Originally Posted by
WHBM
I do feel the (unprovable) carbon monoxide issue is being seized on by those, from the organiser to the regulator, to cover their own issues. Quite apart from everything else already described, it's more than a coincidence that, in the whole round trip, it chanced to incapacitate the pilot just at the one point in the flight when they encountered adverse meteorological conditions and got away from the VFR he was licensed for.
From the AAIB report:
"Post-mortem tests on the passenger showed a blood carboxyhaemoglobin (COHb) level of 58%, and the pathologist considered that he would almost certainly have been ‘deeply unconscious’ at impact."
Do you really think it possible for the passenger to be so badly affected and the pilot not? See page 48k - that's the page in the PDF.
Footnote 35 on that page says "The pathologist confirmed that the COHb level could be relied upon despite the length of time the body had been under water."
https://assets.publishing.service.go...4DB_Lo_res.pdf