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A Delayed Flight is Not Always Bad
I’m not sure I would have wanted to fly the friendly skies of mass confusion
during the time the U.S. was trying to sort out bomb damage assessments from strikes of Iranian missiles on two Iraqi air bases where the United States Air Force has a presence.
Even after the BDAs were completed, a big question remained whether President Donald J. Trump would be able to see the six lane fully lit off ramp the Iranians chose to offer out of the superhighway toward war and, if somebody pointed it out to him, whether he would take it or spike the football over the first encounter and attack again.
While these issues were still up in the air, a Ukrainian civilian aircraft fell out of the sky shortly after takeoff over Iran on a Tehran to Kiev route, killing all 176 people on board. The Iranians have recovered the flight data recorders but are showing reluctance to hand them over to investigators.
Normally, the investigation would involve Boeing, which built the aircraft, overseen by the National Transportation Safety Board, because so many people’s lives are dependent on Boeing aircraft, overseen in turn by the Iranian authorities holding the portfolio that the NTSB holds here.
