Being Disparaging of the BEA is Unwarranted
Everyone has an opinion on this and every subject under the sun. How about we take a step back from the known fact that 228 souls have been lost and a broken aircraft lies in a deep and rather inaccessible location of the North Atlantic.
Also remind ourselves that the BEA is the ultimate authority responsible for determining why this happened and how to avoid such a mishap in the future. In this regard, it is assisted by the AAIB and the NTSB, which means that there is little point in saying that the Preliminary Report or the Final Report will be other than objective. Also remember that the BEA has to deal with the jurisdictions of Brazil, Senegal and France while it attempts to objectively gather evidence. To ignore the political implications of not being diplomatic could well jeopardise its access to vital information - whether this is provided by international treaty or not.
The Preliminary Report has provided us with a number of confusing facts, but also remind ourselves that without the ACARS messages, 10 minute automatic positions and ADS-CPDLC Log On failures with DAKAR ATS - all via SATCOM, where would the speculation obvious in this thread have gone.
AVIATE - meaning to operate the aircraft with due diligence and within the parameters dictated by the current environment.
NAVIGATE - meaning to have positional awareness with respect to other aircraft, terrain, way points, navigational aids and weather, while at all times using the aids provided.
COMMUNICATE - meaning to use the radio communications facilities provided on the aircraft to receive and acknowledge ATC instructions. To pass essential navigation details to ATC as and when requested, get METAR / TAF updates, and monitor the 121.5 / 123.45 guard frequencies at all times when traversing Oceanic FIR's.
It is worth noting that the smaller word comes first and the largest last. So while AVIATE is at the apex of the triangle and COMMUNICATE at the base, I contend that without a solid base the apex of the triangle will become more acute and room for error decreases accordingly. In this regard, I believe that events missing from the base will have a very direct bearing on the least controllable events at the apex.
By all means speculate, but the result always has a beginning.
mm43