It's Not What This is About!
There are still too many people posting speculations and their own "reasons" for this accident - this is not what this is about - there is only one reason for this thread and the submission to MOD and that is to clear the pilots' names of an unjustified and possibly illegal charge of gross negligence - ie manslaughter! You do not have to be a helicopter pilot or expert to make that judgement because none of these people, whatever their rank and experience, know what happened - an admission from the senior reviewing officer who then, in what I see as an error of judgement himself, based his findings on hypothesis and speculation - not on facts - the "facts" were not and are not available. Many people have studied this accident most carefully, and were well qualified to do so, and none could agree the BoI findings. But perhaps the most qualified investigation, combining legal, engineering and aviation expertise, the HoL Select Committee, after an exhaustive investigation which covered even more ground than the BoI, said "we will never know" - that alone is a good enough reason, or even fact, why whatever mistakes the pilots may or may not have made, whether the aircraft had a major technical defect or not, whether it was "airworthy" enough ever to have been used for this flight and whatever our personal opinions may be as to what happened the pilots should not have been accused of gross negligence - it is as simple as that.
JB