I've been following the Chinook saga from a distance for some time and have just read the RAF BoI report as released by the House of Lords inquiry.
What amazes me is the revelation in that report that "There are no formal procedures within the Support Helicopter Force for conducting an IF abort from low level or for climbing from low level flight under VFR to flight under IFR, and these flight profiles are not taught or generally practised." The BoI report recommends, in addition to fitting CVRs and ADRs to Chinooks, that:
"Formal IF climb procedures are developed for the RAF Support Helicopter Force".
What a contrast with the MoD Accident Summary issued in June 1995, which made no mention of that recommendation, and said "A thorough review of training, flying standards and supervision within the RAF SHF has since been carried out; this has not revealed any deficiencies that might have contributed to this accident."
I'm not suggesting that two pilots as experienced as Tapper and Cook were incapable of a low level abort because they hadn't been specifically trained for it, but what the report highlights is that the lack of a formal procedure meant that deciding how to do a low level abort was basically up to units and/or individuals - so there could be a wide range of techniques, with no force-wide guidance on which were the best techniques in which circumstances.
At best, then, these pilots were poorly equipped to deal with the situation they found themselves in. At worst, the RAF's procedures and training failed them.
So, has the BoI's third recommendation been implemented? Is there now a formal LL abort procedure?