Mull of Kintyre Chinook crash pilots cleared

[Paul K]

Been a long time coming...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-g ... t-14130867

[Dev One]

A very long time coming! Unfortunately cannot get the bbc replays here, but I think I know & have known the problem with those Chinooks since it crashed, It must have been well known otherwise why did they stay grounded for so long & then have a redesigned electrical & FADEC system installed. Why the pilots were blamed originally is anybodys guess, but there might have been hidden pressures on the BOI personnel?
Keith

[Filonian]

Why the pilots were blamed originally is anybodys guess, Keith

Standard practice - if the pilot's dead, blame him, he cannot dispute it.

I'm very pleased to see both men have had their names cleared, even after such a long trime.

Must be a relief foe the families and friends.


Graham

[SkippyBing]

Standard practice - if the pilot's dead, blame him, he cannot dispute it.

Not true, the RAF's policy, certainly at the time of the original enquiry, was that to attribute an incident to pilot error there had to be no doubt/plausible alternative explanation. The RAF essentially broke its own rule at the original enquiry.

[Dev One]

Surely the BoI was aware of the EMC problem with the beast - the restrictions ( I think it was Cat5 - the worst) were published in a handbook with all the other aircraft ( cannot remember the name of the book). It also I think listed high radiation points/areas, but I dont think Automatic lighthouses were listed, maybe they wern't considered or measured I suppose.
Keith

[SkippyBing]

Surely the BoI was aware of the EMC problem with the beast - the restrictions ( I think it was Cat5 - the worst) were published in a handbook with all the other aircraft ( cannot remember the name of the book). It also I think listed high radiation points/areas, but I dont think Automatic lighthouses were listed, maybe they wern't considered or measured I suppose.
Keith

That EMC vulnerability was (is, think it might have changed a few years back) in the Mil AiP, quite a few aircraft have high vulnerability in certain wavelengths. Of course the BoI argument would be that the aircrew were also aware of those limits and should have planned the flight accordingly.
However, and most of this is from memory so it may not be 100%, there were other factors that the original BoI was aware of that they chose to ignore which would make the verdict of Pilot Error untenable under the rules they work under e.g. the FADECs having a history of governor runaway ups without any outside assistance.

[Chris558]

They keep saying it was the worst RAF peace-time accident, when they should say: The worst RAF peace-time helicopter accident.

The worst was in 1971 when a Herc crashed off the coast of Italy, killing 52.