"no doubt whatsoever" implies to the general public and to (legal minded politicians) that there's nothing to see here, move on, no foul play, no undisclosed exercise, nothing other than bad airmanship/ pilot error, ignore the conspiracy theorists, no need for more thorough investigation, aircraft and its kit were fine, etc, etc.
Wrt SFFP's (rather excellent, I concede) post, this bit sums up the thoughts of many:
<<3. Based on the assumptions made by the RO's nobody can tell me why an experienced 4 man crew would ever act in the manner required to confirm the verdict reached. Not a shred of what is assumed fits with SH SOP's and for the life of me I cannot understand why anyone would reach this conclusion. >>
I agree totally – simplistically blaming the crew does not sit right – at all.
But if the desired impression is as the first paragraph above then, working backwards, a verdict of gross negligence is required to get it.
So:
1 why was this result so important?; and
2 why is it still necessary to maintain it?
I suggest that while dispelling doubts on the airworthiness of the (then) new HC2s could have been a reason for (1), with their subsequent successful record (2) should not apply.
If it had been a case of an exercise gone wrong, (1) may have been expedient at the time but, with the determination of this campaign, surely the MOD would have yielded, sharing the blame and reducing the judgment against the pilots? So (2) should no longer hold.
I subscribe to the theory that there could have been possible public unrest in NI if there had been any chance of foul play so at the time (1) held – had the peace process been universally accepted as a good thing and people had moved on (sort of the end justifying the means) then (2) wouldn't be explained – but the peace process is still not universally accepted as a good thing 15 years on so (2) holds – and one would hope that just clearing the pilots' names would never be enough, that accepting the crash we had to have for the peace process would be OK if only some of your own service didn't have to carry the can would never be right.