Originally Posted by
Bob Viking
The Hawk I currently fly has a much updated seat that does not use the mechanical scissor shackle. The seat pan handle modification also makes it impossible to install the pin in the wrong place.
BV
I assume you realise that the existence of the gas shackle is one of the many pieces of evidence that demonstrated MoD and the Health and Safety Executive lied to the court? The HSE claimed Martin-Baker had no understanding of the risk, yet they had designed it out with the gas shackle. We're still waiting to hear from MoD precisely how the risk could remain tolerable and ALARP after 1983, when the decision was made not to fit the gas shackle in Hawk, but put it in (e.g.) Tornado.
Also, we await news of why MoD refused so many times to embody the firing handle shroud.
It is indeed gratifying to see a current pilot so willing to counter MoD and HSE's evidence to the Judge that these two issues were irrelevant, as they were completely divorced from the risks of incorrect strap routing and an over-tight shackle nut and bolt. You would have made an excellent Defence witness, as I suspect you would also have been able to counter the HSE's claim to the Judge that the Mk10 seat was the ONLY one to ever have a scissor shackle. MoD did not demur. But I suspect your career would have suffered!