Lookleft, the Tamworth accident has stayed with me. I knew the pilot and was one of the witnesses interviewed by the ATSB in that report.
While it is a great report I have always had lingering doubts about the findings which have not always sat well with me. There is an element to accidents where we may not always conclusively know everything after the event.
For example: "During the on-site examination of the wreckage, investigators located a number of tools including a damaged hand tool (Figure 6) that would not normally be expected to be carried on the aircraft."
...and: "The location of the bent hand tool in the wreckage raised the possibility that it may have contributed to the flight control difficulty. Despite the tool being found in the wreckage, it was not possible to establish whether it was in an internal section of the aircraft that contained part of a primary flight control system or when it had been introduced.
The bending damage to the tool was found to be consistent with severe impact and breakup forces and there was no evidence that the tool had interfered pre-impact with a control system. Such evidence, however, may not have been detectable post-accident."
The report investigates a number of possible probable causes, control interference, trim runaway, autopilot problem, and trim settings. In this case they concluded the report with what they believed to be a 'most probable' cause although other factors certainly cannot be ruled out:
"The limited evidence did not allow the investigation to be certain about the existence of abnormal rudder and/or aileron trim settings during the flight. However, in the absence of any other likely factor and with supporting evidence, the investigation considered that the pilot probably took off with abnormal rudder and/or aileron trim settings and with increasing airspeed, was unable to maintain control."
Flying over the smoking hole in the ground, attending the funeral of a talented young man with his devastated young bride dressed in black, grieving with the family over a life cut all too short (he wasn't even supposed to have been flying that day) stays in ones memory... RIP Jason C.
Be ever vigilant out there folks...