Ok, let's just calm down Walter. I have never flown helicopters let alone the Chinook, and defer to anyone who has in the matter of planning a trip necessitating the crossing of the North West Channel with pax in an aircraft that a crew had essentially no confidence in. Picking up on Bertie's point I would have thought that the very shortest over water leg would be the way to go. "Insignificant" differences might just be that between life and death, though in the event the latter resulted anyway. As has been pointed out to you before, evidence extracted from the BoI is very suspect. It was either heavily qualified at the time, or constructed (modelled) from dubious data by the aircraft manufacturer, and though similarly qualified used as a basis of fact with which to come to the infamous finding. I have said before Walter that you have a prima facie case which should be properly investigated by Professional Accident Investigators along with every other possible reason as to why this tragedy happened, including pilot error (negligent, grossly negligent or otherwise) and lack of airworthiness. We know what your theory is, just as we know mine. That is all they will ever be until a proper investigation into this tragedy occurs. It hasn't happened yet, in that at least I hope we can agree.
Thor, I'm sure that you are right. Perhaps we are to find out what that "something" is soon? Oh, and thank you!