Answered by Shy Torque 13Apr2004:
<<Two Pumas would have made infinitely more sense, especially in view of the importance of the pax.
I still firmly believe that someone above station level was trying to make a political statement by ordering this very important flight in this particular aircraft. The statement was probably supposed to show that the Mk2 was perfectly safe in spite of what was being said by the people that flew them, including Boscombe Down's test pilots.>>
Despite my earlier quote, used above, which was based on what was known by me at the time, in view of any actual evidence to the contrary I am of course perfectly willing to believe this was NOT the case. I still stand by my first sentence though.