The Eastwind Incident

Abstract

John Cox was not impressed by Paul Knerr—the kind of “guy with a theory” that crash investigators tend to loathe. As a member of the Systems Group and the lead ALPA representative, Cox subscribed to the party system of crash investigation. You did things by the rules and with the prior agreement of everybody else. There were no solo missions, no people operating on their own. At this stage, Cox felt his allegiance leaning more toward the NTSB than his union, which of course appointed him to the investigation. He liked the system “because it tends to prevent anybody trying to whitewash anything. It’s a bit adversarial but it gains a lot of strength from this. Nothing gets through without a good look by a lot of experts, and if there is any question about it, the system gleans the truth pretty quickly.”