The fishing boats were never traced , so much attention was paid to the evidence provided by one of the yachtsmen........
..however convincing he may have seemed his testimony was inconsistent
.ie ... when asked by the HOL what he thought the visibility was , he says 7 nm , then later states that he can see the island of Sanda (9nm) and the Irish coast(10nm)...
..also....
The Ministry of Defence notes Mr Holbrook’s evidence to the Committee that the pilots would have been able to see the position of the lighthouse on approach to the Mull. But according to the evidence offered to the Fatal Accident Inquiry, at the time he saw the helicopter he believed he was about two miles south west of the lighthouse and that the aircraft was ¼-½mile away, at a height of 200-400 ft. He estimated the speed of the aircraft to be 60-80 knots, although in evidence to the RAF Board of Inquiry (BOI) he suggested that it was travelling " ….. somewhat faster than Sea Kings in level flight ….", which is typically an airspeed of some 100-110 kts. Mr Holbrook also indicated to the Fatal Accident Inquiry that he watched the helicopter for only some 25-30 seconds, during which time he was manoeuvring his yacht around fishing boats (although in evidence to the BOI and to the Committee, Mr Holbrook indicated that his sighting of the aircraft was limited to a five second view ......
..everyone responds to pressure in different ways , and I do not envy him the bias he must have felt people were applying to his words....
Walter
..it is important to use all position references from the same source , hence my use of the GPS co-ordinates ........
..if you mix in real , true OS lat/long to WGS84 as well , you will get varying results as the GPS positions were all displaced 0.1NM in the alignment 55degrees/235degrees.(reciprocals).......
rgds Robin.......