Unspun

It’s actually quite astounding what messages the National Transportation Safety Commission is trying to send about its investigations into the crash of Garuda’s Flight GA 200.Commission chief Tatang Kurniadi was today quoted in The Jakarta Post as saying that the Australian media’s reports quoting him on the causes of GA200 were misleading because they had “made their own conclusions.”

Now Tatang confirms he made the “absent mindedness” comment and he did not deny making the comment that the flaps were not jammed. But he also says that the reports portrayed his comments as conclusive while investigations were under way.

clipped from www.thejakartapost.com Tatang confirmed he made the statements on the pilots’ “absent mindedness”. He also did not back away from his reported statement that the flaps were not jammed. However, Tatang said the Australian reports portrayed his comments as conclusive while investigations were still underway. “The foreign media misinterpreted me. It’s not possible that I could make a straight conclusion from the aircraft’s cockpit voice recorder alone,” he said.

The question is this: what business does Tatang have to make any comment at all to the media while the investigation is still under way. It is only good issues management practice for investigators not to talk about investigations under way until all the facts are in, verified and conclusions made.Before that they should just shut up and deliver a standby statement to the press that goes something like this: “The Commission is still conducting investigations into the crash and we will share our findings with the public when we have completed our investigations. Until then it would be premature to comment on any aspect of the investigation.”

Shut up. Smile and walk away from journalist. Do not pay them further attention. Anything more than that and you’re inviting trouble. If you read the foreign reports carefully all they did was to report what Tatang said, without saying whether it is conclusive or preliminary. One maxim to embrace for investigators is this: “In the event of a failure in communication, it is always the fault of the communicator and never the fault of the receiver”.