RandolphB wrote:
Not to be mean, but I do blame the film makers. They had contracted the aircraft and this feels a lot like the whole Twilight Zone episode. In that, the filmmaker had no clue about the risks involved and kept pushing for more and more dangerous stuff until people died. I question why the aircraft was on the beach in the first place....because I saw footage of them filming cockpit scenes while it was there. If the aircraft was there simply because of taking on water, why would they be wasting time filming instead of doing recovery. After a full 24 hours there, word went out in the aviation community looking for lifting instructions. It's up to the film company to keep locations clear and clean- so I expect it was they that hired the boat salvage people to do the job. After having lived in SoCal and known far too many film makers, this reeks of Hollywood blunders and how they ignore anything they are told. Their god like opinion of themselves ends up destroying stuff all the time. Or getting their crews killed doing stupid things like filming on active railroad tracks with no permits. I hope the details come out on the entire incident, but given the statement they issued figure they are already covering something up.....
1) No one died.
2) The plane was beached because of a mechanical issue and taking on water after landing in relatively calm water (less than 2 foot seas).
3) The fliming was done after the first salvage attempt when the nose dug into the sand instead of going up the beach. The salvage company was getting a barge and a new plan, so it was better to have people in it filming and thus using it than sitting around doing nothing. I don't blame them there.
4) They got the plane floating on Thursday, so I don't think there was much structural damage if any.
If you want to blame someone - blame the Salvage Company and its contractor Resolve Marine for having a botched lift out of the water after everything else.