Scapegoat by Emilio Corsetti III

Author:Emilio Corsetti III
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Odyssey Publishing, LLC
Published: 2016-01-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

Turbulence

The final NTSB report received the media coverage that Landon Dowdey had hoped for with his press conference announcing the twenty-million-dollar lawsuit. “NTSB report blames six-mile dive on crew,” was one headline. “Jeliner’s Crew Blamed for Dangerous Dive,” was the title of another UPI story. In the article Hoot is quoted as saying, “Nobody’s ever talked to us since they took the initial deposition. We may as well have been killed because nobody’s acknowledging we’re alive.”1 The passengers on the flight obviously had a keen interest in the NTSB’s final conclusions. They had been following the investigation more closely than most. Many of them also wondered why they hadn’t been interviewed by anyone from the NTSB. So when the final report was out and the crew was officially implicated, more than a few passengers felt anger, not directed towards the crew who had saved their lives but aimed at the investigators.

One passenger, Jeannine Rakowsky, the first class passenger Hoot had visited in Minnesota, was so upset with the findings that she felt compelled to express her opinion to local reporter H. G. Bissinger, who had been covering the incident from the beginning. In a letter dated June 11, 1981, she wrote the following:

Dear Mr. Bissinger,

After reading your article in yesterday’s issue of your newspaper regarding the NTSB ruling placing blame on the flight crew which resulted in the dive of TWA Flight 841 on April 4, 1979, my husband and I felt I had to write this letter in response to this absurd, contradictory, and untrue ruling.

Why didn’t someone interview the first class passengers? After a phone call from Mr. C. Hayden Leroy shortly after the flight, we heard nothing from any investigator.

The Board made their ruling on the premise that Flight Engineer Gary Banks, after returning to the cockpit, punched a circuit breaker back in. I can recall every second of that flight. I can hear the cabin bell ding that called our flight steward to the cockpit. If Gary Banks told me that he did in fact return those dishes, I would tell him he was mistaken. We saw no member of the flight crew come out of the cockpit at any time during the flight.

We get the distinct impression that the NTSB wishes the plane had crashed. If that had happened, it would have been ruled pilot error and the monkey would have been off their backs. I refuse to feel guilty that we survived so a few so-called professional flight investigators would have an easier job.

The Board’s total lack of acceptance of sworn testimony from the crew is unjustifiable. What is ironic is their statement that if they had not ruled against the pilots it would have cast doubt on the airworthiness of the aircraft.

NTSB’s James Danaher was quoted saying Captain Gibson might be viewed as “something less than a hero.” To whom? Him? Captain Gibson (pilot) and Kennedy (copilot) are much more than heroes to us, and I totally disregard any inane remarks to the contrary.

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