At the edges of early sea charts, navigators occasionally discovered an ominous warning that "There be Dragons Here." These metaphorical Dragons are just what AF447 encountered in the dark of night last June. Many A/C follow similar courses along the edge of the coffin corner today, so it's critical that this tragic upset be fully understood.
Interest: 2,220,647 views and 4,587 posts -- that was the original AF447 thread archived at the turn of the year. In this newer thread, 132,561 views and already 662 posts.
Sadly, the last post on this thread was "Any news?"
It would seem that the agencies in control and the primary stakeholders -- those paying for the search vessels and the analysis of data -- are uninterested in a pro-active and open information exchange. Bad
PR, in the age of T w i t t e r and Blogs. Bad
PR, with implications of secrecy and orchestration. Bad
PR, when the interest is so high and answers so important.
I'm not sure what activities make level-headed and smart PPRuNers angry, but I should think docile waiting for rare bowls of carefully conditioned information and being shut out of the ongoing big picture would be one of them. These agencies can't say "None of your business" because it is, indeed, your business! None of us wants to fly where there be Dragons.
Note about edit: When this was originally posted, PPRuNe software automatically converted the word "T-w-i-t-t-e-r" to the word "PPRuNe" and the sentence did not read properly... Mods, feel free to correct if the Twi---- word is a proscribed word...