Originally Posted by
Forfoxake
I agree. What was being discussed with another pilot at Farnborough in the video is pure speculation.
There is no argument that the flights were not solo- TCT has admitted as much (albeit belatedly).
The main argument now, imho, is whether the organisations that gave her awards for these flights were aware that they were not solo flights when they decided to make these awards.
Furthermore, now that they are aware of this, will they consider rescinding these awards as the LAA has done. As I said earlier, I think it would be much better now to concentrate this campaign on members of these organisations.
I appreciate that some will argue that the circumstances under which these organisations came to believe (if they did) that the flights were solo are relevant and will continue to investigate how much TCT and her team and sponsors contributed towards this. However, I urge them to stick to establishing the facts and avoid personal attacks and speculation.
I do agree with you on this but I also think there is a need to follow-up on the speculative trains of thought. These organisations that gave her awards won't change their views unless it can be clearly shown that the deception was intentional. Sneaking off to pick up Ewald would show this.
If he had not been at Farnborough and was collected later then that could easily be explained away by TCT et al - perhaps genuinely so. However, having him there and then flying him out "undercover" to meet up later shows this deceptive intent. All part of the smoke and mirrors we are getting used to.
Suffice to say that investigations as to what exactly happened on that day are underway
Sam Rutherford:
On the morning of the second day out of Cape Town (ie just before the third flight of the journey), when instead of leaving solo, Ewald jumped in the front. Nobody knew about it (neither I, the film crew or anyone else) until perhaps 20 minutes before... When it became obvious after a couple of days that this was the new 'normal', the sponsors were informed.
Hi Sam, did you tell the sponsors of this material change early on in the Capetown to Goodwood flight or were you told by someone else that they had been informed? Reason I ask is this does not fit in with Boeing still advertising the UK to Oz flight as solo in their Abu Dhabi Press Release in 2015. Surely they would have had it corrected by then.
SWB