Cazatou,
Yes, you were posting under a different name (K52) a decade ago and came back here without declaring that change, as if to show another hand against the crew. I still disagree with both of you.
If the mission was extremely important then another aircraft could and should have been found. How much effort, if any, at management level, was really put into finding an alternative method of transport for these pax?
Sycamore's post indicates that other RAF assets were available but not asked for.
Was "civvy air" ever considered and if not, why not? We used to do NI crew changeovers by that method; all it needed was someone to organise tickets....they certainly didn't need to be on the same aircraft. In fact, as the tragedy showed, it would have been far more sensible from the outset to divide the pax load so as not to put all these eggs in one basket.
On the other hand, if the mission wasn't important, why was it not postponed or cancelled at Command level?
The crew paid for all the mistakes, at whichever desk they were made.