Jacko
I disagree that the RAF is becoming less media savy. To the contrary, there is a media training regime in place on all exercises from SLTs upward which provide tuition to those most likely to appear before the cameras and the media ops teams.
With regard to this incident, what more could the MoD have done? The line 'we don't know what happened and we won't speculate' was clearly appropriate and to have reacted to each and every incidence of speculation from the likes of Nicol and Janes Defence Weekly (name of the journo anyone?) would have simply played into their hands.
That said, the wolfpack of journos targetting the bereaved should have been anticipated and measures taken to protect them. However perhaps this should have been for the station to organise, not London. Anyway, the media cried foul for photographing a supermodel leaving rehab, claiming it would impinge on their ability to report in the public interest. Not only are their actions morally repugnant but the intrusion into the grief of the families is not in the public interest, and would certainly merit a complaint to the PCC.
RM