I too find it a little difficult to understand
quite why BHX was closed for so long. The accident
occured at lunchtime and clearly it would take a
finite amount of time to get an AAIB team to the
site which would probably coincide with nightfall.
Once the site was secure and made safe the team
would require sufficient time to assess the scene
and complete investigations before allowing the
debris to be taken to Farnborough and the airport
authorities given opportunity to tidy up and
begin operations. All this being said - quite why
this should take 48 hours is questionable.
The comparison to an RTA is unrealistic bearing
in mind the possible ramifications should the
AAIB come up with airframe/engine defects that
would require grounding of aircraft around the
world pending investigation. Remember also that
the police in the UK now have high-tech accident
investigation kit which is routinely at the site
of serious road accidents which leads to the same
complaints from motorists who would prefer the
vehicles to be pushed to the side of the road and
traffic flow re-established as used to be the norm.
Whatever the rights and wrongs - a balance has to
be drawn between accident investigation and clear
commercial pressures. I do believe that BHX was
slow to be open but at the end of the day better
safe than sorry and let us hope that the whole
process is not repeated for a long time.