There are 2 disgraceful elements to this accident - the first is that the MoD settled out of court when they would certainly have won the case. Mr Paton may well have been a high earner but do his wife and children really need £5 million from the taxpayer to help them get on with their lives? How they managed to persuade the MoD to part with the cash could suggest undue influence from well connected parties but that is just my uneducated guess.
The second disgraceful element is that the RAF pilot had his reputation and career demolished, not least by the press who ran one-sided articles quoting the opinions of the family's legal representative, opinions which were disproven comprehensively in court but never rescinded in the press.