Letter: Pilots' errors did cause Chinook crash

One of the most difficult parts of flying (pre-GPS) is making a landfall and fixing your position when approaching the coast. A small wrong identification of features can put an aircraft miles out of position.

The Chinook was flying under Visual Flight Rules (VFL) as it approached, so position fixing would be by visual identification of features. Usually any error can be corrected by further identification as the flight continues.

Unfortunately, in this case the aircraft flew into mist (not cloud) and lost visual sighting. At this point the flight changed to Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) where flying depends on instruments and no visual clues.

If the pilots thought they were in a different position and were flying up the coast, then their height and speed would have been satisfactory.

It does not matter if the Full Authority Digital Engine Control or other problems distracted the pilots - their first duty is to plot and fly a safe course.

It is clear from the engineering evidence that they unexpectedly saw the rising ground (not a cliff) and tried an avoiding manoeuvre by a tight climbing turn at the last moment.

This would suggest that they were not expecting to find the higher ground at this point.

Had they been going to fly over the high ground then it would have been expected that they would have started the climb to a higher altitude as soon as they reached the coast, especially if moving to IFR.

It was probably a simple navigational mistake but it is one that has been repeated many times.

At the Fairy Lochs south of Gairloch lie the remains of a Liberator which, on returning to the USA at the end of the Second World War, made contact with the top of Slioch in poor visibility and crashed while trying to ditch in the loch.

Bruce D Skivington

Strath

Gairloch, Wester Ross