Round the Bouy Again!
BBF,
I had hoped to stay out of this debate whilst the MOD looked at the evidence again, but given that John Purdey seems to have forgotten his own commitment not to comment further and you are contributing to further circular arguments I feel I need to join in again!
If indeed you were to "banjo" your aircraft into the hillside "whilst doing a low level Navex in marginal weather conditions" (a situation that did not apply to this flight anyway) your last thoughts might indeed be "what a **** I am to have got myself into this position." On the other hand if, as a specialist SF crew (which you seem to be happy to equate to PPL holders) well used to such conditions, you had pointed out that the aircraft you had been asked to fly on what was essentially a civil passenger flight was not fit for purpose, and, having failed, for reasons beyond your control, to make the planned turn as selected for the next waypoint, you were struggling to get over the hill you knew was in front of you with an uncommanded engine run-up, or a jammed control crate or just the distraction of a "known" (in RTS terms) false engine fail indication you might well be having different thoughts! Actually, more likely you entire thoughts would be devoted to trying to get out of an impossible situation!
I do not know which of these scenarios, or indeed any other scenario, applied - nor do you and, more importantly, and by his own admission, nor did the Senior Reviewing Officer - who then went way beyond the findings of the BoI in his own findings. Given this, whilst you may well still think that this was a pilot error accident - and you may even be right, this is not the basis for finding two pilots who are not there to defend themselves guilty of gross negligence (effectively the crime of manslaughter). That is what these 188 pages are meant to be about - and if you had been the victim of this gross injustice I am sure you would want to see your family, friends and professional colleagues fight to put it right - even if, as you put it, you were not there to care about the verdict.
As to the true cause of this accident it is a fact that "no-one will ever know" - a position acknowledged by the House of Lords Select Committee who did not accept the gross negligence findings and, dare I say it, were eminently more qualified than you, and a did a great deal more investigation of the facts, including listening to the full submissions of the Reviewing Officers, to make such a judgement. The were also prepared to make it under their own names!
JB