I am reading a lot of confusion and, because I am still reading, I thought it might be helpful to try to sort some of it out in the hopes that commentary might become more pertinent.
The accident took place in the Republic of Ireland. The investigating agency is thereby the Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU), part of the Department of Transport of the Republic of Ireland.
The operator of the flight is FlightlineBCN, a company with headquarters in Barcelona. Does anyone know with which regulatory authority the company's AOC is held?
FlightlineBCN is apparently contracted to an Isle of Man company, Manx2, to operate flights of which the accident flight was one. Aviation in the Isle of Man is regulated by the Isle of Man Civil Aviation Administration. The Isle of Man is not part of the EU, and is a sovereign entity with regard to civil aviation regulation. It has adopted European legislation as well as UK legislation into its civil aviation regulations.
I don't see anything remotely untoward about an Isle of Man company offering air services which are contracted out to an airline which is a separate entity. This happens all over the US with so-called "feeder services" for the majors.
(Exactly who has liability for what in this accident is something to be left to legal experts and likely a court, since apparently it is disputed.)
The bottom line is that an aircraft operating scheduled carriage has crashed at Cork and we don't know why, but most are convinced the weather conditions are almost certain to have something to do with it.
I find it somewhat disappointing that most of the messages have concerned people's likes and dislikes, beefs and bitches, hypthoses and suppositions about some of the organisations involved. Let us not lose sight of the fact that, at the time at which the accident happened or, alternatively, could have been avoided, there were two actors involved, namely two pilots, of whom we may presume the joint goal was safe completion of the flight (it usually is, except in two known instances in the last few decades, one of which is disputed). These actors obtained information about prevailing weather conditions from ATC at points in time close to the accident time.
No company directors, licensing agents, company boards, ticketing agents, regulators, wives, girlfriends or children were flying that airplane - just the crew. Perceived or internalised social influence from such third parties might have led the crew to make decisions different from those they would have made were this perceived or internalised influence to have been absent, but exactly how such influence works on a crew to affect what they decide at DH is a matter for considerable sociological and psychological theorising because, well, nobody actually has a clear idea of how it happens which commands universal assent (and that is not through want of trying from some of the best HF minds on the planet!).
The facts as we know them are sparse. The AAIU has apparently said to the press that there was nothing untoward with the aircraft up to LOC. They have said the right wing-tip struck the ground, followed by the aircraft rolling inverted. This is corroborated by an anecdote here reported to derive from a surviving passenger. I am still interested to know how the left prop became feathered before it struck something, and nobody has yet explained that to me satisfactorily.
Somebody knows where the airplane was with regard to runway centerline when the tip struck, because they have seen the marks. But nobody here does yet.
Crucially, nobody knows what the weather was like at DH or from DH to runway. And I doubt whether anybody ever will.
PBL
Last edited by PBL; 25th Feb 2011 at 09:39.