Brave Transparency

Mr. Tsolakis came to Stravaraland today. He handed over his report on last year's Helios crash to a man called ThraSS as well as the land's supreme ruler, affectionately known as TeePee. I think the report was handed to Thrass and then to Teepee. Or maybe ThraSS handed it over to TeePee. Are you following this? Well, I'm not. Too many people handing over big fat envelopes with bits of tape stuck to them. But, hey, if you don't follow protocol you ain't worth shit.

Listed below are some of the findings, at random and - in keeping with governmnet policy - presented to you as if you are nothing more than idiots:

First and foremost the tragic crash is due to human error, as humans were flying the plane in question. The Civil Aviation Department was also to blame as they did nothing to prevent a flight crew from enganging in human error. Boeing is to blame for making 737s and have been duly told off and we can all rest assured that the aircraft manufacturer will do smething about it. Whatever that it may be.

The main culprit of everything going tragically wrong was, according to the report:

"Non-recognition that the cabin pressurisation mode selector was in the MAN (manual) position during the performance of the Preflight procedure, the Before Start checklist and the After Takeoff checklist. was left in the manual position".

This from the Times article :

According to David Learmount, the Operations and Safety Editor of Flight International magazine who has been briefed on the final report, the switch had been set to manual because ground engineers were testing the airliner's seals after a reported leak.

"It would have been ideal if they had set it back to its normal position, which is 'auto'. But they are not required to do that," he said.

Helios is now ajet and is not allowed to operate in dense fog. It can still fly and no one from the company has been charged with anything. We are led to believe that the local inquiry led by Mr. Kallis will see to that. In good time. Eventually. Maybe.

I am not suggesting that the minister under whose jurisdiction the whole affair may fall should take any responsibility. He's too busy patting himself on the back while placing his nose firmly between the buttocks of his boss by repeating that this inquiry proves that the president wants to ensure that justice is served.

Indeed, the children running the place ought to be congratulated for acting like grown-ups. 121 people are killed and they're brave enough to order an investigation. And they never lose an opportunity to pat themselves on the back.

And the minister assures us that none of his immediate relatives own shares in the company that owns the re-named airline. And the minister is going to tell the policeman about the threatening 'phone calls he has received. The minister is very upset about angry relatives standing in the way of his ministerial limousine as he's trying to make his way to Parliament and congratulate himself for being part of a government that ordered an inquiry.

There is no doubting that people want to see justice done. No doubt that people are taking the matter seriously. What is disturbing and distasteful is people getting self congratulatory and mentioning transparency no less than 3 times when making a public announcement.

Let's be fair and wait for Mr. Kallis to transparently get to the bottom of all this.

originally posted by Apodimos Kypreos