notapilot,
Yes it is sad, but it is always the same, blame the pilots, especially when they are not able to defend themselves.
I expect the talking heads who have to fill the void of when there is no information to "speculate" and it is always easiest to blame the pilots, unless the reason is totally obvious like the shoot down of MH17.
There is a good book about an accident at my old airline, "The mystery of flight 427: inside a crash investigation" by Bill Adair.
It is about the rudder handover problem that the B737 had and to what lengths Boeing went to put the blame on pilot error, after years of pilots from my old airline and ALPA (the Union), the truth about the rudder problem was proven.
All parties involved in this accident will now circle the wagons and try as hard as they can to put the blame on any other party to protect their interests, it will become very brutal.
As far a I can see, there is no group to protect the pilots, one of the problems in this part of the world of no unions. That is why I keep saying not to second guess the crew and add to the void.
If anyone knows who will be representing the pilots besides FZ/EK, please let me know.
Last edited by north flyer; 21st Mar 2016 at 18:59.