By now, most have heard of the successful data capture of the flight data and voice recorders on the Air France A330 that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009.  What has disappointed me most in this is the near instantaneous (for crash analysis) pronouncement that was leaked to the press stating that there was no obvious airframe fault. 

Disappointing because it is all too common that the press neglects to mention a few things.  First, both Airbus and Air France have manslaughter charges pending against them as a result of this crash.  France’s practice of doing this, in my opinion, severely clouds the issues that need to be settled and puts a highly charged political context to the investigation.  It’s notable that the French government has a huge stake in Airbus and still retains a take in Air France. 

If it is a fault with the aircraft, Airbus will potentially suffer marketplace setbacks and if Airbus experiences that on what is their most successful widebody, the nation of France will feel it too.  It’s a conflict of interest, plain and simple.   It’s easy to see who gets thrown under the bus in this:  the pilots.  If it is pilot error, Air Frances suffers but doesn’t suffer a lot and Airbus is vindicated.  If it is a maintenance problem, France’s flag airline suffers a lot and Airbus suffers a bit as well.  If it is Airbus’ fault with design, France’s shining monument to aerospace suffers a lot and Air France suffers a little bit, too.  Pilot error is the desired judgement in this.

While there have been attempts at politicizing air disasters in the United States, we also have so far maintained mechanisms to avoid that as much as possible.  As a result, there is a great deal of credibility on the part of the NTSB when a ruling is finally made. 

Not so in France who has already managed to spend 10+ years managing its image with respect to the Concorde by making Continental Airlines and a DC-10 the whipping boy in that disaster.  The not so distant crash of an A320 on a test flight in France also managed to taint the pilots as the source of most of the problem as well.   In fact, I would say that if you are a pilot in France and you’re flying for a French airline and/or a French built aircraft, your reputation is quite likely to suffer in the post crash analysis. 

The truth is that pilot error is very frequently a contributing factor in disasters.  People are human and pilots are people and human do make mistakes.  Particularly in a fast moving crisis.  Today’s pilots are almost always not where such things start, however.  Even when we discover pilot error, it almost always starts with poor airline procedures or training. 

I find the reporting that has already occured on this disaster (the Air France A330) in the French media highly suspect and a signal that we’re already finding a reason to not find blame in French industry.  No one should be making any pronouncements about any data within the first 48 hours of analysis.  I would wager that any NTSB investigator would blanche at such an idea. 

This is a huge dissservice to the airline industry and public safety.  Maybe it *is* pilot error and if it is, then we do a disservice by clouding it with acts that appear political.  If it is a fault in the airframe, we need to know about it and we need to most specifically avoid missing that conversation as a function of blaming a pilot.  If it is a fault with the airline and its procedures, the airline needs to fix those procedures and a public discussion on what happened will help other airlines fix their procedures as well. 

Allowing blame to creep into this so early and so loudly only negates the value of a crash analysis.

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