The discussion about the Pilots state of health, ignores the fact that he was one of the first of the victims to be released for burial.
I can assure you from an investigatory background, that such a release just would not have been permitted, if there was even the slightest shadow of doubt that incapacitation might have been a cause. So lets leave it eh!
But he had been off on extended leave recently. So how current was he? How long since converting from the Chinook? At moments of extreem pressure does one revert to the more familiar?
I am sure that all these things will be being looked at closely by the AAIB So lets leave that bit to the experts.
But I am intensly interested in what the Police Control room records reveal of that final mission. Just how much pressure was exerted to stay on task in those final moments? I've been there & felt it, finally blurting out. "Look you blighters sort yourselves out, this is a helicopter and we cannot just pull over into a layby & switch off. Sort the delay out now, or we are going home fuel is getting short !" They didnt & we went home! Result - big row! but we got home!
TF