Lifeboy , Air France and the BEA have in fact been acused of being too close to each other in that the investigations conducted by the BEA have been "soft" on Air France, certainly to the outside observer it would appear so,in fact the whole Airbus/Air France/BEA set up has been questioned by non- French observers as showing bias and a lack of investigative zeal, indeed with the revelations in regards to the total incompetance displayed in their last few acidents how else can the fact that its "buisines as usual" at Air France? In the case of Joe, yes he can be abrasive, but speaking from experience the "goon squad" attidudes along with many inspectors simply not making the grade in the real world , thus finishing up in Transport, hardley promotes the sort of atmosphere needed to solve problems, Mind you, TC is by no means the only government department to suffer from such failings, the CRA for one needing a house cleaning, lets not even mention the " Upper Chamber!" The greater problem seems to be TCs love affair with SMS looks to be a flawed concept and a total failure in many cases, simply generating masive amounts of paper without any tangible improvments in safety, how are one and two plane operators suposed to handle this paper work burden without hiring more staff, thus being forced out of buisiness by the costs of additional payroll? What is needed is a complete and totally neutral look at the whole operatinn of TC and the industry to be done by experienced veterans of the industry, for it is obvious that the present system is simply not working.