Thanks folks for the replies. Most informative. (Easily the best forum on PPrune)
One poster refered me to another amature forum which was discussing this particular accident.
Actually I wasnt trying to use this particular accident as an example but trying to ascertain the general rule.
I have spent some considerable time trying to estabilish the rules around the closing of flight plans, particularly the closing of flight plans in the air.
I cannot find any rule in JAR OPS (EU OPS) that permits the closing of a flight plan in the air.
Is it therefore something that has "evolved" and become a practice, purely as a common sense procedure to avoid time wasted by over worked controllers who have to follow up pilots who forget to close their flight plans on the ground. (I can completely understand this by the way but has this un sactioned work around led to pilots and passangers .........)
Dubfan