While a new expedition is expected to find the black boxes of the Air France Airbus A330 that crashed off the coasts of Btazil in june 2009, things are also moving on the field of establishing responsibilities.
Until then, it’s been the calm before a possible storm, a kind of Pax Romana or armed peace. “Nothing to say, no one is responsible”. Some insinuated it was a kind of tacit agreement between friend as Air France, Airbus and the BEA (the french NTSB) had CEOS from the same class at the same french elite School (Polytechnique, Class of 65 to be more precise), no one wanting (neither the people nor the national and supranational interests they represent) to see the case tarnishing too many people. (Pure suppositions, since it’s obvious that mutual “ass covering” between friends at such a level never happens in any major democratic country…does it ?).
Since the trial aiming at determining liabilities is approaching, it seems that people are beginning to talk, no one feeling like paying for the others. In brief, protagonists are getting ready for the fray.
Air France send to the committing magistrate a memo stating that the airline had done everything possible to fix the Pitot issue. What was understood by some people as calling Airbus and Thalès into question because they left Air France without any recommendation or sustainable solution to the problem. Air France and some other airlines say they reported a substantial number of incidents to Airbus.
At the time the problem was identified, Airbus is said having asked Goodrich to fix its probes but the same request was not made to Thalès, the manufacturer of the probes used on the Air France fleet.
Airbus retorts that a paying solution was proposed to Air France and that the airline, unlike Lufthansa, refused it.
Experts will submit their findings on the 31st of december and the risk of an indictment for involuntary homicide is becoming serious for the protagonists.
Everybody hopes that the truth will eventually be known, in respect to the victims, and that things will not end with a too-easy-to-find scapegoat.
Meanwhile, travelers may really wonder who they can trust when their safety is at stake.
Pingback: Airbus warns airlines about Pitot probes | Just Flying