Chinook - Still Hitting Back 3 (Merged)

[Tandemrotor]

JP

I have little doubt that the evidence of the lighthouse keepers (in fact 2 gave evidence, Mr Murchie and Mr Lamont) was a reasonably accurate description of weather conditions at ground level in the immediate vicinity of the lighthouse. This lighthouse is of course charted on a hillside, at 91m (shall we say 300'?) above sea level.

Notwithstanding the fact that a holidaymaker's video, filmed at the lighthouse, and within minutes of the accident, suggested significantly better visibility, perhaps tying in with statements to the effect that the visibility was patchy, or 'coming and going'

Is it your OPINION that these weather conditions (whatever they were) also prevailed out to sea?

Or would you perhaps prefer the evidence of a yachtsman, and last eyewitness (Mr Holbrook). In his statement to the BOI, he describes visibility as about 1 mile in haze (presumably difficult to judge at sea) and says that the aircraft was at a height of about 200-400', apparently in sunlight proceeding towards the cloud localisation covering the Mull land mass. It was well below cloud level, cloud cover being around 80%, very structured with the lower clouds grey and heavy, with higher lighter coloured clouds above. At no time in the 5 secs or so he observed it, did the helicopter move into cloud. He estimated the time of his observation as 1800 hours, which along with his approximate geographical position, MAY put this within 60secs of impact.

He did of course during his sworn evidence to the Fatal Accident Inquiry, state categorically, that he believed the pilots could have seen the Mull of Kintyre lighthouse, or at least it's wall, as they approached the Mull.

There is other meteorological evidence, for example metars from Machrihanish, but non of these speak to what was being seen from the cockpit AS THE CREW APPROACHED THE MULL.

I suggest that weather MAY have been a factor in this accident, but since we DO NOT KNOW, it most certainly is not 'cut and dried' There is a perfectly plausible scenario to suggest that the crew were legally entitled to continue VFR without climbing above 250', indeed the Station Commander RAF Odiham (Gp Capt Crawford) concluded this was highly probable! It also is entirely compatible with the change of waypoint on RNS252 Supertans.

We are all then faced with the same problem of how the aircraft came to crash around 810' above sea level at high speed! APPARENTLY using a speed and power combination that is "unrecognisable as a chinook technique!"

There are issues which the Board were unable to totally discount (though apparently the Air Marshalls could!)

They were:

a. Spatial disorientation or visual illusion

b. An unregistered technical malfunction
(Which were common on this aircraft at this time!) - My comment

c. Human factors

Any of these are plausible explanations!

The meteorological evidence alone is inconclusive! We need to better understand the flight path of the aircraft. But it had no data recorder did it!