OK, thanks again Nutty. So the FAA will satisfy themselves if the a/c is airworthy or not. What I can't follow though is how they can do that when the RAF was unable/unwilling to discover that various aircraft and systems featured in this forum were unairworthy (though the VC-10 was not one of them, admittedly. A physical survey would seem to be the easy bit, it is the paperwork (or lack of it) that requires the real effort.
An overtightened bolt killed Sean Cunningham, but there was no Safety Case anyway for his seat and the Servicing Instruction to undo and do up that bolt was contrary to the mandatory procedure. If the RAF was unaware that the seat (and hence the a/c) was unairworthy, why would they know if this VC-10 was or not?
If the RAF/MOD/MAA cannot be relied upon to vouch for a VC-10's airworthiness, how can the FAA decide about it? Of course, as salad-dodger comments, the last 7 years would hardly have helped of course.