Thanks for some really interesting points of view in this thread, thoughtfully put. My heart goes out to those of you who are close to or right inside the news.
Do hope you have all forgiven me for being so forceful on originally opening the topic - felt it deserved more than just a meek expression of sadness.
Here's the latest:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/3624896.stm
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Those of us who went to Paddy Thompson's funeral in the early 80s know that the beast bites the very best of us. Those of us back then who got caught to be qfis - they seem to be "Instructor/ Invigilators" now, apparently - who had to do night-flying in the T4 every week because the wheels knew it was too dangerous for the ordinary chaps on the squadron to do night asymmetrics on their own, know that even the smartest among us can get into trouble. Every accident we hear of since then seems to bring back the same frustration that what we knew was true then, is still true now.
The role of the Canberra PR9 is for others to decide. Actually, some of us feel immense pride viewing recent press pictures of a PR9 over Afghanistan, as pictures of exactly the same airframe over Aden or Singapore 30 years ago still grace our dining-rooom or office walls. Those brilliant new sensor gadgets and data-links are really impressive, and quite an investment. Of course purse strings might be an issue for any replacement programme.
But the T4 training accidents are beyond belief. They have to be unnecessary. We simply don't have problems killing pilots on night asymmetric training on the Boeing or Airbus products some of us may have moved onto.
Not just because the modern aircraft are safer, certainly not because the pilots are any better - but because we use simulators for the perilous stuff. Crash? Freeze it, debrief, start again just as you were, back at 5 miles, you owe me a beer. Simulators don't cost that much, certainly the training costs of 2 modern military fast-jet pilots would probably cover one. Or a few of those sensors and data-links.
Where is the Canberra sim ? There isn't one ? WHY NOT ? Bang seats are not an alternative. Purse strings are NOT a valid argument for risking lives.
There does seem to be support among us here for the idea that pilots should not routinely be forced to fly dangerous manoeuvres in ancient aircraft. Volunteers for historic displays are something else. It would of course be unlikely for any career board-of-inquiry head to put his neck on the line and say anything so big-picture unpopular. It will be easy instead to hide behind a mass of statistics of speed and crosswind and engine acceleration and descent rate and hours on type and all the other minutiae they will go through and allocate a nice tidy cause to it.
Someone senior needs to break this particular error chain NOW, and stop it happening ever again.