I hesitate to get involved in this but for what it is worth, the conditions in the area during the initial search were such that it was possible to be vmc south of the crash site, running northbound and be unable to tell where the ground started and the sky stopped, and we knew this area very well from the air. The wind at around 4000' was also about 60 kts. The snow in the area, which was quite deep, was completely undisturbed, as it was foot and mouth time and very few people were on the hills. The summit of Ben Macdui was solidly in cloud for 4 days.
Also, interestingly and highly unusually, sar assets were launched by the rcc very rapidly, with the comment that the aircraft had been lost off radar descending to low level, not that ple had been passed with no contact. When asked why a sar launch was considered necessary for aircraft descending into low level, the comment was that leuchars had lost radar with the aircraft passing 4400', northbound, just south of Ben Macdui.
The state and position of the wreckage suggested the aircraft were level or descending at very slow rate at the time of impact, and were in fairly close formation. The wreckage was also unusual in being in large pieces and recognisable from some distance as F15s.
For what it's worth I feel it was wrong to court martial the controller concerned.
But from what I saw those aircraft probably crashed at the end of a straight line descent in close formation and I think the eye witnesses on the ground may have mis-identified the aircraft they saw. There were no people visible during the initial search within several miles of the crash site.
The whole incident was very sad and i think that like many other aircraft accidents it is unlikely that the full facts will ever be known. The above is merely my view based on what I experienced at the time.