Nunc
Thanks for your very moving post. As someone else out there has already said, there are two issues here, one of which you deal with.
I certainly dont blame anyone out there that night for what happened, nor would I ever seek to.
The issue that is driving my questions is not ambiguous or difficult to understand fully, as the moments that led up to the collision will inevitably remain. The issue is very clear.
It is the process in which one man sought to ensure that the regulations applying to airworthiness with regard to the fitting of HISL to the Mk7 were properly followed, and was repeatedly overruled by someone who did not have the qualifications to do so.
The documentation relating to that was not given to the board of inquiry and it was not given to the inquest. That first act breached service rules. The second was illegal. All the evidence suggests the information was withheld deliberately, and not just by one person, by a number of people acting in concert.
I'm not trying to blame anyone for the collision. I am blaming someone for forcing through a piece of equipment that was not properly tested and trialled, and a number of people for illegally seeking to prevent evidence of that action being made available to the bodies trying to work out what happened that night.
It is of course true that this raises legitimate questions over the effect on the collision. If an official body, working on expert testimony decides that the failure to carry out the proper airworthiness procedures could not have had any impact, so be it.
But both the board of inquiry and the inquest should have been given that information so they could make that judgement and if they had been given the information, and used it in coming to their decisions, whatever they decided, I suspect this thread would not exist.
I'm sorry if it inevitably brings back bad memories for those relatives who do not want to revisit the situation or the colleagues of the crews.
Last edited by Mick Smith; 17th Nov 2009 at 18:34.