Wednesday November 23, 2011: The Supreme Court(UK) backed judges in the High Court(Scotland)who had previously refused Mitchell the right to appeal again.
Maggie Scott QC said the Crown had relied on evidence of Mitchell’s comments and demeanor during the lawyer-less police interview, resulting in “a fundamental unfairness amounting to a denial of justice”.
Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that evidence taken from a police interview where a suspect was not first offered access to a solicitor was unreliable and could not be used in court.
However, in the instant ruling it respected the “finality” of the rejection of Mitchell’s appeal against conviction in May 2008 and did not believe there were any live matters that would lead the court to re-open his case.
At appeal in 2008, the justices criticized the “overbearing and hostile interrogation” by police of the teenager during the investigation in an attempt to gain a confession. However, the justices noted Mitchell had not been cowed nor submitted to the pressure.
The Supreme Court said that verdict marked the end of the case.
Showing posts with label journalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label journalism. Show all posts
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
Choppergate. Brisbane, Australia.
Kudos to Channel Nine in Brisbane. A 25 year veteran employee has been allowed to resign and three reporters were fired for their involvement in filing news reports regarding a police search of remote rugged terrain when the news helicopter was actually in the air near the station's headquarters and sitting on the station's helipad in another incident.
The reports related to developments in a massive forensic search for evidence relating to the murder of a young lad abducted in 2003 at age 13. Normally Australian law would not allow the naming of the arrested murder suspect since he had been a witness at a prior coroner's inquest but the court has lifted the restriction on publishing his name in order to aid the ongoing investigation.
Revised and extended comments:
The Courier Mail reports that the Nine and Seven channels have been rivals locked in a five year struggle for ratings and that Choppergate started when some Seven personnel who were aviation enthusiasts noticed the helicopter was orbiting their neighborhood but no major story was then taking place locally. Channel Seven decided to monitor the actual location of Channel Nine's helicopter and twice caught the Nine Channel switch "live" to the reporters in a helicopter that was described as being over the scene of the Daniel Morcombe forensic search when it clearly was not anywhere near it at or about that time.
The Courier Mail reports that the 25 year veteran who fell on his sword was actually pushed. We never really had much doubt about that.
It seems a Channel Nine employee had twittered that "they would be "LIVE from Beerwah with the latest at 6. Just after 6pm, seemingly true to their word, Nine crossed "live" to young reporter Melissa Mallet hovering "near Beerwah" where police were hunting for the body of the murdered teenager..."
The Courier Mail reported that Channel Nine initially claimed air traffic controllers had ordered the chopper to land due to bad weather and the producer had not been promptly informed of this.
"Management in Sydney were notified and an on-air apology was issued. Following a series of closed-door meetings the axe fell for Price, Mallett and producer Aaron Wakeley at about 6.30pm. Nine news director Lee Anderson promptly fell on his sword."
..........
There are now reports that the three reporters have taken to Twitter to present an alternative viewpoint about a tempest in a tea pot.
.........
Audience reaction: It seems the viewing audience has had an initial reaction. Channel Nine lost an average of 1,000 viewers whereas Channel Seven which had exposed the situation lost an average of 15,000 viewers as all Brisbane stations combined lost a total of 30,000 viewers, as reported in news.com.au. Of course the dip in viewership may have been due solely to the public's "burnout" over what may have been viewed as excessive coverage of the Morcombe forensic search and the Slacks Creek fire.
Addendum: Mellisa Mallet sacked by Channel Nine due to the investigative actions of Channel Seven has now been hired by Channel Seven.
The reports related to developments in a massive forensic search for evidence relating to the murder of a young lad abducted in 2003 at age 13. Normally Australian law would not allow the naming of the arrested murder suspect since he had been a witness at a prior coroner's inquest but the court has lifted the restriction on publishing his name in order to aid the ongoing investigation.
Revised and extended comments:
The Courier Mail reports that the Nine and Seven channels have been rivals locked in a five year struggle for ratings and that Choppergate started when some Seven personnel who were aviation enthusiasts noticed the helicopter was orbiting their neighborhood but no major story was then taking place locally. Channel Seven decided to monitor the actual location of Channel Nine's helicopter and twice caught the Nine Channel switch "live" to the reporters in a helicopter that was described as being over the scene of the Daniel Morcombe forensic search when it clearly was not anywhere near it at or about that time.
The Courier Mail reports that the 25 year veteran who fell on his sword was actually pushed. We never really had much doubt about that.
It seems a Channel Nine employee had twittered that "they would be "LIVE from Beerwah with the latest at 6. Just after 6pm, seemingly true to their word, Nine crossed "live" to young reporter Melissa Mallet hovering "near Beerwah" where police were hunting for the body of the murdered teenager..."
The Courier Mail reported that Channel Nine initially claimed air traffic controllers had ordered the chopper to land due to bad weather and the producer had not been promptly informed of this.
"Management in Sydney were notified and an on-air apology was issued. Following a series of closed-door meetings the axe fell for Price, Mallett and producer Aaron Wakeley at about 6.30pm. Nine news director Lee Anderson promptly fell on his sword."
..........
There are now reports that the three reporters have taken to Twitter to present an alternative viewpoint about a tempest in a tea pot.
.........
Audience reaction: It seems the viewing audience has had an initial reaction. Channel Nine lost an average of 1,000 viewers whereas Channel Seven which had exposed the situation lost an average of 15,000 viewers as all Brisbane stations combined lost a total of 30,000 viewers, as reported in news.com.au. Of course the dip in viewership may have been due solely to the public's "burnout" over what may have been viewed as excessive coverage of the Morcombe forensic search and the Slacks Creek fire.
Addendum: Mellisa Mallet sacked by Channel Nine due to the investigative actions of Channel Seven has now been hired by Channel Seven.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Ryan Ferguson: Jurors still absolutely certain.
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2011/may/01/ferguson-jury-rethink-decision
Although some jurors are doubtful it seems many of those country bumpkins still think that their interpretation of Charles Erickson's facial expression during a brief glance at the trial of Ryan Ferguson constitutes sufficient evidence on which to base a verdict of guilty. The interrogators provided all the facts about the crime to schizophrenic junkie, Chuck Erickson, but the jurors believed Erickson's clearly bogus confession of a slightly built 17 year old Ryan Ferguson attacking a 300 pound ex-football player and winning a long, drawn-out fight but sustaining no bruises during the encounter. No forensic evidence linked Ryan Ferguson to the crime. Considerable evidence pointed towards the co-worker.
Police never treated the last known person to see the victim, Kent Heitholt, alive even though that coworker is a large and powerful man with police training in unarmed combat. The police never viewed him or noted any bruises on him after the crime, since they thought a telephone call was adequate. The police never seemed worried about his ever changing stories about which car he drove and where he parked it. The police never compared the lug nuts on the coworkers car with the dents on the victims skull.
Chuck Erickson dreamed about the killing and the police latched onto a willing confessor despite the absurdity of the situation. It wasn't as if the cops had never learned basic interrogation techniques. It wasn't as if the DA didn't know how to evaluate evidence. This was no glitch in the system. It was all intentional.
ADDENDUM: AG, running true to form, files responsive pleading at end of final day allowed. http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2011/may/03/state-files-response-to-ferguson-appeal
Although some jurors are doubtful it seems many of those country bumpkins still think that their interpretation of Charles Erickson's facial expression during a brief glance at the trial of Ryan Ferguson constitutes sufficient evidence on which to base a verdict of guilty. The interrogators provided all the facts about the crime to schizophrenic junkie, Chuck Erickson, but the jurors believed Erickson's clearly bogus confession of a slightly built 17 year old Ryan Ferguson attacking a 300 pound ex-football player and winning a long, drawn-out fight but sustaining no bruises during the encounter. No forensic evidence linked Ryan Ferguson to the crime. Considerable evidence pointed towards the co-worker.
Police never treated the last known person to see the victim, Kent Heitholt, alive even though that coworker is a large and powerful man with police training in unarmed combat. The police never viewed him or noted any bruises on him after the crime, since they thought a telephone call was adequate. The police never seemed worried about his ever changing stories about which car he drove and where he parked it. The police never compared the lug nuts on the coworkers car with the dents on the victims skull.
Chuck Erickson dreamed about the killing and the police latched onto a willing confessor despite the absurdity of the situation. It wasn't as if the cops had never learned basic interrogation techniques. It wasn't as if the DA didn't know how to evaluate evidence. This was no glitch in the system. It was all intentional.
ADDENDUM: AG, running true to form, files responsive pleading at end of final day allowed. http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2011/may/03/state-files-response-to-ferguson-appeal
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Luke Mitchell
Yeah folks, more bad news from the courts for Luke Mitchell. His appeal to have the Cadder decision regarding a suspects right to counsel during police questioning was denied.
You all remember Luke Mitchell don't you. Arrested for the murder of his 14 year old girlfriend despite his dna not being at the crime scene and there being no forensic evidence linking him to the scene at all. He was observed shortly after the murder sitting on a fence in a calm manner and bearing no scratches, blood or disarranged clothing.
Yet, three males whose DNA is either on, in or inconveniently close to the corpse were never arrested or even questioned as suspects despite their attempts to alter their appearance, the scratches they bore following the murder and the ever-changing stories they related.
Luke Mitchell was promptly booted out of school, termed a Satanist for some scribbling on his schoolbook that was a quotation from the best selling video game at the time, depicted as a devotee of the Black Dahlia murder despite the fact that he had never heard of it.
Life with minimum confinement of twenty years. And as they say in UK prisons, the guards are constantly seeing to it that he is "shaking it rough" which means doing what in the USA would be referred to as very hard time.
While the UK tabloids carry the usual mouthings about the over one hundred thousand pounds the appeals have cost there does not seem to be any comparison of that amount to a forensic tarp which might have covered the body on rainy night and thus preserved forensic evidence.
You all remember Luke Mitchell don't you. Arrested for the murder of his 14 year old girlfriend despite his dna not being at the crime scene and there being no forensic evidence linking him to the scene at all. He was observed shortly after the murder sitting on a fence in a calm manner and bearing no scratches, blood or disarranged clothing.
Yet, three males whose DNA is either on, in or inconveniently close to the corpse were never arrested or even questioned as suspects despite their attempts to alter their appearance, the scratches they bore following the murder and the ever-changing stories they related.
Luke Mitchell was promptly booted out of school, termed a Satanist for some scribbling on his schoolbook that was a quotation from the best selling video game at the time, depicted as a devotee of the Black Dahlia murder despite the fact that he had never heard of it.
Life with minimum confinement of twenty years. And as they say in UK prisons, the guards are constantly seeing to it that he is "shaking it rough" which means doing what in the USA would be referred to as very hard time.
While the UK tabloids carry the usual mouthings about the over one hundred thousand pounds the appeals have cost there does not seem to be any comparison of that amount to a forensic tarp which might have covered the body on rainy night and thus preserved forensic evidence.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
The Fifth Estate segment on Owen Rooney
Please understand that I have great respect for The Fifth Estate and for the Canadian documentary series entitled The Fifth Estate. I've long admired the program but am disappointed in the quality of the segment that was recently aired in relation to the Owen Rooney case.
There is always a difficult situation when someone is missing. How much time and effort will be spent? What resources will be utilized? What risks will searchers be exposed to? What funds will be expended? What avenues appear most likely to be fruitful? What steps should have priority and what should be back-burnered?
I've posted before about the courage of the Derek Kelly family in immediately insisting that the RCMP consider their "missing person" to be a victim of homicide. Do you think the Derek Kelly family didn't want their Derek to be alive. I'm sure they did. Desperately. Yet they faced facts and they faced the RCMP which, if I recall correctly, took two years to officially term it a homicide.
I've posted about Eric Wilson's family. This decades old case is relevant solely because The Fifth Estate's award winning documentary on it focused mainly on the attitude of law enforcement versus the attitude the family was encouraged to take.
Was the Fifth Estate's program on the missing Owen Rooney a service to the community and to the family? There are different viewpoints on that matter. A family wants to have hope. Journalists are not supposed to go around dashing hopes much less taking pleasure in doing it. Would the family and the Fifth Estate benefit from a different emphasis? I don't know. I think so. I think it is the duty of the Fifth Estate to make a judgment and to exercise discretion rather than merely take press releases from the police and publicize them unedited and unscrutinized. A sense of balance, a sense of fairness and a bit of common sense should be the emphasis of the Fifth Estate. A great many things are possible, some are clearly more probable than others but an analysis should not avoid that which is unpleasant to contemplate.
The Eric Wilson documentary won an award. I don't think the recent show on Owen Rooney will be winning any journalism awards. Fair and balanced? We are not here to split an already fine hair. The RCMP did poorly in the Derek Kelly case and the Fifth Estate was not there to expose the RCMP to public scrutiny. The RCMP has done poorly in the Owen Rooney case and once again the RCMP has not been subjected to public scrutiny by the Fifth Estate.
There is always a difficult situation when someone is missing. How much time and effort will be spent? What resources will be utilized? What risks will searchers be exposed to? What funds will be expended? What avenues appear most likely to be fruitful? What steps should have priority and what should be back-burnered?
I've posted before about the courage of the Derek Kelly family in immediately insisting that the RCMP consider their "missing person" to be a victim of homicide. Do you think the Derek Kelly family didn't want their Derek to be alive. I'm sure they did. Desperately. Yet they faced facts and they faced the RCMP which, if I recall correctly, took two years to officially term it a homicide.
I've posted about Eric Wilson's family. This decades old case is relevant solely because The Fifth Estate's award winning documentary on it focused mainly on the attitude of law enforcement versus the attitude the family was encouraged to take.
Was the Fifth Estate's program on the missing Owen Rooney a service to the community and to the family? There are different viewpoints on that matter. A family wants to have hope. Journalists are not supposed to go around dashing hopes much less taking pleasure in doing it. Would the family and the Fifth Estate benefit from a different emphasis? I don't know. I think so. I think it is the duty of the Fifth Estate to make a judgment and to exercise discretion rather than merely take press releases from the police and publicize them unedited and unscrutinized. A sense of balance, a sense of fairness and a bit of common sense should be the emphasis of the Fifth Estate. A great many things are possible, some are clearly more probable than others but an analysis should not avoid that which is unpleasant to contemplate.
The Eric Wilson documentary won an award. I don't think the recent show on Owen Rooney will be winning any journalism awards. Fair and balanced? We are not here to split an already fine hair. The RCMP did poorly in the Derek Kelly case and the Fifth Estate was not there to expose the RCMP to public scrutiny. The RCMP has done poorly in the Owen Rooney case and once again the RCMP has not been subjected to public scrutiny by the Fifth Estate.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Kyron Horman update from Seattle University
>It was the biggest news story from the Pacific Northwest all year:
Yes, once a media frenzy begins it just snowballs. Doesn't make it all that much different from similar cases getting less media scrutiny.
>He is still listed as missing and endangered.
Judge Crater is still listed as missing. In a tourist area a swimmer is often listed as missing so as to keep crime statistics low and shark attack statistics out of the newspapers. Crime statistics are often misleading.
>detectives have received more than 4,000 leads,
Most of them probably from people who have had "visions of a body being found near water". Well, most people rarely get pretty far from water so that information just isn't helpful and in the lush greenery of the Pacific Northwest its real hard to get far from water.
>He emphasized repeatedly that they were “not scaling back,”
Which of course is proof positive that they were scaling back!
>Public outrage at the disappearance focused first on the school district,
Why? People disappear from stores, malls, sidewalks. Do reporters encourage anger at malls if some disappears in a parking lot?
>not a single security camera was present at the rural school.
Security cameras often provide no assistance whatsoever and are of little deterrent value. A rural school with no history of crime would be unlikely to have cameras as such funds would be more wisely spent in urban area schools with high crime problems and high population density.
>many became frustrated that the police weren’t releasing enough information.
That is universally the situation. Reporters were claiming that cell phone signals were received at a different tower than would have been likely had her description of her travels been truthful but we don't have details as to times, signal strength or local terrain that might make such spurious signals not at all suspicious.
>Terri Horman, the last person to see Kyron,
Oh!!! The last person to see Kyron??? Well, each and every school day mothers drop their kids off at school and therefore may become the last person to see them. Should we ban this practice?
>a person many now call ‘Stepmonster‘.
A sobriquet invented by some reporter, no doubt.
>Within a few days she posted about going to the gym,
Guilty! String her up on the spot!! No one ever goes to a gym to work off frustration or because the walls are closing in on them and the police are not helpful to them.
>Kyron’s father shockingly divorced Terri, filing a restraining order.
I wonder how many divorces were filed in Oregon that year? And I don't know why the reporter described the husband's actions as shocking.
>Terri Horman had allegedly hired her landscaper to kill Kaine Horman,
Allegedly. I believe he did not report the plot promptly to police and wonder therefore what his thoughts and intentions might have been.
>A string of public appearances made Kyron’s biological parents national news
Well is it better to appear on Good Morning America than to go to your local gym?
>identifying her as the mastermind behind their son’s disappearance
Identifying does not mean they provided supporting evidence.
>Terri is not a suspect in the case,
Look Jack, if the cops are repeatedly calling you, having you take polygraphs, putting your image and your vehicle description onto flyers, trying to find people who saw you and reporters are following you wherever you go, you are indeed a suspect!
>spreading Kyron’s picture around the country,
They think perhaps he might be in Palm Beach?
>and each of them held a birthday party for Kyron in early September
I would think it less strange if they had simply gone to the gym!
>Students have left a desk vacant for their classmate Kyron,
Yep, those schools generally are not known for sensible actions or turning out kids who are realistic.
Yes, once a media frenzy begins it just snowballs. Doesn't make it all that much different from similar cases getting less media scrutiny.
>He is still listed as missing and endangered.
Judge Crater is still listed as missing. In a tourist area a swimmer is often listed as missing so as to keep crime statistics low and shark attack statistics out of the newspapers. Crime statistics are often misleading.
>detectives have received more than 4,000 leads,
Most of them probably from people who have had "visions of a body being found near water". Well, most people rarely get pretty far from water so that information just isn't helpful and in the lush greenery of the Pacific Northwest its real hard to get far from water.
>He emphasized repeatedly that they were “not scaling back,”
Which of course is proof positive that they were scaling back!
>Public outrage at the disappearance focused first on the school district,
Why? People disappear from stores, malls, sidewalks. Do reporters encourage anger at malls if some disappears in a parking lot?
>not a single security camera was present at the rural school.
Security cameras often provide no assistance whatsoever and are of little deterrent value. A rural school with no history of crime would be unlikely to have cameras as such funds would be more wisely spent in urban area schools with high crime problems and high population density.
>many became frustrated that the police weren’t releasing enough information.
That is universally the situation. Reporters were claiming that cell phone signals were received at a different tower than would have been likely had her description of her travels been truthful but we don't have details as to times, signal strength or local terrain that might make such spurious signals not at all suspicious.
>Terri Horman, the last person to see Kyron,
Oh!!! The last person to see Kyron??? Well, each and every school day mothers drop their kids off at school and therefore may become the last person to see them. Should we ban this practice?
>a person many now call ‘Stepmonster‘.
A sobriquet invented by some reporter, no doubt.
>Within a few days she posted about going to the gym,
Guilty! String her up on the spot!! No one ever goes to a gym to work off frustration or because the walls are closing in on them and the police are not helpful to them.
>Kyron’s father shockingly divorced Terri, filing a restraining order.
I wonder how many divorces were filed in Oregon that year? And I don't know why the reporter described the husband's actions as shocking.
>Terri Horman had allegedly hired her landscaper to kill Kaine Horman,
Allegedly. I believe he did not report the plot promptly to police and wonder therefore what his thoughts and intentions might have been.
>A string of public appearances made Kyron’s biological parents national news
Well is it better to appear on Good Morning America than to go to your local gym?
>identifying her as the mastermind behind their son’s disappearance
Identifying does not mean they provided supporting evidence.
>Terri is not a suspect in the case,
Look Jack, if the cops are repeatedly calling you, having you take polygraphs, putting your image and your vehicle description onto flyers, trying to find people who saw you and reporters are following you wherever you go, you are indeed a suspect!
>spreading Kyron’s picture around the country,
They think perhaps he might be in Palm Beach?
>and each of them held a birthday party for Kyron in early September
I would think it less strange if they had simply gone to the gym!
>Students have left a desk vacant for their classmate Kyron,
Yep, those schools generally are not known for sensible actions or turning out kids who are realistic.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Enough on those SpanAir Trojan headlines!!
When will it ever stop? All these misleading headlines and in many cases totally misleading stories.
The SpanAir crash at Madrid was not in any way caused by a computer that had trojan horse software on it. The computer at the airlines headquarters which managed repair scheduling was later found to be laden with trojan malware. Its not a computer that was onboard the aircraft or had anything to do with the operation of the flight.
SpanAir flight from Madrid to Las Palmas in late August of 2008 crashed on takeoff because the crew failed to set the slats for takeoff, an absolutely critical procedure that was called out in the checklist but not actually performed. The automatic warning systems concerning the flaps and slats settings failed to sound an alarm because they are not supposed to sound when the plane is flying at high altitude. The alarm systems that did sound prior to the takeoff dealt with a pressure sensing system that is only supposed to sound at high altitude.
Physically that plane was on the ground. Electronically that plane "thought" it was already at high altitude. The pilots were not mentally there at all, but the plane did not crash because of any memory-choking malware on a maintenance-scheduling computer at SpanAir's headquarters! Why can't editors and re-write men get that straight?
On-Edit: Please note that the above rant about unprofessional journalism standards relates to the mis-reporting of the malware infected computer at SpanAir's headquarters as having had some effect on the crash.
For those interested in the crash:
It was, as they all are, pilot error. Errors that would be absurd for even a student pilot to have made.
The crew appear to have misinterpreted the stall warning as a fire warning. Well, each is serious perhaps but a stall warning is a well known sound and the remotest possibility of a stall takes precedence over any other sort of sensory input. The misinterpretation robbed the crew of a few moments of recovery time. Well, they had precious few moments to begin with and would have been unlikely to have recovered anyway. One would not expect such a lackadaisical crew to have performed a low level stall recovery correctly.
The crew failed to realize that if an alarm had been sounding an hour previously that only sounds when the plane is at high altitude then that meant they were on notice inquiry to investigate the "weight on nosewheel" switch. Yes, switch, not relay! Its the switch that is most likely to fail. Its the switch that is relatively exposed to the elements and debris accumulation. Just because the plane was obviously on the ground does not mean the various avionics systems knew that!
With a failed "weight on nosewheel" switch, the utterly critical alarm for "Idiotic Pilots Trying To Take-Off Without Slats" is automatically disabled. So there was no alarm for the one absolutely critical take-off setting on that plane! The lack of an electronic alarm however had absolutely nothing to do with the crew's failure to properly set the slats and properly check the slat setting in accordance with the checklist procedures.
The SpanAir crash at Madrid was not in any way caused by a computer that had trojan horse software on it. The computer at the airlines headquarters which managed repair scheduling was later found to be laden with trojan malware. Its not a computer that was onboard the aircraft or had anything to do with the operation of the flight.
SpanAir flight from Madrid to Las Palmas in late August of 2008 crashed on takeoff because the crew failed to set the slats for takeoff, an absolutely critical procedure that was called out in the checklist but not actually performed. The automatic warning systems concerning the flaps and slats settings failed to sound an alarm because they are not supposed to sound when the plane is flying at high altitude. The alarm systems that did sound prior to the takeoff dealt with a pressure sensing system that is only supposed to sound at high altitude.
Physically that plane was on the ground. Electronically that plane "thought" it was already at high altitude. The pilots were not mentally there at all, but the plane did not crash because of any memory-choking malware on a maintenance-scheduling computer at SpanAir's headquarters! Why can't editors and re-write men get that straight?
On-Edit: Please note that the above rant about unprofessional journalism standards relates to the mis-reporting of the malware infected computer at SpanAir's headquarters as having had some effect on the crash.
For those interested in the crash:
It was, as they all are, pilot error. Errors that would be absurd for even a student pilot to have made.
The crew appear to have misinterpreted the stall warning as a fire warning. Well, each is serious perhaps but a stall warning is a well known sound and the remotest possibility of a stall takes precedence over any other sort of sensory input. The misinterpretation robbed the crew of a few moments of recovery time. Well, they had precious few moments to begin with and would have been unlikely to have recovered anyway. One would not expect such a lackadaisical crew to have performed a low level stall recovery correctly.
The crew failed to realize that if an alarm had been sounding an hour previously that only sounds when the plane is at high altitude then that meant they were on notice inquiry to investigate the "weight on nosewheel" switch. Yes, switch, not relay! Its the switch that is most likely to fail. Its the switch that is relatively exposed to the elements and debris accumulation. Just because the plane was obviously on the ground does not mean the various avionics systems knew that!
With a failed "weight on nosewheel" switch, the utterly critical alarm for "Idiotic Pilots Trying To Take-Off Without Slats" is automatically disabled. So there was no alarm for the one absolutely critical take-off setting on that plane! The lack of an electronic alarm however had absolutely nothing to do with the crew's failure to properly set the slats and properly check the slat setting in accordance with the checklist procedures.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Luke Mitchell ... Absurdities in the Press
Well, the anniversary of Jodi's murder has passed. The various placement and prompt removal of Sunflowers have taken place. Now the press has come up with an article about Luke Mitchell having sought grief counseling while in prison. We don't know for sure what the reliability of the article is but since they got the name of the prison wrong its likely that whoever they were talking to did not know anything at all about Luke Mitchell or his prison routine.
We now also have a newspaper article dealing with a hand written statement said to have been penned by Luke Mitchell and posted on his cell wall. The statement is roughly based on a popular Psalm. Once again, absolutely no verification that such a statement actually exists much less is posted on his cell wall.
It gets so tiresome to see journalism ethics and competence fall so low.
We now also have a newspaper article dealing with a hand written statement said to have been penned by Luke Mitchell and posted on his cell wall. The statement is roughly based on a popular Psalm. Once again, absolutely no verification that such a statement actually exists much less is posted on his cell wall.
It gets so tiresome to see journalism ethics and competence fall so low.
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