CL604 crash at Brum.

[sailor]

Is it not about time that a preliminary report, at least,as to the cause of this crash was published? If icing or weather rather than mechanical or engine problems were the prime suspect could this information not be put about publicly in order to exonerate the manufacturers and reassure owner/operators? Had the A/C been sitting outside in freezing moist conditions? Had it been deiced? The airport was closed for a long time; it is to be hoped that this allowed fair progress to be made in the search for the cause of this sad event.

[Jacksman]

BHX was closed for 2 whole days so that the yellow jacketed, sandle wearing, BHX ops jobsworth's could have their moment in the limelight.

[ppheli]

I don't know how much investigation was done onsite but the hulk only arrived at Farnborough on Sunday 20th.

[Hand Solo]

A rather harsh and unwarranted remark Jacksman, especially as those yellow jacketed people were from the highly respected AAIB. Perhaps you'd rather we all taxyed past the site sucking up all manner of FOD and body bits? I particularly like the idea of doing Cat 3 autolands with a burnt out hulk sitting in the localiser sensitive area. Stupidity like yours is barely worthy of a response. <img src="mad.gif" border="0">

[stuartbaker]

I can't find it on their website, but the "dead tree" version of Flight International reported that that the aircraft was not de-iced. I had also heard this from another reliable source.

Weather conditions were ripe for icing and the aircraft had been left out overnight.

As I mentioned in another post on the AA587 crash, the AAIB (and all investigation boards or ICAO member states) have to work within very strict guidelines. Unfortunately, becasue of the litigous nature of our society, they cannot publish half an investigation because somebody's lawyer will run away and misuse the information. The aircraft may, or may not have been brought down by icing (which is pretty tough to detect after a fire), but until the AAIB have all of the facts, they cannot and will not rule other possible causes.

The investigation process does allow them to release interim recommendations where they identify a potentially "unsafe" condition - even if that wasn't the cause of the accident. It also allows them to share information with the Type Certificate holder, and any other appropriate manufacturers in the supply chain; so they are not being left in the dark.

We'd all like to know what happened, but as Hand Solo says, the AAIB are very highly respected. They do a difficult (and sometimes very unpleasant) job and they are very consientious about their obligations, and will make public anything which needs to be made public as soon as they can. Unfortunatley anything from 12 to 24 months to complete a major investigation like this is not uncommon.