All very interesting. The AAIB have stated the investigation will.....Quote: 'Consider the regulatory requirements surrounding the flight including airworthiness requirements, aircraft permissions and flight crew licencing'
These are the AAIB's own words from the preliminary report.
The AAIB or any independent Accident investigation bureau will not look into legal liabilities. Not they job and against Annex 13 spirit. , they will assess if the aircraft was airworthy, all AD,s were done maintenance records, , what it was allowed to do and check the licences of the pilot in command .. you will find all this in final report.
The AAIB final report will state all the relevant factors. If they consider the manner in which the aircraft and pilot were procured for this flight were a factor in the accident, then they will say so. It is the up to the CAA to decide whether they act on the recommendations. If those recommendations are that the CAA tightens up it's regulation of private charter flights - then I suspect we can see that coming. The CAA will decide independently if they wish to pursue this further, and will only do that if they are sure of a successful conviction. They may or may not do that - they have had a couple of failures in that department recently and the do of course have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that there was an infraction.
However, despite the claims of some on this forum who clearly have a vested interest that this was a private flight, thus passing all the blame onto the pilot, the whole thing is dodgier than a kosher pork pie and some wealthy people are out of pocket to the tune of 15 million. I suspect they will be looking at ways of recouping this in a civil case where the outcome will be decided on the balance of probabilities. If it comes to that, I don't think 'on balance' the odds are going to be in the defendants favour.
And I suspect the CAA will come down hard on the 'grey charter' market with increased regulation.