Simon attended the BEA press conference for the final report on AF447, for example. And he didn't make the trip to Berlin just to hear Günter Lubitz talk, but he was in town for a few days anyway - at least that's what he says (4th paragraph in the avherald article).
I can understand that the part about the possibly defective door keypad got his attention, and that he asked BEA for more information about it:
Originally Posted by avherald
6) Has the BEA received information about an occurrence on D-AIPX a few days prior to the crash, that a flight crew managed to lock themselves out of the cockpit while still on the ground and needed maintenance to get back into the cockpit?
7) Did the BEA investigate this occurrence, or did the BFU investigate this occurrence? Is it possible to receive that investigation report?
8) Is it correct, that this occurrence was caused by the failure of the digit x (Editorial note: actual key removed for publication) on the keypad?
9) Is the BEA in possession of the relevant tech log entries and is this occurrence included in this tech log? Was the keypad replaced, or was the defect deferred by maintenance?
And I find their response kind of disappointing:
Originally Posted by BEA
I am well aware that the recent press conference has renew the interest in this event but as far as the BEA is concerned, we have published the final report and have nothing else to add or to comment.
But then again, maybe he shouldn't have submitted a whole catalog of no less than 25 questions about all kinds of weird topics brought up at the press conference, including gems like "Is the BEA aware that there are 4 different versions of the CVR transcript?"
