Letter: Clearing the air

I RESENT being accused of ignoratio elenchi (Major Michael Hamilton's letter, 20 July), when it was neither my intention nor what I did; what I wrote was not irrelevant to the argument (about the Chinook crash].

Perhaps he means the straw man fallacy.

I quoted him correctly and then addressed the general claim that the aircraft suffered a technical problem. Even though he makes much of the possibility, I did not accused Mr Hamilton of such a claim.

Nor am I trying to score points; merely to emphasise that, despite Lord Philip's legalistic conclusion, the absence of evidence of a technical problem makes pilot error the most likely cause. I have also exhibited evidence that supports that hypothesis.

The "essential point" is not that the pilots have been found not guilty of "gross negligence" but the question of what they were guilty of.

Steuart Campbell

Dovecot Loan

Edinburgh