sarsteph wrote:
TD - it might be worth re-reading the recommendations about the ducting and noting the following:
Recommendation
The ruptured duct is replaced with new manufactured items on a fleet-wide basis as soon as possible.
Action Taken
Recommendation closed. All such ducts fitted to in-service aircraft have been replaced with newly manufactured items.
The way I read it, all such ducting on in service Nimrods were replaced in the aftermath of the investigation. The later paragraph you quoted that refers to a replacement program starting in Dec 07 refers to the lifing of the new ducts - therefore the ducts that were replaced after the investigation will be lifed, and replacement of the new ducting will start from late this year.
The second recommendation that you refer to states:
A maintenance policy should be instigated for the
ruptured duct and all similar ducts.
Noted the ducts have been replaced but still no maintenance programme and it's not clear whether just the ruptured duct was replaced or all similar ducts.
Lets hope that the press and
'MOD insiders' are wrong in attributing the ignition source in XV230 to a hot air duct failure otherwise there have to be serious questions asked as to whether the failure could have been prevented by the implementation of a maintenance programme as recommended some two years prior to the loss of XV230 along with 200 years of combined RAF experience in the shape of crew 3.