Gentlemen, you are not going to clear the pilots’ names without addressing the navigation issue:
They were in control past the waypoint given for a turn by a navigation system; they could only reasonable have continued on if they had sufficient visual detail of the Mull to judge their distance off OR they were using another type of navaid for a closer in turning point.
Some of you would know pilots who had done this run – and could ask them what was the practice at the time; surely it is time to find the personal courage to come forward, whatever the official directives and sanctions, and get a proper objective investigation started?
Justice goes further than clearing the pilots’ names – for the safety of services personnel in the future and the security of our nation it is very, very important that any possibility of sabotage in this incident be investigated. (Let me put it this way, the nation’s top anti terrorist team gets wiped out and sabotage is ruled out very early on! Years later, is there anything other than blaming it on pilot error to justify this?)