Beagle
Perhaps 11 years ago the strategy of saying that nothing can be proved and therefore the verdict was unsafe may have seemed a good option for clearing the pilots’ names.
Don’t you think it is time for a rethink?
The full picture may never be proven and therefore would remain “conspiracy theory” but I believe that the basic cause of the accident can be established by you (collectively) broadening the debate, using the available data fully, and asking questions (eg of the ground crew who worked on the avionics racks immediately before the flight). Surely, the exposure of any kind of extra task that they were given that could have affected their judgment would surely only serve to clear their names.
I can understand the desirability of trying to clear their names without embarrassing the RAF as a body but this may not be possible – surely the injustice of their blame far outweighs any such embarrassment – it is your choice. If the powers that be organised something extraordinary which led to the exposure of these passengers to action of a third party then we need to know – this goes beyond just clearing the pilots’ names.
Your sarcastic comment “… SEALs with their mysterious hand-held DMEs …” shows the narrow mindedness typical of the debate – in this case not acknowledging even the existence of the equipment to which I referred. This equipment was in the RAF inventory in time for Bosnia (about a year after this incident) – the presence of the particular American unit meant that it could have been made available for a demo and so should have been considered in a broad, comprehensive analysis of possible scenarios.
The old adage “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink” springs to mind.