Normally, I'll drift down the bar and get as far away as possible from anyone who starts a MH 370 discussion within my hearing. There I was, minding my own business when a couple of bright sparks kicked off a MH 370 'chat' – I started looking for a quiet corner to finish my ale and tuning the noise out until I realised they were talking about the incident in terms of 'social media' and, they seemed to know their onions. The conversation mentioned numbers of 'tweets', posts, comments, 're-tweets' etc. etc. related to the topic. Even if these boys were wrong, by double, the sheer volume of 'traffic' they were discussing was staggering.
Even our own modest Pprune stands behind nearly 19 and a half million 'reads' of the MH 370 matter, with some 11 thousand odd mostly intelligent, informed comment and that is a very humble total compared to the numbers being bandied about by the two chaps I could overhear.
A little later ambling home quietly mulling over those numbers, a small thought crept in. I wondered how many of those countless people interested in the topic thought that our very own Beaker was in the class of the ex military Houston; which lead me to consider the amount folk who quite innocently believe that the beyond reason, Beaker version of the Australian ATSB is 'sound' and may be relied on. The Senate certainly don't:-
(My bold) - Sandilands –
Plane Talking - "As a declared good listener, retired RAAF Air Vice-Marshal Skidmore needs to sit down with Senators Bill Heffernan, David Fawcett, Glenn Sterle, and Nick Xenophon
to learn how they came to distrust the testimony of his predecessor John McCormick and the chief commissioner of the ATSB, Martin Dolan, after reading as of course he would have already done, the Hansard of the proceedings and final report of the committee that inquired into the procedures that were followed
in the ATSB arriving at a seriously compromised final report into the accident.
It’s not about a ‘small’ plane crash. It’s about a large issue of honesty and transparency.
Then I wondered what those millions of folk would make of the little example (below) of who they are relying on. Watch as a concerned Senator is confounded, during an inquiry into the 'ditching' of an aircraft, in shallow water (50 m), close to land (<10 clicks), where the 'black boxes' were not recovered. Too expensive, dangerous and neither significant nor important was the 'official' line. The disingenuous part is where the 'new' version of the ICAO annexe was used to support the argument, rather than the version applicable at the time.
The Senator was correct. It leaves you wondering about what will be done in an inquiry mounted for a large, public interest case, like MH 370 – if it's ever found.
While I may wonder about and find 'sensible' explanation for why Houston was not coordinating and managing the effort, or why AMSA were taken off a marine search, I can find no logical explanation for Beaker being reinstated after the Pel Air debacle, let alone being entrusted with a job the world and it's wife are very interested in. Perhaps the Minister has the answer.
Nice to see Ben and Hitch retain their journalistic talent and integrity. Bravo both and thank you....
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Toot toot.