Dudley

Thanks for your post.

Unlike you, I am not a pilot, though I have been in love with planes and
flying since I was a wee boy. I have done quite a few hours of instruction
in Pipers and Cessnas but cannot really afford on my salary to get a
licence.

I did use to drive motor bikes professionally as a despatch rider and have
lost a few friends over the years that way.

I know how the fairly flippant portrayal of your friend's death must have
offended you. I think I would have felt the same way. I tried to point that
out to the OP as well. Death casts a shadow.

By a weird coincidence, I was reading just last night for the nth time the
story of the crash in which your friend was killed in Andrew Brookes' book.
If you haven't seen it, it is worth a look. He says the same as you about
it. He and Macarthur Job are highly prized resources on aviation safety;
thoughtful and insightful. If you want a good book on aviation safety, you
could do worse than read it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...175441-4003826

He was an RAF pilot. Great writer.

In his version he claims that several of the crew on that plane were
instructed to go by their superiors because they themselves knew Holland was
a disaster waiting to happen. If that is true, it is a f***ing disgrace.
They would have been braver to ground Holland than themselves I would think.

May I extend my symapthy for your loss.

John