If the NTSB were corrupt—as someone who has made a living exclusively as a pilot for 20 years—I’d have been reading about it, and for years—not necessarily in the lay press, but in publications specific to the industry.  Unless you make your living doing this, you probably don’t realize the emphasis placed upon picking apart the factors involved in aircraft accidents—especially the big ones—wherever they happen.  And, most are due to some form of pilot error, hence our interest, as aviators, in what exactly was going on with the flight crew.

The bush administration is obviously ignorant, arrogant and deserving of eternal derision, to put it mildly.  gw bush and cheney must be impeached and prosecuted, but that doesn’t make the NTSB corrupt. Blanket statements about mass corruption only serve to diminish the opposition’s standing.  If a mere journalist (and they are of little concern to this administration, as evidenced by its reckless conduct), virtually unknown to the general public in the U.S.—the public that’s not paying close attention to U.S. foreign policy—were perceived as such a threat to the administration, it would simply “take care” of this journalist quickly, quietly and with as little mess as possible (unlike their pursuit of saddam hussein, but he wasn’t some pesky journalist). Despite the generalized stupidity of this administration, I don’t think they’re so stupid as to risk exposure by committing a high-profile act of instantaneous mass murder that (unlike the various atrocities committed during the occupation of Iraq), will be picked apart by an international commission of aviation safety experts.  As we all know, major air crashes are considered more newsworthy than the usual daily Virginia Tech-scale loss of life in Baghdad, alone (and that’s a gross underestimate, of course).  So why not a simple traffic accident or murder-robbery for a troublesome journalist?  Even Noam Chomsky completely dismisses the US government conspiracy theories on the 9/11 attacks for similar reasons.  Such things cannot be guaranteed to be kept secret.  These are the things that really can get an illegitimate presidency in boiling hot water, at the very least—and I believe they know this, again, despite their disregard for decency.

I don’t think it would be strictly beyond the power of the administration to stop/disrupt the NTSB from participating in an investigation under ICAO rules (I have no knowledge of the ICAO rules that we agreed to, however), but that would be highly suspicious and the truth would be discovered without the help of US NTSB investigators, nonetheless.  We don’t have a monopoly on aviation accident investigation experts.  Besides, Boeing, regardless of the cause, is bound to be sued, and it would be in their interest to have an accurate determination of cause.  What better exculpatory evidence than an act of sabotage?  But by whom? That’s for another type of investigation.  Again, however, I don’t see it as likely and it would be reletively easy for accident investigators to find evidence of a level of sabotage capable of causing the severity of structural damage neccessary to make a modern airliner whack terra firma just after takeoff.  And loss of power in one of two engines is not enough to make it stop climbing (thunderstorms and windshear, etc. notwithstanding), let alone cause it to descend, in the case of a transport category airplane, as all civilian jets are. 

It’s already becoming apparent that the pilot-in-command of this airliner, confronted with a nearby thunderstorm, unlike the PICs of several others waiting for it to dissipate or move away, decided to risk taking off in the face of this big atmospheric conflagaration.  It is a fact that thunderstorms pack nuclear-bomb-scale levels of energy and that dueling with them is asking for trouble, regardless of the aircraft’s size or power-to-weight ratio. 

I don’t think there’s any more I can contribute here.

NTSB-
everything that is associated with this administration is corrupt - that’s a given.

re comment #69108 by DFC.  If empire’s covert dimension were involved in taking down a Kenyan airways flight, a big “if” since we do not know one way or the other, but if it were involved, do you really think that it would be beyond the powers of the Bush regime—a regime that has worked tirelessly to control and corrupt all federal agencies—to prevent the NTSB from intervening?  If the Kenyans and Ethiopians are doing our dirty work by invading Somalia, do you think in such a case they would seek the assistance of the NTSB?

re comment #68911 by DFC (professional aviator).  Odd, I don’t seem to recall when it was that the NTSB acquired jurisdiction over a foreign aircraft flying in Kenyan airspace.  Perhaps you can fill us in.

Ahh, we’re all conspiracy theorists and crazy loons to think our wonderful freedom fighters would stoop to kill a truth-seeker. Secret torture prisons, under a good christian? All those exposes of torture are all lies, this administration is a believer in the bible and Cherishes truth and honsty. With a grandfatherly man as Cheney how could anyone believe this fairy tale of deceit and corruption? I do.

Under the neocon Bush regime, anywhere there is oil there is the iron fist of U.S. imperial oppression, this time carried out by Kenyan lackies with the aid of Ethiopian torturers.  What the plight of Amir Mohamed Meshal reveals is that even U.S. citizenship will not serve to protect you—not when our government acts behind the scenes through extraordinary rendition, placing you in the hands of foreign torturers, only to claim it doesn’t know where you are.  Of course, anyone whose middle name is Mohamed should not expect much help from the U.S. State Department.

I recall well Amy Goodman’s recent interview of Anthony Mitchell.  While the phone line did not have the best connection, the content of Mr. Mitchell’s reporting was superb—and revealing.  It’s content makes me wonder, as does QuyTran, what the source of this crash was—especially given a history of high level assassinations, often carried out by empire’s covert dimension through the use of bombs planted on planes.  See, e.g., John Perkins, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.”

Dear Anthony Mitchell, rest in peace please.

A big question mark (?) regarding this crash !