Ironically .. seem's all the scientifics and people linked to aviation safety discovered suddenly ocean storms and turbulences existence after the AF447 event ...
Sure it's some bussines and some bucks to make there.
I'm sure there is some of that going on. But most of that sort of thing would be people proposing new ideas they will happily research if they are provided with lots of money.
I think this is the other side of that coin.
The evidence is they have been slogging away at this for years and probably spending half their time trying to avoid getting their funding cut because implementation takes more than 3 months. They see people suddenly worried about thunder storms and flying things, and quickly send out a press release saying 'Hey! We're working on fixing that!" They can then use the press clippings when the question of funding again comes up in another 2 months. Now, whether they will ever come up with anything useful is another quesiton.