Silent Witness (1996–…): Season 11, Episode 2 - Apocalypse: Part 2 - full transcript

RADIO: ..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.

..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.

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.

It...scarred 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.

What...problem?

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?