Originally Posted by
TripleBravo
(mainly due to the mishandling of the Mulhouse case), I don't think anymore that there is any relevant or "protective" link.
There wasn't before. The BEA did nothing wrong during that investigation - but in order to pre-empt the criminal proceedings, Capt. Asseline's lawyers spread a lot of muck around via the press in the hope that some of the mud would appear to stick.
The irony of the situation was that the BEA's AF296 report itself lay most of the cause at the door of Air France (due to serious organisational failings), and had Asseline's lawyers not tried to muddy the waters by making it about Asseline vs. Airbus, then Asseline himself would have probably got away with not much more than a slap on the wrist.