Shy,
The Chinook Cockpit is a very noisy place. Yelling and arm waving is fine so long as standard signals and lip reading skills are practiced.
That being said, in light of the impact forces is it not possible the Intercom selector might have been shifted around from normal due to external reasons or if the Co-Pilot's hand had been on the selector at time of impact?
Even with an Intercom failure, would not the Co-Pilot (or whoever was handling the TANs), have been able to switch to the new waypoint, slew the Nav pointers to that waypoint, and merely used hand signals of some kind to inform the Handling Pilot?
Also, just how accurate was the TAN's indications as compared to actual location and speed?
Much mention was made about the programmed waypoint being 285 meters (or some such distance) from the actual Lighthouse. It would seem to me that would be good enough for Government Work and not in itself have a bearing upon the outcome of the flight.
I also wonder about the 140 Knot Speed Limit imposed by the RAF rules. Besides using Dad's Slide Rule, what method was used to calculate that particular number? Stall Speed of a Piston Prevost?
It seems quite an arbitrary number somehow as 140 Knots is still clipping right along if one's concern is about being able to stop or avoid obstacles.
That high a speed does not comport with the Bush Pilot's "Hover Mosey" technique of going only as fast as one can see ahead which is a variable speed that derives from how far ahead one can actually see.
Again, I am seeing Arbitrary Rules that attempt to fit all occasions when in real life that concept just does not work.
DB keeps banging his Drum over that Rule despite no evidence exists to confirm what distance the Crew could see ahead of the aircraft.
What is it about the RAF Chinooks that caused them to be so unreliable? We do not hear such issues being raised about the US Army Chinook Fleet. There is probably a very sad story behind that which is far from being "Public" knowledge.
I recall the RAF had a Shed full of Chinooks that were put into storage for Years before they could be sorted out well enough to be put into Service. Was this one of them?