Totalwar, do you KNOW it was the Flt winchman or is that a guess?
It seems a little bit unlikely that the winchman/crewman/cabin gunner (does the M3 really fill this warfare role today?) would be carried on a long-range (encounterex?) sortie. Isn't his weight of fuel more important in the Mk8?
Nav accuracy in the T42 is a red herring. The ship has a perfectly decent and accurate GPS system. The fault, if any, may be in the procedures to ensure the nav plot and tactical plots remain locked together. That is a training/competence issue.