Originally Posted by
sox6
The press, well the Sun at least, are now making something of
EAD 2006–0258 /ASB 05.00.54 issued in a few months ago following some speculation that is down to David Learmouth I believe
Does it matter?
All that the public will be interested in is that vital maintenance was apparently not carried out. Once in print it's too late; it doesn't concern them that it isn't relevant to that model of dauphin, or if it is whether it was carried out or not. I could speculate on the cause of the crash, and I would be surprised if I was not at least as informed as the person talking to the tabloid press, but speculation is all that it would be and as such would not help the industry or the publics' understanding. I know that the media needs to find experts to add weight to their reporting, but any aviation professional would leave it to the true professionals (the AAIB) to come up with facts. This type of reporting will only hurt those that are close to the accident who are, no doubt, agonising over whether there was anything that they did that may have contributed.
A few years ago an accident occured on the 'West Navion' where one of the helicopter pilots was badly injured. The official report apportioned no blame to the crewmembers, but industry 'experts' (who I believe had no experience of North Sea helicopter operations) accused them of not following best practice. The only reason that I mention this is that I have a feeling that there may be a connection here.