shawn wrote: ↑Wed Jul 07, 2021 10:24 am
Shockwave wrote: ↑Wed Jul 07, 2021 2:16 am
1. Mike Smalt says he gave copies of the crash photos to Margolis for the documentary. This included all gory photos of the aftermath of the crash. He said everyone involved signed off on him releasing the photos to Margolis. Margolis promised he would not use the bad ones in the film though. Smalt says he still has copies of all the photos.
Wait Mike Smalt is retired is he not? Why would he have access to police records?
I wonder who everyone involved is? I am sure that Randy's family would not have signed off on that.
Shockwave wrote: ↑Wed Jul 07, 2021 2:16 am
2. Smalt says he does not have copies of Don Aireys photos from that day. But he did say that he remembers seeing them and also the one with Randy sitting on the wing prior to going up.
See there is always shit like this that makes you wonder. So the investigating officer did not get copies of photos that show there is a struggle going on in the plane as it is dive bombing the bus. Photos that prove that a fatal accident occurred because there was a struggle occurring in a plane in flight.
Shockwave wrote: ↑Wed Jul 07, 2021 2:16 am
4. Smalt says on 3 different occasions during the call that you can see into the windows of small planes exactly like the one that was flown and see the people inside. The last time he mentions it he also references the local air shows in that area that used the same type of planes and would fly low to the ground in the same manner. He says you can see through the front, sides (back seating area) of the plane. He says the best angle to make things out is from the side and mentions the people riding the horses that morning that saw the accident happen.
Here is a Beech Bonanza B35TC Fly-by not the same model but gives you an idea
Here is an Beech Bonanza H35 taxiing, at low speed it is hard to see what is going.
It is still possible I guess but it does make me wonder.
My comments were just quick run through of what he said, he gives a little more detail on each.
Smalt let on that his 60th birthday had just happened or was happening within a few days. So looking him up and finding his age will tell you what year this is from. Doing a quick search leads me to believe he is 67 now. He was still working at the time as he said he was either going into work the 2nd shift or the late/night shift, or just got off from working it.
Smalt said everyone who needed to sign off on the photos being released did so. He named the police department and the Rhoads family, and maybe a couple others. He also named Sharon & Ozzy being hesitant at first but eventually signed off, that might be related to the documentary itself though and not specifically the photos. Margolis may have had a blanket release for the documentary so only he had direct contact with Mike Smalt. Margolis would then just show all the appropriate paperwork that he is working the Rhoads interest and can obtain anything he wants in their name.
Romeo added that Margolis was going to use some of the sensitive photos in the documentary and this is when the Rhoads family put the stop to the documentary, not sure where he got that info or if it's true. Mike said Margolis told him he would not do this and that is why he agreed to release the photos to him.
Smalt said he did not keep any photos that were not part of the police investigation. Randy sitting on the wing or anything else irrelevant doesn't add to it so there was no need to keep them. He obviously kept the one photo that we have photocopies of from Don with the plane coming in towards them. Im sure he has a few others while the plane was in the air. I'll have to give it a listen again but I am pretty sure he said no struggle could be seen in any of the photos he saw. I think his response was something like "I don't know about that"
If Romeo had any idea how to interview someone or just not be so direct in the way he asked questions he would probably could have gotten a lot more information. Mike was hesitant at first and said he wasn't sure he should be talking about this but went right into after that. He sounds very laid back and was pretty open about talking about it. He didn't realize and understand why people still talk about it though.
Ill give it another listen tonight to see if I missed anything.