There remains one aspect of the AAIB report that Ive never quite understood and it is this. Why were there no reports of anything being said on the Police radio to the control room?
Let me explain. Some will remember me as being fairly active on Police Air Support matters until a few years ago. I was responsible for setting up one unit so i am well aware of normal practice etc.
But what they might not know is that for several years before that I was a Senior Investigating Officer in the Internal affairs branch. Yes the Gestapo!
As such when investigating a serious Police vehicle accident or one where a member of the public had been killed. Almost my very first action would have been to go to the Control room involved and seize all the relevant tapes!
Now going back to my Air Support experience I know that from my first hand experience we used to tell our control room a fair bit about what was going on, especially if we were concerned about needing to return quickly re low fuel etc or any other issue that we were unhappy about.
But the accident report makes no comment about what the Police crew reported. Are we to assume that they were completely unconcerned about the low fuel state?
TF