Weather
John Purdey,
Nobody needs to allege anything - what Mr Holbrook said was as follows:
Weather
63. The state of the weather was crucial to the conclusions of the investigating board and of the two Air Marshals. Two witnesses gave oral evidence to the Board as to weather. First Mr Murchie, a keeper at the lighthouse, spoke of visibility there being some 15-20 metres, but 400-500 metres to the north. The Board asked him no further questions about weather. The second was Mr Holbrook, the yachtsman, whose initial statement to the Strathclyde Police contained an expression of opinion "that the helicopter pilot would have been in a position to clearly see the local land mass". In his statement to the Board Mr Holbrook said that the aircraft was well below cloud level and visibility was about a mile limited by haze. At the time he was about two nautical miles south west of the lighthouse. He was asked three questions by the Board of which one was relevant to weather, namely whether he could see the physical features of the cliff on the Mull. To this he replied "no".
64. When he gave evidence at the FAI Mr Holbrook expressed the opinion that the pilot could have seen "the location of the Mull lighthouse" and described the low cloud as "hugging the Mull" (Sheriff's determination, p 110 of HL Paper 25(ii)). He was criticised by the Ministry of Defence for having given different versions of his account to the Board and the FAI. In these circumstances we invited him to give evidence, an invitation which he willingly accepted.
65. Mr Holbrook's evidence to us began with a statement which he had asked leave to make (Q 594). He explained that the low cloud clung to the contours of the high ground so that the location of the Mull massif itself was not in doubt from sea level. He considered that the crew of the aircraft when he saw it could determine without ambiguity where the Mull was and could see the cliffs, beach and lower perimeter walls of the lighthouse complex.
66. Mr Holbrook reaffirmed that when he saw the aircraft he could not see the physical features of the Mull but he went on to explain that he was able to see the location of the lighthouse complex because the buildings and the white perimeter wall showed up as a colour change against the background of the land mass (QQ 594, 602). The top of the lighthouse was in cloud as the cloud level moved up and down (Q 606). Mr Holbrook went on to explain that the cloud was following the contours of the land and was very localised (Q 615). He also remarked, as he had done before the Board, that the helicopter was in sunlight as it passed (Q 619). At that time the aircraft was about two miles to the south west of the lighthouse. He expressed the opinion that the aircraft was flying at a height of between 200 and 400 ft and that the crew would have been better able to see the position of the lighthouse than he was at sea level with a certain amount of spray (QQ 610-13). He estimated the speed of the aircraft to be 60-80 knots but did not feel confident enough to be dogmatic as he had not previously seen a Chinook in flight. However, it was his impression that the aircraft was travelling sufficiently slowly to be involved in a search and rescue operation (Q 639).
67. We do not consider that Mr Holbrook changed his evidence between his appearances before the Board and the FAI, rather that when he was subjected to professional examination and cross-examination at the FAI and to our questioning he was able to expand upon the rather brief evidence which he had given to the Board. We had no hesitation in accepting him as a reliable and convincing witness.
68. In his statement to the police and in his evidence to us Mr Holbrook referred to the fact that the trawlers round which he was manoeuvring appeared to be Scottish as one of them had St Andrew's cross painted on the superstructure (Q 630). When Wing Commander (now Group Captain) Pulford gave evidence to us he was asked whether the Board sought evidence from any of the fishing vessels referred to by Mr Holbrook. He replied that they had tracked down the fishing vessels to Northern Ireland and the RUC could neither find anybody who had seen the aircraft nor trace some of the boats (Q 11).
69. It is perhaps surprising in view of Mr Holbrook's statement to the Strathclyde Police about the trawler with St Andrew's cross on the superstructure that that force were not asked to pursue the matter. It is perhaps even more surprising that the Board asked Mr Holbrook only one question in relation to weather and used the answer as a component in the construction of a theory as to the probable course adopted by the pilots.
70. Mr Holbrook explained to us that he had repeatedly but unsuccessfully asked to see photographs of a Chinook at different heights and ranges, in order the better to estimate the height and speed of the aircraft when he saw it. He clearly felt that he would have been in a better position to assist the Board had he been furnished with such information. We do not know why the Board did not accede to his request or afford him the opportunity of seeing a Chinook in flight.
71. The statements taken by Strathclyde Police which dealt with weather were all from persons on the Mull at or above the height of the lighthouse and did not therefore throw light on the extent to which the land mass could be seen from an aircraft approaching from seaward. These persons all spoke of being enveloped in cloud to a greater or lesser degree.
Perhaps you would care to put some energy into thinking about why the BoI did not do a proper investigation in this area!
JB