Comments on: What kind of investigation can there possibly be?

By: MarloweChris

MarloweChris — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 15:30:00 +0000

I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic, but it’s easy to be confused so I’ll answer.

The aircraft in that article is a military aircraft because it is owned and operated by the US Army. It was however deliberately disguised with a civilian paint job and civilian registration.

One of the reasons it blends in so well is because that aircraft, the King Air, was sold to civilians for some 30-odd years before the Army decided it wanted some.

The aircraft involved in the incident here was operated by a civilian outfit, with a commercial air operator’s certificate, no different from say your normal airline. It was being flown under civilian laws and regulations. It’s customers just so happened to be government officials.

They charter an Air Malta flight to take them there. That doesn’t make the Air Malta flight a military one.

By: MarloweChris

MarloweChris — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 12:10:00 +0000

You’re being disingenuous. Transport Malta’s remit in this case is fairly limited: check the Air Operator’s Certificate, make sure all the relevant paper work is there and move on. CAE Aviation is a civilian operation, because their customers were from a government agency doesn’t make the flight ‘military’. It’s simply not Transport Malta’s task to act like Colombo, unless it was a matter of aviation safety.

By: Imsomeonetoo

Imsomeonetoo — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 11:08:00 +0000

A blog about special operations claims that a Fairchild Swearingen Merlin III with US civilian registration N123LH, also owned by CAE, may have been used to infiltrate a detachment of French special forces into east Libya after departing from Malta sometime last February.

It was used as it is less conspicuous than the usual Hercules C-130 and Transalls which are traditionally used by the French armed forces.

Between special forces operations, secret Panama accounts, rampant drug and people smuggling, private zoos, an ever growing list of ‘talented’ people with Maltese citizenship, shady energy and real estate deals etc., this rock isn’t as sleepy as I thought…

http://lemamouth.blogspot.nl/2016/02/libye-les-coincidences-convergent.html

N123LH in Malta on 13/14 February 2016.

https://img.planespotters.net/photo/681000/original/n123lh-cae-aviation-swearingen-sa227-tt-merlin-iiic_PlanespottersNet_681534.jpg

https://img.planespotters.net/photo/683000/original/n123lh-cae-aviation-swearingen-sa227-tt-merlin-iiic_PlanespottersNet_683424.jpg

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 20:58:00 +0000

Very strange – but was it in the airport perimeter, or outside?

By: MarloweChris

MarloweChris — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 19:12:00 +0000

If anyone is interested, ICAO Annex 13, which details the responsibilities of various parties is available here: http://www.emsa.europa.eu/retro/Docs/marine_casualties/annex_13.pdf

I’m expecting the investigation will be delegated completely or mostly to other parties, most probably the USA’s NTSB, since it is the state of register.

And since the accident aircraft satisfies criteria 7.1 (takeoff weight greater than 2250 kg), a preliminary report is expected within 30 days.

29 now. So someone better get writing.

By: Bir-rispett kollu :)

Bir-rispett kollu :) — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 12:45:00 +0000

Was a black box retrieved?

By: kev

kev — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 10:27:00 +0000

French intelligence personnel posing as customs officials, perhaps?

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 10:21:00 +0000

In reply to missawt. So the plane flew itself, then. Incredible.

By: missawt

missawt — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 09:39:00 +0000

Carmelo Abela says the five were officials from the French customs department but the Frenchmen say they were three defence officials and two civilian contractors. If we can’t even get this one straight, how can we be sure that there was no foul play ?

By: G

Tue, 25 Oct 2016 09:06:00 +0000

Also, why did the Prime Minister release information through tweets? Surely an incident of this scale merited a press conference? This is the same man that dragged press over to Castille to announce a 2c decrease in petrol prices.