great news - and maybe we will now get another investigation into "Why" as we are no longer putting all the blame on the pilots. Don't hold your breath.
I trained with John Tapper on BFT and am delighted for his family, and that of Rick Cook that this shameful stitch up job has been exposed at last.
I was also in the Falklands when the first HC2s arrived and remember hundreds of pages of maintenance manuals being faxed down because the RAF didn't have the paperwork. The aircraft was sent south before the books arrived in the UK from Boeing and I never saw one airborne in the 4 months I was there.
As for why all those people were on one aeroplane, the answer must be stupidity. We make sure that the royal family are split up amongst a number of aeroplanes when they travel en-mass.
But another question is, why use a helicopter in the first place? Surely (and no disrespect to the chopper boys) a fixed wing transport or two would make more sense in terms of safety.