Howard Professor Oliver McGee Discusses the Germanwings Plane Crash with Fox

1. May I just say that I totally agree with IATA CEO Tony Tyler’s declaration that “The circumstances of the investigation of the Germanwings accident have been highly unusual, and something that began as an accident investigation morphed into a highly public criminal investigation…” The French Air Force had received corroborated testimonies from witnesses who heard an explosion, saw smoke and a piece of fuselage “detached from the aircraft before impact,” and such eyewitness reports confirm occurrence of a midair explosion prior to the fatal descent and moment of impact. At the same time, French parliamentary probes report that 47% of European jihadists who have travelled to IS-held Iraq and Syria are French, 200 of these French jihadists have returned to France and, even if the probability could be remote, this intel may have connection to the recent Airbus A320 mysterious crashes or disappearances. Yet, with so many significant angles to pursue, the French prosecutor/investigators chose to promptly leak confidential, incomplete investigation results to media that served to circumstantially frame up Pilot Lubitz as an alleged criminal, day to day until now, almost as if waging propaganda to shape some public opinion. Does industry fact that the Airbus A320 family of jetliners (A318, A319, A320, A321) are manufactured by the aircraft manufacturing division of Airbus Group (nee European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co.) of Blagnac, Toulouse, France have any bearing on the creation of the sensationalized crime story? The French investigators’ pre-emptive disclosure is obviously a smokescreen – to cover up who, to cover up what? – and so I further agree with Mr. Tyler’s opinion that “The Germanwings air crash investigation shouldn’t set a precedent for future investigations because it sought to assign blame before the probe was complete, which could jeopardize airline cooperation if it became the practice.”

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