 Jones considered the pilots' action "absurd", because an officer could not legally resign during wartime, but travelled to Morotai from his headquarters in Melbourne to investigate the matter personally.He also interviewed the pilots, later declaring, "I believed them all to be sincere in what they were stating and what they had attempted to do ...Yes, sincerely held beliefs, no matter how ill-founded, coupled possibly with a rather exaggerated sense of national duty."