Paul, My commiserations.
I was in Belize for the first time in 1979. From what I remember of Salamanca, looking at the second photo, I think the memorial is just about where the aircraft came down. I was shown the accident site early on in my time there and we found some small electrical components still in the bushes. There was no memorial in those days but we paid our respects to lost colleagues (I didn't know them personally because I didn't join the RAF until 1976).
I believe there was a raised landing pad just to the left of the memorial in that same photo and at the time the undergrowth was quite a lot thicker in the area. We used to land on the pad routinely under the directions of our crewmen to locate the wheels as we couldn't see the pad from the cockpit when correctly placed over it. It was really too small for a Puma; it was designed for smaller, skidded aircraft such as the Scout.
I think the accident occurred on takeoff. An engine failed, the rotor RPM drooped and the alternators tripped off line. This caused the autopilot to drop out, destabilising the aircraft, which had insufficient power on the remaining engine to fly away. The pilot had no option except to attempt a landing back on the pad. Unfortunately the aircraft drifted back beyond the pad and crashed a few metres back from it. All on board were lost.
The Pumas electrical system was modified after this accident. The normal main rotor speed (Nr) limits were 258 to 272. If the Nr dropped to 240 for 2 seconds, the alternators tripped off. The system was modified to remain on unless the Nr dropped to 220. I hope those figures are correct, it's been over 14 years since I flew the Puma and I'm relying on my memory, not written notes.
I remember Salamanca and that helipad for two reasons. I once had to divert there due to very bad weather at our destination at Rideau. The field between the helipad and the hill, in those days a football field, was flooded because the river at the rear of the hill had broken its banks and was flowing round both sides of it. We waded across through about 18 inches of water to get to the HF radio room at the top of the hill, in order to contact HQ and inform them of our whereabouts. As I was about to enter the radio room via the steps, a Ghurka soldier loudly shouted "STOP". I paused mid step, to see a large snake under my instep. It had been in the radio room and was coming down the steps. I very narrowly avoided treading on it. I was later shown it after they killed it - it was a very big Fer-de-lance. Had the Ghurka not shouted I would probably have been bitten. The nearest medical treatment was in Florida; no one else could fly the heli so I would probably not have survived.
The second thing that happened to me there was a total loss of hydraulic fluid in one of my Puma's hydraulic systems. It blew out via a fractured flexible pipe on the nose undercarriage leg (the contents of the manual reserve can had also all gone, according to the engineers). As we took off there was a loud bang, followed by vibration, strong smelling oil fumes and more loud noises from the transmission. I thought it was the main gearbox breaking up and briefly thought about dumping the aircraft in the trees. I resisted the temptation (the accident site was quite strong in my mind) and flew a very tight circuit back to the helipad. The loud noises up top reduced slightly but increased again as I lowered the undercarriage. We still thought it was the main gearbox until after shutdown when we spotted the full length underside of the aircraft dripping hydraulic fluid. The noise was the hydraulic pump cavitating due to loss of fluid.
Had we not got the gear down and locked before the system emptied (I was trained to be very quick to lower it in an emergency) we would have been forced to do a wheels up landing at our destination at Rideau. This would have been very awkward due to the very poor ground and similar small raised helipads there. We had very little fuel left, as it happened and there was no facility for a refuel in the hover at either HLS.