when something stinks as much as this my experience tells me there is usually something rotten at the source.....
Ultimately the BOI may provide some answers but a veracious coronor, the FOI Act and people like my dad, DV, Tuc and Chug will ultimately get the answers that the authorities seem so keen to hold on to.
Da4orce, thank you for your post, I wonder if you have any idea of the relief with which it was read? Rocking the boat, as Tuc so appropriately calls it, is no problem especially if there is a chance of capsizing it and its whole rotten crew, but distressing or upsetting those like yourself who have suffered grievous loss is a constant and real worry when posting here. Knowing that one has your support is very important and greatly appreciated, and I strongly suspect that goes for the other contributors too. Indeed if it encourages others who have held back for reason of understandable diffidence, so much the better. With the infamous DIN now restricting serving personnel, can I especially appeal to those like me who are now retired and fall outside of its scope. If there is to be change at the MOD, and for the future of the Armed Forces there surely must, it will only come about if there is a hue and cry similar to that raised for Mr Pun VC, L/Cpl Rai and SSAFA. It comes best from those, like Tuc, who are experienced and informed about its treacherous ways. Change will only occur from within the system. MPs, especially those who serve on the appropriate Select Committees, are key to this. They can only act on evidence put before them. They may well have reneged on this duty in the past, but there is a general realisation growing that "bemedalled buffoons", as Tony Hancock once characterised them, have betrayed their subordinates, their services and their country for reasons varying from personal incompetence through to naked ambition by following a political diktat that is set to destroy the very services they represent. If you know of this process then IMHO it is your duty to reveal it, if not here then to our democratically elected representatives.
For my own part, and more importantly for the purposes of this thread, there has surely been enough revealed here and on other threads to damn the MOD's custodianship of Miltary Airworthiness and Flight Safety Standards. It is sad to read about the rightful pride and professionalism in those who operate, maintain, and manage our military aircraft, including the MR2, who scrupulously maintain the standards of reporting and implementation placed upon them, when the higher command and their apparatchiks so contemptuously and arbitrarily renege on their own professional duty to them in return. My case, as said before, is to strip the MOD of this responsibility and place it with or alongside the CAA. Obviously there would be many problems, but they could be overcome and confidence in a reformed and reinvigorated Military Airworthiness process restored. Those who have served this system before will be best placed to comment here, whether they be ex BD, Main Building or wherever. Do not think because it worked in your day then it must work now. The shock of discovering that very very little of the RAF that I knew still survives, other than in the skill and bravery of its young men and women, has been profound. There is a chance here for all we BOFs to once again serve our country, I put it at no less than that!