flight 202 are waiting for word and assistance from the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority. Air Blue flight ED202 crashed in the Margalla Hills in Islamabad, killing all 146 passengers and six crewmembers on board on July 28, and the Pakistani High Court has been charged with the support of the victims’ family members, and a request of the federal government to constitute an independent board of inquiry for determining the causes of the crash, and to make the findings public.

But I digress. Concerning Air France Flight 447–we can’t expect miracles, and it is too soon to expect all the pieces of the puzzle to fit; but Friday we can expect to see a factual update. And that is another step toward discovering the truth, another step toward justice.