Vice Adm. Crandall asked the three officerstasked with weighing JAG’s case to focus on a specific incident: the destruction of a General Mills plant in Covington, Georgia, which sustained irreparable damage when a commuter aircraft, a Cessna A340, plummeted from the sky into it. The NTSB and the FBI later claimed that pilot error caused the deaths of a certified flight instructor and a student pilot, an assertion rebuked by an FBI whistleblower who said the plane was pilotless and remote controlled.
The admiral showed the panel a mangled metallic object about the size and shape of a Zippo lighter. He said it was a remote guidance chip retrieved from the wreckage of the Cessna A340. The technology, he added, was nearly identical to that found on commercially available drones and not entirely dissimilar from military tech.
“Do you recognize this device?” Vice Adm. Crandall asked Vilsack.
“No, why should I? I’m not an engineer,” Vilsack snapped.
“Of course you’re not, but you have engineered quite a lot,” Vice Adm. Crandall retorted.
He summoned to the witness stand the FBI whistleblower whose name RRN has been asked to conceal. Under direct examination, she testified that Vilsack had ordered the FBI to take charge of the case and “shut out” the NTSB. As mentioned in an earlier article, the NTSB has absolute authority in matters involving aircraft accidents that take place on U.S. soil or involve American casualties. The only exception is if the NTSB suspects a crime and requests FBI help.
“Do you know if the NTSB suspected a crime, or asked the FBI for assistance?” Vice Adm. Crandall asked the whistleblower.
“NTSB hadn’t time to suspect a crime. As soon as they arrived at the scene, they were dismissed. The FBI was already there. NTSB was sent home,” she said.
“And this was unusual?” Vice Adm. Crandall asked.
“I could find only one other precedent: TWA 800,” she said.
“So, it’s safe to say something was amiss. How do you know detainee Vilsack gave this order? What authority would a secretary of agriculture have to command the FBI?”
“In theory, no authority. But he did. His signature was on the paperwork authorizing the FBI to take lead,” she said.
Long article…
https://realrawnews.com/2022/05/military-sentences-vilsack-to-hang/