Gentlemen,
Those of you that know me, will also know that I rarely post on these forums. I love reading them and keeping up to date with what going on in the service since I left, however, the time has come I feel to ask you all for a period of reflection and calm over what has been written here, especially over the past few days.
I have no intention of defending anyone or putting anyone down. Things have been said that have clearly annoyed and upset some people and that is extremely regrettable under the circumstances. I do understand and agree with some of the things that The swinging Monkey has written, although I hope I would have chosen a slightly ‘better’ way of expressing it. The inputs from Safeware, ShortFatOne and other eminent experts such as Safety_Helmut are immensely interesting and have to be agreed with, as do the comments from the Groundcrew, who are far more up-to-date with the day-to-day goings on of the aircraft and their condition etc.than most of us are. But the intense personal attacks have got to stop.
All of us on this forum lost someone who was near and dear to us in XV230. I lost several good friends, and I am not too weak to openly admit that Jane and I have shed a few tears over those losses and others also (you get a bit like that with age I think!) But the dreadful in-fighting on this thread has got to stop chaps. If only for the memories of the crew and those loved ones we have lost, please lets call it a day as far as the ‘bad-mouthing’ is concerned. Keep the debate going by all means, even keep the speculating going, but please, no more slagging each other off. Lets all stop and just think of the crew for a few minutes and ask if they would approve?? I doubt it very much.
Thank you, and I look forward to seeing many of you at Waddo next week.
Kind regards
Terry K Rumble