The real culprit there IMHO, was appalling supervision.
I was around at the time and agree with Kremin. Those boys had a massive night on the grog before that flight....the culture of the time – fly hard, play harder. Although it was analysed that Craig's BAL was at zero when he started work, he would very likely have been flying hungover – that
is a supervision issue: no flying should have been scheduled after a mess social function where a drinking-fest is inevitable (the witness statements confirmed a lot was drunk).
However, we will never know if it was a contributing factor – there are many, many possible causes of this accident. ****e happens in fighter operations. The investigators look for lessons learned and move on. In this case, there was too little evidence to determine cause, so the investigation wound up fairly quickly. Grahame's tenacity was the result of an intensely proud man who wanted nothing less than to prove his son was not to blame in any way (and indeed be honoured) but it was an impossible quest because of the lack of evidence.
Grahame's strength of character and tenacity to honour the memory of his son will be remembered.