Comments by the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority on the Accident Investigation of Ethiopian Flight 409, Boeing 737-800, ET-ANB, January 25, 2010
Executive Summary.
Introduction.
1) The Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority finds that the draft final report is biased, lacking evidences and incomplete, and that it does not present a full account of ET-409 accident.
2) The Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority observed with serious regrets that before the formal investigation process started too many speculative statements were publicly released by officials of the Lebanese Government, including the very Ministry of Public Works and Transport, which established the investigation committee on the probable cause of the accident. It was noted that the Lebanese Minister of Transport publicly speculated on 26 January 2010 (one day after the accident) “that the pilot’s failure to follow instructions from the control tower caused the crash”. He also ruled out sabotage. Likewise regrettably, the investigation process was guided and was monitored to prove and justify the speculations made by the officials.
3) Secondly, information released by Wikileaks, available on internet, revealed a message from the US Ambassador in Lebanon on 17 February 2010 (23 days after the accident) stating: “Although the result of the investigation is not yet public, it will likely place blame for the crash on the actions of the aircraft’s two pilots.” The source of the information was given as “the NTSB representative leading the investigation” (the full transcript of the Wikileaks cable is attached).
4) The Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority believes that the deficiencies of the investigation process, the preliminary draft report and the draft final report are only the result of such speculative opinions and biases, which deprived the investigation process independence and strict compliance with Annex 13 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation.
The Gobbledock sent the above
Exec summary through Friday night, seems he was at some lavish do on the Montréal diplomatic circuit and got chatting to the Ethiopian aviation attaché. GD thought he seemed like a reasonable sort of cove and the conversation drifted (as it does) to matters aeronautical. A shortened version the Norfolk yarn was told over canapés and cocktails, GD expected some Oooh's and Ahh's during the tale – but the reaction was more of a polite stifled yawn. "Oh, We had a report like that in 2010" said the Ethiopian, "it must have been a vintage year for shonky doings".
The rest of the report is out there in cyber space if you wish to draw the parallels; or, enjoy a large dose of irony to start the week. Me, I'm just wondering if the pre prepared CASA response to the Senate report will be provided on the same day or, like answers to QON, take a while.....
Maybe the real game will be played during questions without notice. Who knows.