Aviation Update

"Adios, amigo". That was uttered by a child 'working' the tower at Kennedy International airport last month courtesy of 'take your child to work day'. Obviously the kid was told what to say and had his dad over the shoulder and the pilots were sort of enjoying it. And c'mon, surely there's precedent. But it's one thing to do it at west podunk tower; quite another at JFK.

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Still no release of CVR or FDR info from Ethiopian 409. Only a pre-preliminary finding of pilot error that made some overseas news. The Ethiopians are not buying it yet, to wit:

Wake also disputed news reports about the last words of the pilot. Accounts widely circulated on the internet say the pilot could be heard on the cockpit voice recorder saying 'We're finished. God have mercy on us'.

The airline chief said investigators had declined to tell him what the recorder had revealed about the final moments of the ill-fated flight. But he said they assured him the quote had been fabricated.

They were probably referring to this. Some have also raised concern that 90 percent of the wreckage remains underwater. Most of TWA800 was pulled back up and reconstructed yet the NTSB still couldn't come to a definitive probable cause.

But they clearly have a dog in the fight. Aside from the more nefarious connotations based on that part of the world there's obviously some big money (lawsuits) riding on the outcome, as with all crashes. For instance, Boeing was served with papers yesterday. Not sure how the manufacturer could be responsible when the Lebanese have blamed weather then pilot error but the lawyers will now have rights to discovery on such things, one would think.