John Blakeley,
Firstly, Sir, I spent many (happy?) flying hours whilst on SORF at Manby doing spin refresher training with Lightning Pilots (in a vain attempt to stop them "tent pegging" around the countryside). I guess that makes me old as well.
I cannot comment on your first 2 points as those decisions rested with the Air Staffs at MOD level. As regards points 3 & 4 it was my understanding that the decision to use the Chinook was taken by the Air Tasking cell as the Puma alternative would have required the use of 2 "assets" and reduced tasking flexibility. It is a long time ago now, but I understood that ZD576 was the only servicable Chinook in Theatre.
The "unofficial" servicing carried out between sorties was, I understood, carried out at the request of the Aircraft Captain. That, however, does not excuse the failure to comply with the rules.
I am not, nor ever was, qualified to comment on the engineering aspects regarding the introduction to service and airworthiness of the aircraft during that introduction.
I would not agree, however, that the BOI basically assumed Aircrew Error. It was my view at the time that the BOI was being "Staffed" that the Board went out of their way NOT to question some of the decisions made by the Pilots regarding the sortie.
Finally, could you give me a hint regarding the "Glen Ogle" Tornado - my recollection is that we had at least 2 filing cabinets full of ongoing Tornado BOI's and at this distance it is difficult to recall them all by location.