UKRIO
Quote: Posted by UKRIO at 12.16 March 4th
" Sadly, the facts were as stated in the BOI."
No, not all the facts are as stated in the BoI report.
On the 26th March 2001 I saw two twin-tailed jets, in close formation, flying towards where I was standing on Carn Allt na Beinne ( 077963). I viewed them in profile as they were only slightly below me. They banked to their left in front of me providing me with a very close view of the under side of the large F-15 wings. They flew away from my position in a westerly direction across the southern shoulder of Beinn Bhreac. The jets were less than 200 feet above the ground. As they disappeared they were flying over snow covered ground just below the cloud. The light conditions were such that it was impossible to be certain where the ground stopped and the cloud started - classic white out conditions.
If the only F-15s in the area at that time ( after 1 pm ) were the ones that crashed then those are the ones that I and my companion saw.
I made a statemant to the police in Braemar on the night of the crash. At this stage the jets were missing but the crash site had not been found. What I have written above is consistent with what I told the police at that time. It is clearly consistent with the site of the crash and with the proximity of the aircraft at the moment of impact. There were three sets of eye witnesses. We were the most easterly pair, we were separated from the others by at least a mile. The three sets of eye witness testimony dovetailed together satisfactorily at the GCM.
The initial hypothesis that the F-15s descended directly from 7,300 feet to impact Ben MacDui near the summit should have been discarded at the latest by the time the eye witness testimony had been rigorously tested at the GCM.
I would like to have seen the psycologist that the Station Commander finds so credible cross examined at the GCM by Michael Jones QC - the defence barrister. I suspect he might not have appeared so convincing after half an hour of Michael Jones's forensic questioning.