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Old 3rd Aug 2007, 10:09
  #995 (permalink)  
PBL
 
Join Date: Sep 2000
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BTW,

If I may (and I realise this is off-topic), I would like to put in my two cents on the polity, because I think a few points are in danger of being missed.

First, it is obviously very important for Brazilians, especially those living and flying out of Congonhas, to be able to figure out if and how operations at Congonhas might have to change, and to figure this out as soon as possible. That is unavoidably a political decision, since it affects large numbers of people. From this point of view, there is an advantage to knowing what went on in this accident as soon as possible, even if the information is incomplete or not 100% accurate. Because at least that helps you decide whether you should focus on changing operations at airlines flying in there, whether you should raze a city block or two to build 600 m overrun and an EMAS, or whether you should just send all planes other than small ones to Guarulhos and erase a few more buildings to build an express railway to get all the passengers there quickly.

I disagree with those Brazilians who are embarrassed by political behavior in light of the accident. It seems to me that through processes which are usual in any democratic country your press and your politicians have succeeded in getting crucial, accurate information about the accident into the public domain within two weeks, in circumstances in which other administrative bodies would have wished to have kept it secret for a long while. Since the decision about what to do about Congonhas (if anything) is properly an urgent public decision, and not necessarily one to be left to an elite (professional or otherwise), one could argue (I will leave it to others to do so if they wish) that this agitation and release of information is ultimately to the public good.

I have also been impressed at the background information which inquisitive journalists have garnered. Whatever they ultimately say or write for whatever reason, many of them have done their homework, indeed rather better than some do around here!

PBL
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