Tandemrotor
You wrote:
<<It's not even as though we don't have intimate knowledge of the entire subject. Or totally relevant experience of this exact type of rotary aircraft, it's introduction into service, it's failings, the operation, the crew, or the area, the subsequent investigations, the BoI, and inquiries.>>
If I may draw your attention to some of our earlier debates, some of you had not even understood the fundamental difference between TANS and the SuperTANS navigation system as used by ZD576; the description of the wx on that leg to the Mull was ambiguous; their intentions re the route in that vicinity was not stated clearly; the final control positions were not acknowledged as being appropriate for a large twin rotor craft doing an evasive maneuver (when they were); etc, etc, etc. It would appear that there was a strategy of not fixing anything (that could reasonably be fixed) in the hope of better promoting the simplistic argument that nothing could be known beyond all reasonable doubt.
I believe that this strategy is dodgy as it could have obstructed finding a cause that not only cleared the pilots but led to justice.
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A specific example of how the problem of analysis could be reduced by full and open debate is the elimination of my own pet Personnel Locator Beacon (PLB) theory by establishing that the necessary on board equipment was not fitted – but this seems to be a taboo subject. I know that the equipment was available in ’94 and fitted to some of the first HC2s – but I have no way of knowing if it was fitted to ZD576 (although much circumstantial evidence points to its use). After 12 years and changes to the personnel locator systems, it can hardly be a great state secret that an ARS-6 module was fitted to ZD576 – unless there is a reason.
With all your (other contributors here too) contacts, standing, and experience why not have the balls to ask around – the ground crews/ techs that worked on HC2 Chinooks – when were the first sets fitted and to which a/c?
Even if you cannot glean that it was definitely fitted to ZD576, if this a/c was anomalous in its being declared as not having it fitted when others in the flight at the time had then you can start to think a bit.
It would after all be an interesting topic in its own right – a point I have made before – it has been the cornerstone of CSAR and SF personnel extraction for some time now.
If such a system WAS fitted then – with everything else in place and the circumstantial evidence so completely fitting its use – surely the possibility of its misuse should be considered which would surely change the view of the pilots’ actions.