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Crash of the Air France 447 Flight Rio-Paris: 'The Pilots' Alleged Privacy Rights Fade Away When Confronted With the Right of the Public to Be Informed on Aviation Safety
By: Robert Diamond Nov. 22, 2018
PARIS, November 22, 2018 /PRNewswire/
In October 2011, Jean-Pierre OTELLI, a pilot and an expert on aviation safety, published Volume 5 of "Pilot Errors" (ALTIPRESSE publisher), in which he analyzed the Rio-Paris flight AF 447 crash (June 1st, 2009. Fatalities: 228.). From the black boxes data, he showed that the accident was caused by a sequence of pilot errors from one of the two First Officers.
(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/787079/ALTIPRESSE_Pilot_Errors.jpg )
The powerful National Union of Airline Pilots, Air France's main pilot union, initiated a first case for "defamation." After dismissal of this case, the Pilot Union then decided to initiate new proceedings for the alleged violation of the principle that court investigations are confidential, and for breach of professional secrecy. Following a lengthy investigation, the judge decided that there was no ground for prosecuting and dismissed the case. The Pilot Union appealed against this dismissal
On 23 October 2018, the Paris Court of Appeal confirmed the dismissal of the case. The Court considered that Jean-Pierre OTELLI "expressed himself in good faith on the basis of accurate facts," that "the collected information was consistent with the course of the accident" and that the infringement of the pilot's alleged right of privacy in the cockpit "must fade away in the face of the contribution to informing the public on a question of general interest such as aviation safety."
The lawyer of Jean-Pierre OTELLI and ALTIPRESSE Publisher, Matre Philippe BLANCHETIER, explains that: "The public has an absolute right to be informed of the facts that contributed to a crash which caused the death of 228 people. Pilot errors must be known and acknowledged by everyone to better avoid them, even and particularly when those responsible also died in the accident. What happens in a cockpit before an air disaster can no longer be the subject of an 'omerta'from airline pilots who, like all citizens, are accountable in a transparent way."
Conversations and flight data prior to the crash are explained in detail in Jean-Pierre OTELLI's book PILOT ERRORS (Volume 5) which is available in French, German, English, Finnish and Portuguese.
SOURCE ALTIPRESSE
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