The Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) has acknowledged the preliminary findings of the investigation into this week’s incident involving a Qantas aircraft that found that there is no evidence so far to suggest that the use of a mobile phone was related to the sudden loss of altitude by the aircraft.

AMTA Chief Executive Officer, Chris Althaus, said some media commentary had jumped the gun in speculating that the incident had been caused by passengers using mobile phones.

“I think this sort of speculation is unhelpful and irresponsible. The mobile phone industry will await the findings of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s investigation. Perhaps others should do the same,” he said.

“The mobile phone industry places the highest priority on safety. We will await the findings of the investigation.”

Today, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau released a statement on the incident, which said: “There is no evidence at this stage to indicate that the use of portable electronic devices by passengers contributed to the event, however, it would be expected that questions relating to such usage would be included in the passenger survey.”

The full statement is available here http://www.atsb.gov.au/newsroom/2008/release/2008_40b.aspx