Well, it was the final day of the Lords' inquiry yesterday and a good turn out by ppruners!
Air Cdr Crawford repeated exactly what he said in his comments on the BOI but did admit that some of it was conjecture.
The AAIB was asked a series of technical questions which culminated in a couple of very interesting quotes -
Tony Cable admitted that it was a very difficult case and that "evidence was very thin on the ground".
Ken Smart, head of the AAIB, interupted the questioning at one point to rightly point out that it is not an exact science - he also said that those parties that used the AAIB report to dismiss any technical failure out of hand were wrong.
Bob Burke returned to the stand to explain further problems with the reconstruction of the final seconds of flight. He was also challenged by a letter from Wg Cdr Cooke - the OC Ops Bob had said told him not to help the AAIB. The letter was from Wg Cdr Cooke to the MOD saying that the conversation didn't take place. An interesting one that.
Finally Wratten & Day (resplendent in his tight fitting No 1s) had the last word. They started by churning out their first statements again which just had everyone dying of boredom. Even the committee began to chat amongst themselves on a couple of occasions and Day was spouting to himself. Interestingly their argument is now that the act of negligence occured before the waypoint change and clear of cloud. So, although no rules or regulations were broken in any way, the 2 pilots were gulity of gross negligence because, in the AM's opinion, the aircraft was under control before the WP change and hence should have been steered away from the Mull before it became a factor in any subsequent emergency.
Hmmm, I fear the are getting desperate!
[ 08 November 2001: Message edited by: John Nichol ]