What kind of investigation can there possibly be?

Somewhere in the news reports I read a statement by the government or some other authority saying that “the remains” of those who died in the plane crash yesterday “have been recovered”.

Let’s stop it with the lies and cynicism, shall we? There can’t possibly have been any remains, except for the sort that the grieving family are given in an urn after a cremation.

We all looked at that frightening film – and how fortunate it is that a driver with a dashboard-mounted camera was there at that precise moment, or there would be no record of what happened – and we watched the conflagration. That was airline fuel burning at up to 1,000C. Even the plane’s metal parts were consumed, let alone fragile human bodies.

The plane itself, burning in so much fuel at such high heat, is now an assembly of small blackened pieces. The fire engines got there within minutes, as they are in the immediate vicinity. But a fire like that explodes at once into an absolute furnace.

There is next to nothing for investigators to go on, except theory.

You may also have noticed that the names of the five people who died have not been released. It is normal practice to release them as soon as the families are notified. Buried somewhere in yesterday’s government statements I saw it mentioned in passing that the families had been notified. This was not followed by the announcement of the names and ages of those who died.

The French government has not released the names, nor has the Maltese government, which has the names because all passengers arriving at and leaving Malta by air, via private flights off Luqa runway, are required to register with the authorities. The company/organisation operating the flight is obliged to file a passenger list.

Of course, we are not interested in the names. This is not about morbid curiosity, and the names will probably tell the press nothing. It is the fact that they have not been released, not even in their home country, which should pique our interest. Perhaps the news media in France will succeed in acquiring them. They are bound to be chasing up this story.