Releasing data from the flight's black boxes without full investigative information for context "encourages wild speculation" about the cause of the crash, the Air Line Pilots Association International (ALPA) said in a statement late on Monday.
The criticism came after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) gave a detailed account of the flight's final minutes in a regular daily update on the crash.
Answering ALPA's criticism, NTSB spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said the agency routinely provided factual updates during investigations.
"For the public to have confidence in the investigative process, transparency and accuracy are critical," Nantel said.
NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman told reporters on Monday that the plane was significantly below its target landing speed for more than half a minute before impact. That information expanded on data Hersman released Sunday that indicated the plane was below speed during the final seven seconds.
This echos some of the posts in the thread about the National -747.
It seems some - to include ALPA spokespersons this time - have a hard time understanding the difference between FACTS and causes.
The Flight Data Recorder provides FACTS.
The Cockpit Voice Recorder provides FACTS.
There is nothing wrong with releasing FACTS.
The next job of the NTSB comes from figuring out WHY the airplane got so low and so slow. That is where the investigation comes in.
As she said:
Hersman cautioned on Monday that the NTSB and other agencies were still interviewing the four pilots from the flight, and she said it was premature to draw conclusions.
EDIT.
Hersman says it perfectly at 24+00 of this video posted later in the thread
http://www.c-span.org/Events/NTSB-Br...10737440372-3/