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Old 18th Aug 2018, 14:21
  #182 (permalink)  
PukinDog
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: USA
Posts: 255
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Originally Posted by Concours77
Heads up only, I won’t post the details here.. There is what seems to be a theory elsewhere that is erm, remarkable. It seems to me that this official story might bear some fruit if NTSB published a more complete report. Forewarned is forearmed. This occurrence is (thankfully) a very rare one, but wouidn’t more data arm the professionals on the ramp with better tools to foreclose repetition? Nothing more to be gained? Who decided that? Shouldn't Aviation professionals make that call?


The FBI will obviously be the lead Agency as the incident was a purposeful act involving a string of Federal crimes being committed. The NTSB investigators will of course be at the FBI's disposal to investigate aviation-related matters and aviation tech issues to whatever extent is necessary for the over-riding and ongoing criminal investigation. As law enforcement, the FBI has investigative powers that Agencies like the NTSB don't have when it comes to interviewing people who might be associated with the perpetrator, establishing who was what and where when it was it was happening, and can dig into backgrounds and records to try and establish or eliminate motive far more deeply than the NTSB can. When the investigation is underway and it becomes established what happened that day undoubtedly as lapses in security are found recommendations and input will be asked-for from those familiar with logistics of how it could be handled.

The lack of an NTSB final report itself is meaningless. Even within their domain NTSB only makes recommendations that are not legally mandated, nor are they set up for criminal investigations or to produce findings with respect to criminal acts. The aircraft accident investigation is still there, but just a small part of a much larger and encompassing criminal one being conducted by the FBI who aren't going to only want to know "what happened" and ways to prevent it from happening again, but why he did it as well.

"Why he did it" questions also directly pertain to preventing a future occurrence, and to this end many be questions will be asked and much records-digging conducted re his finances, marital problems/extramarital affairs, substance abuse, history of mental health going back as far as they can, career underachievement/job satisfaction, family relationships, what was going on with his college, others sources of stress, his video game obsession, his approaching 30th birthday, etc etc etc. Anything relating to whatever he said over the radio will certainly be looked-at, especially his side comments about his employment/employer as it shouldn't be forgotten that the greatest damage he did was to his own company, and he commented about wages, "higher-ups taking notice" of what he was doing, and a perceived lack of opportunity for advancement. He may have tried to sound like he was joking, but something made him think of them.

Plus, his wife and family won't be able to just issue a public statement like they have and then clam-up when it's FBI investigators doing the asking in the course of their investigation. The FBI can compel answers if they aren't forthcoming during interviews. As one who would normally know him best in a healthy relationship, his wife will naturally be the focus of much questioning, and undoubtedly it was noticed that in the course of his conversations with ATC mentioning "those who love me" he failed to specifically mention her.

As a general rule it's not a great idea for the NTSB to publicly publish all the ways security was/could be breached and an aircraft successfully stolen from the middle of a busy airport like SeaTac. Inside job or not, air carrier-related common strategy and security measures aren't normally for public consumption. The accident wasn't a result of mechanical issues, weather, or a breakdown of CRM in the cockpit, it was the result of someone purposely committing numerous crimes. Any aircraft accident where they know (like this one) or it's revealed during an NTSB/FAA investigation that a crime may have contributed, it becomes the FBI's domain.

Last edited by PukinDog; 18th Aug 2018 at 15:17.
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