Hi this is Angie's brother, AJ's brother in law. I was at the Coroners Inquest in Belfast which ran for four days with the Jury's narrative verdict on the fifth day. The inquest went into minute detail on all aspects of the accident culminating with a presentation by the AAIB and a summing up by the Coroner. For friends of AJ you might like to know that the Coroner described AJ as "no ordinary pilot but an exceptional pilot", he also said "Captain Smith was highly respected by his colleagues and peers which I consider to be the gold standard by which any professional achievement can be measured". I appreciate that for readers of this blog it is interesting to speculate about what may have happened but the truth is we will never really know. The conclusion reached by the experts, the AAIB, was that some kind of "incapacitation was likely" - knowing AJ and the facts surrounding the case I am of the same opinion. The purpose of the AAIB is to improve aviation safety by determining causes of air accidents and making safety recommendations intended to prevent recurrence. The AAIB didn't make any safety recommendations which means in their expert opinion, nothing about the flight planning , preparation or anything else could have been changed to avoid a recurrence. There has also been a lot of speculation sparked by the Express article. Don't worry Angie is not paying anyone £300,000 and just because claims are made it doesn't make them true or accurate.
Last edited by kitsch; 28th Feb 2012 at 20:38.