ZA 721, mechanical failure, easily established as such, no such evidence on the Mull.
No, it was most definitely
not easily established in that very disturbing accident. Steve Newman was a colleague of mine and our "Boss", Wg Cdr Malcolm Pledger, was appointed as the President of the BOI. I spoke to him directly about the accident after he returned to UK from the scene of the accident. At the time the BOI team were at a loss and asking for ideas from crews that might be researched by them. In the end, the verdict of the most likely cause took a very long time to reach.
The aircraft (Mk1) already had a very bad reputation with crews at that time but that particular accident was the one which made me, as the father of small children, decide to do whatever I could to avoid a Chinook posting. Thankfully, I managed to do so.