Originally Posted by
Chugalug2
AJ :-
The problem isn't the different types, their age, or skills, it is rather the incompetence of the Regulatory Authorities involved, and the reluctance of Air Accident Investigators to draw attention to that incompetence. The regulatory incompetence of the MOD/MAA features in the many airworthiness related fatal accident threads that litter the PPRuNe military aviation forum. That incompetence stems from the deliberate plundering of hitherto ring fenced Air Safety budgets in the late 80s (to fund a disastrous AMSO policy of cost savings by divesting itself of spares holdings that would then have to be bought in at much higher cost). RAF VSOs in turn rid themselves of experienced and knowledgeable airworthiness engineers who would not bend to illegal orders to suborn the airworthiness regulations, replacing them with untrained and ignorant non-engineers who would happily comply. Thus corporate memory was lost and the long march to a totally dysfunctional UK Military Airworthiness system commenced. The Sea King, Chinook, Hercules, Nimrod, Tornado, Hawk fleets all suffered airworthiness related fatal accidents as featured in this forum. That the CAA assumed that an ex 1950s RAF jet should still be assured of its airworthiness by the RAF when on the civilian register speaks volumes of how out of touch it was with its military equivalent, and hence of its own incompetence. As tuc continually tells us the solution is simple, implement the mandatory regulations! If the CAA had done so this aircraft would not have been granted civilian registration, let alone been carrying out an air display on that fateful day.
That's exactly why I included this in my post that you refer to:
Originally Posted by
_Agrajag_
... whether the skills and knowledge of the regulators themselves are adequate . . .
I think we all know there are weaknesses with regulators, and that these will most probably worsen with time, for a variety of reasons, not least being that running an effective regulatory regime is very costly.