SPHL:-
and plain bad luck had a large part to play here.
The bad luck seems to have been that this aircraft had an escape system that was "entirely useless". Other than something on which a pilot could park his backside the rest of it was so much dead weight, and as it turned out very dangerous deadweight at that. Because of that the aircraft was as unairworthy as the Mull Chinook, the Iraq Tornado, the Afghanistan Nimrod, etc. There is the same common thread linking those tragedies with this one, ie a dysfunctional UK military airworthiness provision system.
As you say, let us see if the SI Report reveals that, and if so why that was. Or not...
the family accepted a settlement in Dec '13 so this one in done & dusted
A new MOD tactic to settle before both inquest and SI publication? Now why would they do that I wonder?