DALEK
Sorry Caz,
"Current" Chinook TP, trumps, "piston engine jungle clearing, 25 years ago" in spades.
Unnecessary and not necessarily true. Experience is only relevant if one learns from, and applies experience. We all know amazingly experienced pilots with whom we would be unhappy to fly with as they do not apply that experience to the day to day business of staying alive. Some Boscombe TPs of old come into that category in my experience!!
Would I be happy to have the accident investigation reopened to allow more evidence to be presented - of course - but we must be careful not to go down the slippery path demonstrated by WW1 where people were judged by their compatriots by the rules and mores of the time to have this re-examined by the present day "experts" under the rules pertaining today.
If we go down that route we could end up with a can of worms and have the directly opposite result to that to which you aspire.
DNA evidence backtracking old criminal cases and producing totally unexpected results is a case in point.
Let's press for a reinvestigation by all means, and and by whatever means - but let us not kid ourselves that there is some magic bullet that will exonerate the crew. The facts as known do not look good to removing the "pilot error" verdict - and to what extent that leads on to negligence/grosse negligence/recklessness, I simply do not know.
I admire your campaign to clear the poor chaps names and have absolutely no desire to blacken them further. I am a simply old low flying addicted aviator trying to make sense of this horrific crash.
My viewpoint is that to me it seems that on the evidence presented so far they made a tragic and simple mistake that resulted in tragedy.
Let us keep talking to try to make sense of it, and keep emotion out of it as far as we can - and personalities too if you can manage it!
Happy days, from a boring old git.................
