Sarcs – "or you've already got the script in your back pocket.
Oh, how I wish; anyway, all your fault, you know full well I cannot resist a puzzle. As usual, your 'dots' just add to the growing picture which the international audience seem to have glimpsed of the once feted, now denigrated Australian safety 'watchdogs'. Humiliated and publicly exposed for just one of the many not quite accurate accident reports; castigated by their Canadian peers, condemned by government sponsored report and still denying all responsibility for their behaviour. ATSB should be an international pariah just for failing to publish a report on the Pel-Air life vest issues, let alone the rest of it. Important safety equipment failed when it was most needed, the last line of defence for those alone, in darkness in a hostile sea, far from help. The powers that be may not think that an important function of an AAI or a NAA, but you can bet the rest of the world does. It is completely beyond all sensible reason. (Rant over – feel better now)...
..Where was I:
One thing is certain, the Indonesian AAI want the tapes and will retrieve them. The politely invited, expert and properly equipped Russian crew (thank you Vlad) will recover them; won't be talking about it either. But then neither will the sent home, surplus to requirement Australian crews. Perhaps GT would like to speculate on why for the first time, in a very long time an ATSB team has nor been invited to the party; now that would make a fine story for an intrepid aviation commentator. Although it will probably take a political analyst to tease out the real reasons, I just wonder if Australia is not a little on the international nose. We know CASA, the department and ATSB show open contempt for the findings of the Senate committee, Forsyth and the TSBC, but they seem to have forgotten that those findings and recommendation have all been made 'public'. It's reasonable to assume that other NAA bodies in the region have read those results and have decided to avoid being tainted, by association with the mess. The ATSB have demonstrated, very publicly that they are not a 'sound' organisation and given the political sensitivity of the current accidents in the region, no one is willing to risk the slightest whiff of anything not strictly legitimate. I expect Australia is a practical choice to analyse the tapes; but will they be asked to do it, without strict supervision?
I agree that the NTSC could simply ask to use the facility but will bring their own trained specialists to take care of business. It would be a fine thing to have Stray (or the like) called in to oversight Pel-Air Mk II. It remains however a crying shame that there is a need to re-open an investigation. It's bad enough that Dolan and McComic created the unsightly aberration, worse that they attempted to deny ownership of it; but to allow Dolan control of the investigation for a second time beggars belief. The absence of an Indonesian invitation says it all really.
Yes Minister, the red face in the mirror is, most certainly your own...
Toot toot.