Re. the co-pilot fatal.
We were scheduled for a pre-dawn departure for Sharjah/ Bahrain. We had come out from the UK - 30 Sqn at Dishforth - to fill in for the u/s Aden based aircraft. We were pre-flighting and the co was up in the tail, checking the hyd boosters for leaks. To get to the tail, he had to cross the boom floor hatch and go through the rear toilets. The floor hatch was directly outside the rear toilet doors. While the co was in the tail, Movements positioned the boom loading ladder under the tail AND opened the boom floor hatch. It was still dark and the co came back from his check and backed out of the toilet door. Falling through the hatch, he struck his head on the hatch edge and landed across the handrails of the loading ladder. Either injury would likely have been fatal. The skipper was doing his externals and was the first to find him. He shouted to me to help and we called the medics and held and comforted the co as best we could until they arrived. He was taken off to hospital and IIRC declared dead on arrival.
Interesting point - the potential danger had been foreseen already and the Bev boom hatch doors had retrofit pins which prevented the toilet doors opening when the hatch was open .......... except for this one aircraft
Further interesting point. At about 07.30, we were informed by a local senior officer that he was arranging a replacement co from local sources and we could be on our way again very soon !!!!!!!!!
Our skipper,( God bless him), a normally mild-mannered gentleman, 'explained' that neither he nor his crew would be going anywhere that day, other than to the nearest bar ... and so it was!!
Not one of the best Bev trips but it will stay in the memory.