Dear Walt,
Personally and for so, so many reasons, I don't believe that an approach to a 'covert' LZ using CPLS or even a flypast of someone holding a PRC112 was either planned or attempted but neither was it an impossiblity.
So, bizarrely, I find myself agreeing with you (What am I saying!?). If there is even the remotest chance of your scenario happening, (which you firmly and laudably uphold in the face of ridicule), then it should be investigated, if only to remove it from the realms of possibility. The assertion that the ac may have had a CPLS Rx fitted needs to be confirmed - but anecdotal evidence seems to give substance to your suspicions. I seem to recall that some of those who were in Aldergrove at the time might confirm this; have you got anyone to do so or are there photographs (v doubtful)? Has anyone checked the remainder of the wreckage, I believe, still in a hangar at Lee-on-Solent for suspicious gaps of the correct dimensions in the cockpit panels? If it was fitted, where is the paper-work for a trials fit of CPLS (inc operating limitations) or the Service Deviation to permit use (given the parlous state of the airworthiness clearances, I doubt there was either)?
If CPLS wasn't fitted, of course.....that's the end of it but I agree it would merit a closer look if doubt is to be erradicated.
I would suggest that there is little more you can do for now than to put your evidence and thinking on paper and send it Lord Philip.
In truth, the very remote possibility of CPLS being fitted to ZD576 at all certainly gives rise to further doubt.
Good Luck and Kind Regards,
flipster
Last edited by flipster; 2nd Oct 2010 at 08:21.