HeliEng
I can understand your distress at the loss of a friend, and you're obviously entitled to accept or reject the conclusions, but your comment "a standard AAIB cop out" is very unfair. The conclusions in this case may be right or may be wrong - I'm not in a position to say. However, what I am able to say, based on close analysis of many AAIB reports over many years during the course of my work, is that there is no such thing as a 'standard AAIB cop-out'.
I'm not suggesting AAIB inspectors are infallible, any more than the rest of us, but they genuinely do everything they can, using their skills and experience, to discover the cause or causes of an accident. If, at the conclusion of their investigations, they aren't satisfied they have established the cause(s) then they say so.
I have enormous respect for both the expertise of the investigators and the total integrity of the AAIB as a body.
Over the years, I've read two reports with which I've strongly disagreed; both fatal accident investigations and coincidentally in other countries. One concluded pilot error - I felt, and am still convinced 20 plus years later, that they must have missed something. The other was inconclusive but offered a number of possible factors that may have combined to cause the accident which included a very gentle suggestion of possible pilot error. Inconceivable. Shouldn't even have been included as a possibility. It may or may not be a coincidence that, in both cases, the pilot was a very close friend.
Last edited by Flying Lawyer; 12th Jun 2005 at 18:32.