Parliamentary Questions concerning Hercules Safety

[rudekid]

Nige

Lots of time for your good work on the foam issue, however, subdifuge is not that wide of the mark IMHO. Governmental level cost controls and equipment budgets are only one of many very serious issues raised by this sad event.

Foam will be a distinct advantage, and may well stop a similar event in the future. However it would not necessarily, in isolation, have stopped the loss of XV 179 as we are all well aware. I fully concur that it's imminent arrival can only be a good thing for us all.

The BoI has mostly avoided the difficult questions raised by the low flying issue, as have many contributors both on this thread and in the wider military community. The responsibility for this doesn't lie with ten excellent blokes authorising themselves out in theatre. It lies further up the command chain. I was very pleased with the outcome of the BoI and specifically that no criticism was levelled at the crew. However, I would not be surprised that people further up the chain were pleased with the result for less noble reasons. Principally, that little or no criticism was aimed at the higher formations and supervision. Apart from a minor sideswipe at the A2 fraternity, which is difficult to reconcile, the BoI is rightly concerned with avoiding criticism (and therefore implied blame) of the crew.

Please don't read this incorrectly; I am not implying that the crew were to blame, but by doing their utmost to absolve the crew of any criticism the BoI has avoided an issue which I believe to be critical. There should be people at HQ STC, the AWC and 2 Gp who are worried about being sued by families and or investigated by the HCDC, but sadly that won't happen as the BoI let them off the hook.

The two big issues (in my opinion)and therefore the two issues I would be raising with the HCDC are;

1. Who authorises the ac to low fly? (Granted Skipper was self auth, but further up the chain giving direction to theatre)

2. Who authorised the ac to fly during the day? (still happening in theatre)

Ultimately, we don't do ourselves any favours by ducking this issue and being unnecessarily defensive/offensive to anyone who wishes to represent their opinion. This is precisely what has been done by elements who we wish to bring to task over these and many other issues.

RK