bast0n, thank you for your response and for saying indeed that, like most of us here, you do not know. It may seem pedantic of me to hound that response from you but there is method to my persistence. This accident is different because of what we now know. The BoI was a disgrace, purposely turning its gaze against a history of technical failure that it must have been aware of. Instead the focus was on the pilots' performance from the start, culminating in the outrageous finding by the RO's supported by "evidence" that would have made the KGB blush. Nonetheless that remains the MOD case, based solely on that "evidence" and by the simple word play of saying that anything brought against it is not "new" evidence it has ensured the stalemate that still exists. My hunch is that events, dear boy, are about to conspire against that, and their cunning plan is simply to offer the "pilot error" revised finding to get out of jail. That is why I think it is time for we professionals to examine our thoughts on this. Of course it could be pilot error, indeed it could have even been negligence, but for all that we now know, the truth is that we just don't know. Short of having a new Inquiry into this accident, and with due respect to the RAF what credibility would it have, the only acceptable finding would be cause unknown. Unlike AA my suspicions would centre on the aircraft airworthiness or lack of it, but again we are never likely to know now.
There is far more at stake here than the reputations of two deceased junior officers, what is truly at stake is the proper provision of Military Airworthiness and the Investigation of Military Air Accidents. Both functions were conducted with Gross Negligence in this case, to coin a prevalent phrase, and that must be faced up to and resolved in order that more avoidable fatal accidents are indeed avoided. "Pilot Error" with no basis of proof will merely allow the MOD to perpetuate the myth that this accident has been properly investigated and found to have been caused by the pilots. That would be yet another of their lies.