I’m glad all this extra information is finally coming into the public domain. Very soon after the accident a lot of evidence was hidden, or at least ignored. I had left the service not long before but already knew of some of the stuff that was going on. It was astounding that the Mk2 was ordered into squadron service at all without a formal Release, even more so for such a flight as this tragic one - which took place almost immediately after those responsible for test flying it had pronounced they had no confidence in it.
The RAF was short of SH airframes, the Mk2 was late due to ongoing issues and this flight could and should have been passed to a fixed wing asset. However, I suspect that the SH hierarchy were so keen to save face that all common sense and sense of legality was lost.