Airlines Examiner quizzed by VOA on ET409 crash

Reporting on aviation events usually involves covering the news, not becoming part of it. That distinction was blurred when the Voice of America contacted this journalist for an on air interview. The program, in two parts, was presented by the VOA Horn of Africa Service. They aired on March 2 and March 3, and were produced and narrated by Henok Semaegzer Fente, an International Broadcaster with the VOA.

CAPTIONS: (ABOVE LEFT) Voice of America logo (Wikipedia/VOA - Public domain); (BELOW RIGHT) Airlines/Airport Examiner Joel Siegfried (Photo by Joel Siegfried); (BELOW LEFT) Ethiopian Airlines CEO Girma Wake (VOA); (BELOW RIGHT LOWER) Honeywell CVR (Honeywell Aerospace)

Recent articles: Be sure to read expanded coverage on recent news events below.

Airlines Examiner on VOA
Is Boeing to blame for ET409?
Ethiopia levels serious charges
Aviation law and compensation
Possible causes of ET409 crash
All ET409 victims recovered
How black boxes survive crashes
ET409 pilot had premonition
Second plane in ET409 crash
Mystery deepens in ET409 crash
ET409 black box recovered
Lebanon and Cameroon crash similar
Black box eludes Beirut searchers
Ethiopian Airlines black boxes found
Fast turn by Ethiopian 737 pilot
Boeing and NTSB probe 737 crash

Presented with short original remarks in English, most of the comments were then translated into Amharic, a Semitic language spoken in North Central Ethiopia. It is the second most spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic, and the official working language of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.

It was a personal honor to be included on the same broadcast as Ethiopian Airlines CEO Girma Wake. Also interviewed was Duncan Schofield, Principal Systems Engineer at Honeywell Aerospace.

The broadcast was an overview of the tragic events of January 25, on which date Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET409 crashed into the sea four minutes after taking off from Beirut, from initial worldwide media reports, to discussions of the current status of the investigation by BEA, an agency of the French government.

During the portion of my interview, many of the points raised in a previous Examiner article were expressed, and expanded upon. My worldwide readership has a large following in Lebanon, Ethiopia, Somalia, and elsewhere in Africa and the Middle East.

Mr. Wake expressed his views that the Government of Lebanon has been less than cooperative. Mr. Schofield from Honeywell Aerospace gave detailed insights into the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), explaining that any alteration of the digital recording would easily be detected.

The broadcast is available for Internet streaming and download from these links:

Part I
Part II

The Voice of America (VOA) is the official external radio and television broadcasting service of the United States federal government. It was founded in 1942 during World War II, but since 1999 has been placed under the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which is an autonomous U.S. government agency, with bipartisan membership, established as a buffer to protect VOA from political interference. It currently broadcasts in 45 languages. A schedule of Amharic broadcasts may be found at this link.

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