Silent Witness (1996) s11e02 Episode Script

RADIO: .
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had been in service for many years in the armed forces around the world.
But the editor of a leading aeronautics journal said that there had been disquiet about the testing Doctor Harry Cunningham.
I'm a witness to the board of inquiry.
.
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within its computer management system.
Elsewhere, at a hearing this morning of the General Medical Council, Pathologist Dr Robert Murray said that the pathology profession was working under intolerable pressures.
He said that unless the situation was addressed urgently, pathologists will be no better regarded than a band of wandering gypsies.
A wandering band of what? Who was this pathologist? Oh, yes, I do know Dr Robert Murray.
And it was my team he called a wandering band of gypsies.
At what altitude was the aircraft when you first made visual contact? It was less than 200 feet.
You're sure? That's why I noticed it.
I was my car with a friend of mine and suddenly we heard a noise, a very loud, deafening noise .
.
Er, I must have been at the actual, the crash site of the actual aircraft for 45 minutes.
How did you come to be there in the first place? I had been at the air show that the helicopter was flying from.
So, Dr Cunningham, describe in your own words what it was you actually saw? At that point I telephoned the emergency services from my mobile phone and gave them a full assessment of the incident.
Thank you, Dr Cunningham.
One question - you saw or heard no explosion before you witnessed the impact? No.
Thank you very much.
Is that all? Thank you.
INDISTINCT SPEECH Why did this helicopter crash? That's what the board will establish.
Why did the MoD start talking about pilot error within hours of the accident? I really don't know.
Thank you for coming.
Dr Cunningham? Henry Markham.
Usually Harry.
Harry.
'I'm Harry, what's your name, what's your name?' They wouldn't let me sit in and listen.
They convene these boards so damn fast.
They probably didn't expect me to turn up.
Andrew would have wanted me to be here.
Would have wanted me to stay focused.
I'm very sorry about your son.
Thank you.
But I'm not surprised.
What? He never wanted to operate that aircraft.
None of them did.
Can we talk some time? Now? Well, nothing for me to do here.
Home Office? Police.
Detective Superintendent Naylor and this is Detective Sergeant Cross.
We're the identification team for the Ribmead incident.
Oh, I'm sorry, I was expecting some people from the Home Office press unit.
Ah.
So why did it taken so long to produce these documents? The security firm must have known who was in the camp? We had to go back to Immigration to cross-check.
What you have to bear in mind is that these people were awaiting removal.
These are all counterfeits.
The DNA databases probably won't give us anything as we're unlikely to have medical records.
Well, at least cause of death isn't at issue.
Isn't it? Not so much the cutting room today, as the assembly room.
It was a warm night There were more than 30 people outside in the open area.
The guards were letting them associate, although officially they were meant to be segregated.
Was that the first time this had happened? Were there newcomers in the camp? Had they met to watch two individuals trying to settle an old score? Was this caused by a piece of jagged metal or a knife blade? Female.
Between 13 and 16 Signs of recent sexual activity, possibly shortly before death.
Had she had consensual sex, had she been abused by an inmate? Had someone used the accident as a smokescreen, literally, for covering something up? We, we hadn't considered any of this.
We have to.
TANNOY: 'The Press Association are here, sir.
' Sorry, my visitors.
Is this going to be on record or for background? Let's see at the end, shall we? Apparently Dr Murray didn't confine his comments to the Fitness to Practice matter.
Is it true you manoeuvred to handle the aftermath of the Ribmead helicopter crash? Manoeuvred? Did you say "manoeuvred"? I'm trying to understand why the bodies were moved out of the jurisdiction of the local coroner.
She retained jurisdiction even though the bodies were sent to London.
The local coroner deals with military cases returned from overseas.
She has rather a lot on her plate at the moment.
Wait a second.
I'm sorry, but we don't want to see stories of military bodies stacking up in mortuaries.
Aren't they? If there's a backlog, that suggests the system's overstretched Look! I've got a better story.
Photo, please.
We have here Georgi Klimov, date of birth the 12th of the 7th, '49.
A farm labourer.
No family group.
Economic migrant.
This is a story from Iraq worth following up.
A little while ago.
It alleges that when the American military delivers corpses to the mortuaries, the Iraqis are given a trauma sheet indicating the cause of death and told NOT to carry out a post-mortem.
Is this because of religious sensitivity? I don't think so.
More like military sensitivity.
The point being? The point being that pathologists are the last line in the sand before civil society falls apart.
That's the story - that we do what we do and we do it conscientiously.
Not whether we do it faster or slower.
Write about that.
Results.
Can you put them over there.
What, what was that? Blood type.
Why didn't he want to operate the helicopter? My son thought the new SE24 was unsafe.
A lot of the pilots did.
There were problems with it in testing and the squadron release was cocked up.
You're a pilot? I was on fighters, and then I went civil.
I retired as an airline training captain.
But I still keep up my private licence.
I taught him to fly.
He went into the university air squadron.
Then the RAF told him to forget all he knew and to start from scratch.
Ended up going rotary.
Surprised us.
His mother and I decided he wanted to do something his father hadn't done.
What have the RAF said to you about the accident? They've said nothing to me.
But they had a minister going on the next morning about pilot error.
I knew from that moment the way things were heading.
You don't think this was pilot error? My son was a Special Forces pilot, one of the best around.
But he clearly didn't trust this upgrade.
Between my son and the aircraft I know which of the two I'd bet on it had cocked it up.
Leo? Mm-hm.
Do you think these are entry and exit wounds? Yeah.
Almost certainly.
Andrew's last letter to me.
After he got back from Iraq.
He says he's glad he survived.
Go on.
And now he thinks he might be killed in the new helicopter.
I said he was exaggerating.
I said it was just teething problems, nothing he couldn't handle.
I, I tried to put his mind at rest.
My only son.
All I had left.
Did you say no family group? That's correct.
This is him, isn't it? Yes, and no.
You see these scars by the ears classic subperiosteal rhytidectomy.
Facelift! Dissection might show resection of nasal bones suggesting rhinoplasty.
There are small healed incision marks on the abdomen suggesting liposuction so he obviously altered his appearance extensively.
And expensively.
What was his occupation? A farm labourer.
He has healed wounds in his leg, suggestive of entry and exit bullet wounds.
The bone may show ballistic traces.
So this is someone who went to great expense to alter his appearance.
Can you do a reconstruction to show what he looked like before surgery? Why not? Success would depend on the extent of the surgery.
If there were too many alterations to the bony structures, then we might struggle.
Removing the flesh from the skull to do a reconstruction is not a normal procedure.
But if we used stereo-lithography you won't need to.
Stereo what? Sorry? We do a cat-scan on a hospital scanner, and take the data to a lab where a computer-aided design software programme controls a battery of laser guns.
These are fired into a vat of molten polymer resins which harden at specific places.
And an image of the skull appears.
Like a hologram? No, like a skull.
On which we can rebuild a face.
There's something else.
He had quite a rare blood group.
What's the significance of that? There's another blood sample taken from the site of the same type.
What, his blood? No.
Not his blood.
How do we know? It got into my hair when I leaned into the back of our car at the crash site.
It was from someone who was hiding there during the night and who ran off in the morning.
Who was this? Where did you get this? It was given to me on site.
We expected to find her among the victims.
But we didn't.
I think it's his daughter.
That's great.
Thanks.
What are you doing here, you're supposed to be on leave.
Are you all right? Yeah.
So how did you persuade those poor cat scan guys to do a cadaver? Bribery.
The police think we might have a major fugitive.
When I went weird at the crash site I told Leo I thought you were suffering from shock.
.
.
I couldn't remember exactly what had happened until I met Harry Markham today.
I thought the pilot was saying MY name.
But he was saying his father's name.
Harry.
Harry.
Harry? Hang on a second.
Who are you calling? I'm not calling anyone.
Look at these pictures - I took them at the crash site.
I've been blocking it out, but I must have known what I'd done because they asked for my phone and I wouldn't give it to them.
Are you worried about taking these or concealing them? Neither, I'm worried about something else.
The AAIB has it that the engines were at normal power settings.
How do you know that? I spoke to them.
Now if you were piloting a helicopter at dangerously low altitude, high speed and off course, what do you think you would be trying to do? Climb.
Pull emergency engine power.
All the power you've got.
Apparently there are mechanical flags which indicate whether the pilot has called for emergency power settings and we can say that at impact the engine settings were normal.
Look, the control column is called the, er, the collective.
He's got it pulled hard, upwards.
He's caught in it.
He is trying to pull up.
But the engines settings are normal.
So the engines aren't responding? No.
The engines aren't responding.
We have to talk to Leo about those pictures.
We can't NOT talk to Leo.
You didn't show these to the pilot's father? Of course not.
Hmm.
We give the pictures to the RAF as forensic evidence.
I've got a face to do.
Do your face.
We've been here before.
The military - when do they ever accept responsibility for anything? Cause of death - multiple injuries.
Actual cause of death - faulty equipment, poor decision-making.
I think you're being a little bit extreme.
When we say "cause of death", what if we don't know what the true circumstances were? You know our remit very well.
Pathologists get into trouble for forgetting what that is.
Do you want to be part of a whitewash? That aircraft is notorious for computer management problems.
I need to call this in.
You admit you took these? It's not an offence for a forensic pathologist to make a record.
Dr Cunningham didn't volunteer these on site.
In fact, he wasn't at all co-operative.
I was virtually arrested by your men.
The cordoning of an accident site and the exclusion of people from within, are covered in RAF standing regulations AP100V-10.
You were a bystander.
A passer-by.
Nothing more.
Until the coroner arrived.
Have you come here for a drumhead trial about site procedures? It was a distressing and confusing experience.
Dr Cunningham has some evidential material.
That the pilot was trying to gain altitude with emergency power.
Which tells us something about the engines having normal power settings.
Do you know anything about flying, Dr Cunningham? Don't patronise me, please.
I am a senior forensic pathologist.
And your expertise is acknowledged.
I just doubt that it extends to air accident investigation or flight safety, which the Royal Air Force takes very seriously.
You're not even going to discuss it.
No.
I have no reason to discuss it.
Even with a senior forensic pathologist.
These pictures are evidence.
I expect you'll want to remain discreet about these.
You're concerned about my discretion? I'm concerned about the safety of your helicopters.
Happily not your problem.
I'll walk you out.
What happened? We were passers-by, apparently.
What did Leo say? I've put him in a difficult position.
He didn't say much.
We WERE passers-by.
It took us by surprise.
All that, "Let me through, I'm a doctor" stuff doesn't always work like it should, does it? What do you mean? An aircraft hitting the ground in front of you, why should that be less shocking for us than for anyone else? You know what we were talking about on the way to the air show? How we treat the living compared to how we treat the dead.
I don't always follow you I don't always know what you're trying to say.
I was thinking, though we try to identify every victim, whatever it costs.
We'll go to any lengths to give the dead a name, even though we wouldn't give them work permits while they were alive.
And that pisses you off? Well, this man, whoever he is, he's come here with his daughter but said he had no family with him.
He's changed his appearance, for some good reason we imagine.
Why was he keeping his relationship to his daughter secret? I don't know.
Do you think I'm putting her in danger by trying to identify her father? Right.
Let's get back to work.
That just came for you.
Oh, thanks.
Harry you ready to come back to work? Yes.
My estimation is that this victim is from the Horn of Africa.
On what grounds? Genital mutilation in adolescence.
No? No, it could be the Sudan.
Somalia.
Anywhere across sub-Saharan Africa and into the Arabian Gulf, so, not just Horn of Africa.
Right, well, isotope topography should narrow it down.
However, I suggest that the Sudanese Embassy should be the first port of call.
I'm sorry for how I've been.
Not necessary.
I'm as concerned about these people as any of us.
I think it matters that we get it right? Why shouldn't we get it right? Well, apparently this investigation is going to take several months, but a great number of people already seem to know the outcome.
Which is? Pilot error.
What do you want, Harry? What do I want? If I, er, said "the truth", that would sound pretentious.
But, um .
.
what I certainly don't want is to be part of a falsehood.
This thing happened in front of me and Nikki.
You don't just forget it easily.
So what do you want? If their PM on the pilot comes up with Go on.
If their PM on the pilot happens to come up with something which contributes to a finding of pilot error.
Are you saying that the RAF Centre for Aviation Medicine would invent a PM result? Because if you are saying that I'm not, I'm not attacking their pathologists, it's I'm talking about transparency.
I have a friend in the squadron that flight came from.
He told me there was widespread unease about this aircraft.
And in the last few weeks of his life, Andrew Markham himself was really alarmed about it.
Well, what's the upshot of all this? I think we should offer the family a second post-mortem.
How? OK.
The family ask us.
It doesn't matter if WE trust our fellow pathologists.
What matters is that we are trusted by the outside world.
I started out today by defending the profession against another pathologist who just wanted to drag us through controversy, I suppose to promote himself.
I don't want to end the day by attacking another set of colleagues.
Think of it as protecting him.
Protecting all of us.
We haven't always agreed on everything, God knows we haven't.
But we have always made room for each other's opinions.
Sleep on it.
And if I don't agree, you'll tell the father to ask someone else to do it? I shall tell him what his rights and his options are, yes.
He can't ask for it when he's cremated his son.
Is he cremating his son? I don't know.
I haven't asked him.
Maybe.
What else can I do for him? Have you told him that you found his son alive? Is this about his peace of mind or yours? I'm asking Leo if we can offer to do a second PM on the pilot.
Leo thinks this is cos I feel guilty about not saving his life.
Don't put words into my mouth.
I will sort it out.
I'll see the coroner.
I'll see the father.
You'll be stirring up doubt and uncertainty.
I shall be saying there is no possible prospect of doubt and uncertainty.
Hang on, we don't know what the first PM says yet.
Are you saying they're going to bring something up that blames the pilot in the PM? I think it's a reasonable in light of events for us to offer the RAF the facility of a second post-mortem.
If they take offence, we'll explain that we intend none.
Isn't that fair? Leo? Sorry.
Er, I fold.
I won't be a second.
Mrs Darlow? It's Professor Dalton They told me I'd find you here.
My son was angry about the war.
It made him very angry.
He said it was illegal and I bloody well agreed with him.
But he still flew combat missions.
Well, he didn't want to go, he couldn't let down his colleagues, his uniform.
He flew as many as anyone.
But he wasn't the same after he got back.
Itscarred him.
Gave him nightmares, he told me.
You're following the board of inquiry? I get updates.
I have friends in the RAF.
You know they are going to say the engines were at normal settings.
What?! Why would they have been? You mean he was pulling emergency power and the engines weren't responding? Could you prove it? There may be something in the wreckage, the software analysis, radio traffic.
I'm not going to let them get away with it.
Can you get evidence? Has it happened before? I'm going to start a campaign.
Press, MPs I know a lot of people in and out of the RAF.
I won't let them get away with it.
We know who this is.
His name is His name was.
His name WAS Ruslan Mahmudov.
He is a Chechen Muslim.
He identified himself as a Christian on his papers.
Why did he change his appearance? He allegedly murdered a large number of Russians.
Although he might have called himself a freedom fighter.
Why did he come here? To escape the Russians.
How long ago was he involved in the killing business? According to the Russian Embassy, the early 1980s.
Then he probably changed his identity before his daughter was born.
She might not know anything about his past.
What are you going to do with this information? It's not for us to say.
Wait a minute, if this is released to the press it could endanger the daughter.
Suppose she's gone to people from her community who might take revenge on her if this information is published? It's not our decision.
We can't just choose to suppress information like that.
I have some more reports for you.
Thank you.
We have now positively identified one of the victims of the accident as Ruslan Mahmudov, a Chechen separatist who was accused of terrorist kidnappings and murders and subject of an international arrest warrant.
Why wasn't he recognised and arrested when he entered the UK? He had extensively altered his appearance.
But some very sophisticated techniques were employed to establish his original appearance.
What I wish to emphasise is that Mahmudov's bogus asylum application under a false name had already been refused and he was awaiting removal from the Home Office facility at Ribmead.
What you're saying is that the asylum system works? What I'm saying is that we must be doing something right.
Do we have a picture of Mahmudov? We do.
We have two pictures, one aged about 35, the other more recent.
Your call certainly came at the right time.
Where have you been? Seeing one of those many thousands of boyfriends of yours(?) Your memory's come back, I see.
Yes, sadly.
Harry, can we have a word? Mrs Darlow has passed back the responsibility for the pilot's post-mortem to us.
Right.
The RAF have a heavy workload.
There's no law that says the PM has to be theirs.
Apparently the RAF may feel compromised by some of the remarks that have been made.
WE haven't said anything.
The pilot's father may be a factor.
I had discussed with Professor Dalton the idea of offering the family a second PM.
The RAF don't want to do a PM with a gun at their heads.
Mrs Darlow also said that she could have asked Dr Murray.
I made the counter-suggestion that perhaps I should do it.
Obviously, you're too involved.
How soon? Tomorrow, first thing.
Good.
SHE SPEAKS IN CHECHEN Dr Painter will be observing on behalf of the RAF Centre for Aviation Medicine and their other representatives in the viewing gallery.
Dr Painter.
Dr Painter has also informed us that due to the presence of flares and other emergency provision, the flying suit and underclothing have been removed under his supervision.
We can examine it if we choose, it's over there.
Understood.
So, are we ready? I think we can safely say that the traumatic rupture of the aorta is the likely cause of death.
Agreed.
The victim would have survived until his blood pressure collapsed.
The brain appears to be normal.
I'm now going to remove the cerebellum so we can take a look at the cerebral cortex.
The cortex appears normal.
Apart from the small patch of discolouration.
Vascularisation.
Harry? Could be evidence of plaque formation.
The medical records show no evidence of motor disability or ataxia.
He wouldn't have been flying.
I don't think it's demyelination.
Better run the usual checks.
To summarise, a ruptured aorta as cause of death.
There's no evidence of any gross injury or pathological signs of a contributory causation, pending the results of the toxicology report.
And of course, the tissue studies from the cerebellum and cortex.
Well? Laid to rest? Laid to rest.
Harry, I need you.
How I've longed to hear those words(!) No.
I'm not joking.
Toxicology on the pilot.
I've got a positive on my ELISA.
Oh, no! But I can't identify the molecule.
For Christ's sake, Simon.
I had no idea Andrew could still be using them.
These are his? Yeah, I got them out of his room, immediately after the accident.
This is a total disaster.
What are they? When we were in Iraq, we were flying operations I can't tell you what they were.
But American Forces were using something to combat sleep deprivation.
Some of this stuff came over to our people.
What is it? It stops you needing sleep, no hangover.
I mean, it works really well.
The company making it are keeping it quiet.
They think it's going to make a fortune one day.
"Designer sleep".
And meanwhile, they keep it under wraps in a secure programme in the military.
Have you ever used it? Tried it.
It works OK.
It's great if you need to stay awake.
But if you can't sleep for some reason, it still keeps you awake.
It kills fatigue.
You don't have to catch up.
No side effects.
Well, we were told no side effects.
It's being tested for side effects, Simon.
On YOU.
If Andrew knew he had a psychological problem he should have reported it to his MO.
And he would have.
If he'd known he HAD a psychological problem.
Look, I used them, Harry.
They never affected me.
They might not have affected Andrew.
I think it was the engines.
This may mean that no-one ever considers that.
It may not have been the pills.
He had an armful of collective when he was trying to pull up.
It may not have been the pills, it may not have been the engines.
Which would the RAF choose? You think he was taking these? I don't know for certain.
Probably.
Well, let's analyse them.
I can't, I have to hand it in unopened.
You can if we use this.
What's this? Surfaces scatter light, mostly in the same spectrum band as the incident light, but the chemical bonds on the substance surface are resonating and refract some of the light and we get an analysable pattern.
Without opening the packet? Yeah, Leo got it to do research on tumour cells.
It's quicker and cleaner than biopsy.
They want to do it on patients while they lie on the couch.
Clever.
So what are these pills supposed to do? It's a super-secret new fatigue cure.
Andrew Markham got it from US Special Forces in Iraq and he may have been over-using since he got back.
With what effect? Well, it might not show up, but it'll affect the psychology profile.
A man going for extended periods without sleep, suffering from anxiety, borderline paranoia, even Flies his plane into the ground? It's a human factor.
Shit.
The RAF Will seize on it.
Yes.
Are you going to tell the RAF? Of course I will.
What will happen to your friend for removing the pills? A court martial, probably.
Can you pass the tox report? It's a match.
Sorry.
We'd better brief Leo.
Do you want me to come in? No, thanks.
Now the BoI is set fair for a whitewash.
They had the station commander up and they asked him one question and that was that.
The post-mortem seemed clear.
Good.
He was in excellent health.
But there was a problem with toxicology.
Whatproblem? My son wouldn't have operated an aircraft if he thought he was unfit! I'm sure, but what the RAF medical people might say Is that his judgment was impaired, after that anything is possible.
Pilot error.
We stood in the garden and talked about how he thought the new model would kill a pilot.
What you've told me means that no-one will look any further into why an engine didn't respond to emergency power input.
Till it happens again.
It's not the outcome I wanted or expected.
They'll protect the aircraft's reputation and destroy my son's.
They won't destroy his reputation with the people who flew with him and knew him.
Hah! How did it go? It would have been better if I'd done nothing at all.
Why do we always assume the truth will set us free? I thought I was protecting that girl.
INAUDIBLE SPEECH ON RADIO: Golf Bravo X-ray Lima Oscar report to holding point for runway two-seven.
Golf Lima Oscar, roger.
Golf Lima Oscar, you are clear for take-off west on runway two-seven.
Golf Lima Oscar, clear for take off.
ENGINE ROARS Pilot.
Came down just inside our area.
Otherwise it would have gone to Mrs Darlow.
The police are wondering if it could be pilot suicide.
Should someone go and make sure that policewoman's all right? I will.
Do we cope with the dead better than we cope with the living? What? First one?