The fact that the FO's medical had expired and obviously invalidated the aircrafts CofA has little or no bearing on the crash. If he had suffered a major medical incident at the time when everything was going wrong then it would have been different. The BBC lawyers probably had to ensure that nothing libelous was said ahead of the publication of the offical report. The facts presented by Capt H. are pretty much in the public domain - missing spacer, 1.5 tons of taxi fuel still on-board, unrecorded bags, etc.
CCAero - We will have to wait for the official report before we know the answer to your question.
[ 07 September 2001: Message edited by: Gaza ]