Ever since the disappearance of the EgyptAir Airbus A320 en route to Cairo from Paris last Thursday, which we now know crashed into the Mediterranean, the media has been rolling out expert after expert, each with his own theory, and more often than not they are contradictory.
What’s the point of all these mental gymnastics when in reality, until the fuselage and the black boxes are recovered, nobody can possibly know what stole the lives of 66 people with any certainty.
I’ve heard former pilots on CNN come up with opposing views as to the doomed plane’s “sudden swerves” prior to its dropping off the radar. One says this is usual procedure to restart stalled engines; another counters that the Airbus isn’t programmed to allow pilots to force it in such extreme directions.
A third maintains there is a pilot override cap-ability. Another insists the plane was clearly out of control. Yet another theorises that the plane had already broken up and what appeared on the radar were various parts being carried in different directions. Take your pick.
Besides being non-productive and confusing, televised speculative theorising even before the barest of facts are known and victims haven’t been returned to their loved ones for burial, can be downright offensive, with fingers pointed at governments, airports, airlines, aircraft manufacturers and, worse, pilots unable to defend themselves.
Unsubstantiated slur
CNN, which has arguably devoted the most coverage to this tragedy, is hardly flavour of the month within Egypt over the suggestion by some of its guests that one of the pilots may have taken the plane down deliberately.
Social media is awash with outrage and many of the victims’ families are upset at such an unsubstantiated slur.
Egypt’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sameh Shoukry is not amused by what amounts to slander either; his spokesman tweeted: “It is disrespectful that CNN insinuates pilot suicide in EgyptAir MS804 tragedy while families are mourning.”
Just as disrespectful was the ‘expert’ who expressed a wish that the plane had crashed within Greece’s territorial waters so that Athens could take a leading role in the investigation because he believed the Greeks were more transparent than Egyptians. He was comforted in the knowledge that the US was on it.
Naturally, the US is front and centre even though the incident involved an Egyptian airline, a French airport and a French-made airliner. Most of the passengers were Egyptian and French. There was not a single American on board. Even so, US Democratic presumptive nominee for the presidency, Hillary Clinton, has arrogantly announced that EgyptAir “reinforces the need for American leadership.” I must admit, that logic escapes me. Hasn’t the Mena region suffered enough from American leadership?
Cobbling together panels of diverse aviation pundits may make for fascinating television, but let’s face it, many thousands of hours of speculation, reports of pings and satellite communications failed to solve the mystery of Malaysian Airline, which disappeared without trace on March 8, 2014.
Oftentimes finding out why an airliner crashes can be more art than science and in some instances files have been closed with the cause undetermined.
There are numerous accidents in files marked ‘no probable cause’ since the 1960s, including one of aviation’s greatest disasters, TWA Flight 800 with 230 on board that exploded 12 minutes after departure from John F. Kennedy International Airport in July 1996.
Even when investigators are in possession of most of the pieces, the resulting jigsaw is sometimes blurred or their somewhat shaky conclusions remain open to challenge.
In this case, once all the guesswork is discarded, all that remains is the indisputable fact that MS804 disappeared from radar and made a rapid descent into the sea.
Electronic messages relayed from the plane to the airline’s engineering base in Cairo indicate there was smoke in the avionics bay and the toilets seven minutes prior to communications being lost.
What could have happened? Hijacking? Bomb on board? Technical faults? There’s no shortage of possible scenarios, but this is one guessing game I’m not playing. Let those who’ve lost parents, siblings, husbands, wives and children grieve in peace.
Give recovery teams and investigators time to do their jobs and then with any luck we’ll get informed comment rather than entertainment masquerading as news.
Linda S. Heard is an award-winning British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.
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Enough mind games over EgyptAir flight
Posted on May 26, 2016 by Linda S. Heard
Ever since the disappearance of the EgyptAir Airbus A320 en route to Cairo from Paris last Thursday, which we now know crashed into the Mediterranean, the media has been rolling out expert after expert, each with his own theory, and more often than not they are contradictory.
What’s the point of all these mental gymnastics when in reality, until the fuselage and the black boxes are recovered, nobody can possibly know what stole the lives of 66 people with any certainty.
I’ve heard former pilots on CNN come up with opposing views as to the doomed plane’s “sudden swerves” prior to its dropping off the radar. One says this is usual procedure to restart stalled engines; another counters that the Airbus isn’t programmed to allow pilots to force it in such extreme directions.
A third maintains there is a pilot override cap-ability. Another insists the plane was clearly out of control. Yet another theorises that the plane had already broken up and what appeared on the radar were various parts being carried in different directions. Take your pick.
Besides being non-productive and confusing, televised speculative theorising even before the barest of facts are known and victims haven’t been returned to their loved ones for burial, can be downright offensive, with fingers pointed at governments, airports, airlines, aircraft manufacturers and, worse, pilots unable to defend themselves.
Unsubstantiated slur
CNN, which has arguably devoted the most coverage to this tragedy, is hardly flavour of the month within Egypt over the suggestion by some of its guests that one of the pilots may have taken the plane down deliberately.
Social media is awash with outrage and many of the victims’ families are upset at such an unsubstantiated slur.
Egypt’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sameh Shoukry is not amused by what amounts to slander either; his spokesman tweeted: “It is disrespectful that CNN insinuates pilot suicide in EgyptAir MS804 tragedy while families are mourning.”
Just as disrespectful was the ‘expert’ who expressed a wish that the plane had crashed within Greece’s territorial waters so that Athens could take a leading role in the investigation because he believed the Greeks were more transparent than Egyptians. He was comforted in the knowledge that the US was on it.
Naturally, the US is front and centre even though the incident involved an Egyptian airline, a French airport and a French-made airliner. Most of the passengers were Egyptian and French. There was not a single American on board. Even so, US Democratic presumptive nominee for the presidency, Hillary Clinton, has arrogantly announced that EgyptAir “reinforces the need for American leadership.” I must admit, that logic escapes me. Hasn’t the Mena region suffered enough from American leadership?
Cobbling together panels of diverse aviation pundits may make for fascinating television, but let’s face it, many thousands of hours of speculation, reports of pings and satellite communications failed to solve the mystery of Malaysian Airline, which disappeared without trace on March 8, 2014.
Oftentimes finding out why an airliner crashes can be more art than science and in some instances files have been closed with the cause undetermined.
There are numerous accidents in files marked ‘no probable cause’ since the 1960s, including one of aviation’s greatest disasters, TWA Flight 800 with 230 on board that exploded 12 minutes after departure from John F. Kennedy International Airport in July 1996.
Even when investigators are in possession of most of the pieces, the resulting jigsaw is sometimes blurred or their somewhat shaky conclusions remain open to challenge.
In this case, once all the guesswork is discarded, all that remains is the indisputable fact that MS804 disappeared from radar and made a rapid descent into the sea.
Electronic messages relayed from the plane to the airline’s engineering base in Cairo indicate there was smoke in the avionics bay and the toilets seven minutes prior to communications being lost.
What could have happened? Hijacking? Bomb on board? Technical faults? There’s no shortage of possible scenarios, but this is one guessing game I’m not playing. Let those who’ve lost parents, siblings, husbands, wives and children grieve in peace.
Give recovery teams and investigators time to do their jobs and then with any luck we’ll get informed comment rather than entertainment masquerading as news.
Linda S. Heard is an award-winning British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.