Originally Posted by
CurtainTwitcher
Quote:
Originally Posted by Underfire
Pretty damning article…
Editorial: Air Canada, FAA hindered probe of SFO near-miss
This article raises several questions:
- Is The Mercury News an authoritative source on air accident and investigation & safety?
- Do they have additional information that is generally not known the public?
The article makes no specific claim about additional sources that I could see, so I am going to assume that they have about as much information as PPRuNe has found.
Claim 1 AC and the FAA dragged their feet? Evidence, source? No it was based on the fact that the CVR was erased. Inferred in this statement is that this was a deliberate act. No mention that this is the default mode of operation for this device.
Active steps must be taken to avoid erasure.
etc
Disclosure: not a pilot, nor a reporter or a media sympathizer, just a dude from downunder.
Can't see that The Mercury News ever claimed to be an authority on air accidents or near misses. However, the news outlet in question has had an investigative reporter on the case since the story broke. This is at least the second editorial they’ve written as followup to his several stories about the incident. And in a previous editorial, on 17 July, commenting on the reporter's story that day after the NTSB published it’s initial findings, yes, they were calling then for someone’s head. But can we blame them for wanting answers, after all it’s become a big story in their backyard?
Regarding the unavailability of CVR evidence, you are wrong (in your
Claim 1 paragraph) to accuse the editors of implying deliberate destruction of evidence, because the original online story of the text you quoted had a clickable link to the reporter’s article describing how CVR’s work.
Incidentally, what that same reporter did unearth was an account by a passenger on AC 759, the first that I have seen since this whole sorry saga broke. Unfortunately for AC and the regulators - 3 of whom he wrote - he happens to be California’s top insurance public official. See a facsimile of his letter to Air Canada at the bottom of the story on this page:
SFO near-miss: Air Canada flew over plane before aborting
And my favorite quote from his description? “…the pilot made a nonchalant announcement that he had to go around due to traffic at the airport.”