Sir - The letter from Capt Fairchild (Flight International 5-11 July, P69) publicises the report on the Chinook helicopter crash on the Mull of Kintyre on 2 June. The finding of gross negligence, however, was not made by the board of investigation.
The board concluded that, although there had been at least an error of judgement by the captain of the aircraft, there was insufficient evidence to justify a finding of negligence and this view met with the agreement of the Officer Commanding at Royal Air Force Aldergrove.
This was not agreed by the relevant Air Officer Commanding, however, who had his reasons for what he saw as having been a failure of duty by the pilots. He noted that the crew had contravened instrument-flight-rules and visual-flight-rules procedures and went on to find gross negligence, an opinion which was upheld by his Commander in Chief .
It is perhaps unfortunate that the "sanitised" accident summary did not make mention of the findings, as its wording certainly implied that blame had been apportioned by the board.
JAMES FERGUSON
Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
Sir...Capt Fairchild rightly expresses concern that yet another accident report finds no conclusive evidence, yet still results in allocation of blame. This crew was unable to argue its own defence, but blame has nevertheless been allocated. It was perhaps politically easier to divert the media spotlight onto this crew. There could well have been other causal factors, which were not fully understood or considered, and I think that the verdict should remain open, to avoid smearing the names of possibly blameless aircrew undoubtedly trying to do a job to the best of their ability.
Without wishing to rekindle the "pilots in Ferraris/engineers on bicycles" argument, this tragedy highlights the responsibility carried by aircrew. Why should aircrew be paid more for flying duties? For the same reason that aircrew have to pay extra life-insurance premiums - it doesn't matter what you fly or for whom you are flying - as aircrew you are always in the crash.
PAUL WHEATLEY
Hong Kong
Source: Flight International
