The Chinook crew had already flown 6+ hrs that day in that Airframe without incident………..
As MoD’s regulations state: that an event has not happened before shall not be taken as evidence it shall never happen.
But, to paraphrase the same regs, if a fault or unexplained event has occurred numerous times, that shall be construed as a trend failure and the (MoD Technical Agency) shall move Heaven and Earth to solve the problem.
Notably, the 2 Stars responsible for attaining and maintaining Chinook airworthiness are on record as disagreeing with the first and cutting funding for the second 2-3 years before the crash. Direct result – A&AEE had stopped flying this immature design yet 8 months before CA had signed the CA Release.