I would think that the Secretary of State for Defence or the Air Force Board would have the authority to do those things.
Following everything that has subsequently happened, why they choose not to is beyond me!
To answer your other question - it was the type (Chinook HC2) that had been grounded by Boscombe Down, not the indiviual aircraft, ZD576.
Antenna - great to hear from you again. Hope all is well. Picking up on your last point about Gen Wheeler, I bet he didn't know that there were no Mk1s left in the RAF. All had been returned for upgrade, were in the process of being sent for upgrade, or had already been upgraded. In fact, in June 1994 there were no more than 10 Chinook airframes available for worldwide use, and it is not possible to identify how many of those were actually serviceable (as opposed to airworthy
).
Regards,
Brian
"Justice has no expiry date" - John Cook