The "System" and The Price of Silence: The Need for a UK Judicial Enquiry

Author

David McKeand

Release Date

Monday, May 25, 2015

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On a quiet evening, I find myself reflecting on 2 significant series of events that have touched and directly affected other people's lives but have occupied my thoughts for the last few weeks.

I have always been a student of military history, or rather, human history that over the years has demanded so much from so many. The recent ceremonies for VE Day commanded time to pause and reflect. However, Victory in Europe was not a day; it was a long campaign and part of a greater effort that claimed more than 14.3 million military men and women from more than 20 countries of the "Allied Forces". The suffering and sacrifice was, and still is, immeasurable.

These millions of individual human beings died in defense of a "system", a just system, which for many conjures up ideas of fairness, the rule of law, equality and perhaps most importantly, equal protection under the law. In total, 40 million souls were lost to bring about this system. Strangely however, even given the vast cost paid by our neighbours and our own families, most of us think of the "system" as being outside or distinct from ourselves. The "system" usually denotes the government. However there is one particular insight that helps inform my perception of the "system".

"[They] first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak for me" (Martin Niemoeller).

Perhaps naively, the system includes everyone in a community or a society. Individually, its members can choose to actively honour the ideals of the system and those who made it possible, pervert the system for their own gain, remain disinterested and detached while still expecting its benefits and "rights", or remain silent while privately complaining about "the system". As a population increases, so do anonymity, self-interest and the perceived widening in the gap between ourselves and the system. The idea that we are distinct from the system seems to encourage individuals to act as Martin Niemoeller did in his statement above.

Over the past few weeks, the system was very much in the spotlight here on the tiny British Overseas Territory of Montserrat. Following investigative reports into air passenger safety, numerous claims and counter-claims from the British Governor and UK industry regulators were played out in a Caribbean-based news agency, mnialive.com. What took shape was a heightened awareness of how the system can fail with horrible consequences. However, only once were the costs of this failure mentioned: Jason Forbes, Annya Duncan and Sandrama Poligadu.

For the families of the Fly Montserrat crash victims, the intangible and immeasurable suffering has no end. Families have lost a father, mothers, spouses, a grandparent and grandchildren. This will haunt and burden these families for the rest of their lives and will shape their future generations.

Like other breakdowns of the system, the Fly Montserrat tragedy was not a single event on a particular day; rather, a series of events that together, conspired in a significant failure of the "system". Through all the media frenzy and press statements, some relevant facts are now very clear.

1. First discovered in 1968, there was a known defect in the aircraft's design that increased the likelihood of catastrophic, in-flight engine failure. A simple modification was made available to correct the issue.

2. The US Transportation Safety Board determined this design flaw and pilot inexperience were responsible for claiming 9 lives in 1984.

3. The Territory's British-regulated airline narrowly avoided its own fatal accident in Antigua on November 17th 2010 after an in-flight engine failure. Fortunately the experienced pilot was able to recover and land after circling the airport. Passengers stated the aircraft was left at that airport and they and their pilot boarded another flight to Montserrat. Airport tower staff confirm their permanent records show 2 aircraft, VP-MNT and VP-MNI, returned to Montserrat late that afternoon while the airline's unmodified VP-MON remained in Antigua. As the identity of the pilots are known, personal flight logs can be used to verify tower records.

4. Unlike several other incidents at the airline such as aircraft veering off the runway onto the grass in Montserrat, a report on the 2010 in-flight engine failure has never been made public.

5. Tower staff state they filed numerous Mandatory Occurrence Reports detailing repeated engine failure of VP-MON on the ground for months prior to the fatal crash. While not confirming or denying this testimony, Air Safety Support International (ASSI) stated such reports would never be shared with the public in a small community like Montserrat.

6. The crash of VP-MON occurred with a pilot having just 710 hours of experience. Initial UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) results determined the known defect was the cause.

7. The AAIB carried out the entire investigation and ASSI presented the completed report at the July 17th 2013 Board Meeting of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), 9 months after the crash. The report has never been released by the AAIB or CAA.

Each event in this tragic series has been fully documented in official records, not press statements. The system responsible for ensuring air passenger safety failed miserably for 3, now devastated families. Moving beyond the media frenzy of claims, denials and statements of emotional trauma or victimisation, these are the facts as they have been recorded in the official records.

Consider this; if a car careened down the road while narrowly missing a group of people, then continued along until finally three people were killed, what would the system do? How would it react? In the Fly Montserrat case the vehicle was a plane, but the "system" was allowed to quietly go silent and obscure any details and findings of investigations, including any actions leading to the deaths. Is this our system in our British Territory?

A just system relies on the system's ability to ensure all participants have access to the facts, to ensure relevant facts are discussed in a public forum, and to have an impartial body provide the rationale behind its reasoned verdict. Claims, counter-claims, denials and feelings are irrelevant in reaching a just verdict.

In this open letter, I invite air passengers to come together in a call for a UK judicial enquiry into the deaths of Jason Forbes, Annya Duncan and Sandrama Poligadu and the events leading to the fatal crash of VP-MON on October 7, 2012.

Surely the sacrifice of millions of individual human beings is worth this effort. The price of collective silence is the slow destruction of the system for which these millions of souls willingly forfeited their futures and families.

"...due process of law...is the best insurance for the Government itself against those blunders which leave lasting stains on a system of justice but which are bound to occur... (U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson).

Click here to take part in the petition for a Judicial Enquiry

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