An RAF Nimrod flying over southern Afghanistan put out a Mayday call and made an emergency landing at Kandahar air base on Monday after crew found fuel pouring into the bomb bay.
Thank God, for in truth who else is there to thank for this deliverance, other than the crew themselves? While the MOD's lawyers are forever rearranging the deck-chairs, and the BOI postponed repeatedly, what we all dreaded, what we all feared, so very very nearly happened again. If the Chief of the Metropolitan Police is finding his position threatened after Stockwell, surely the Chief of the Air Staff must also now be reviewing his position. As has been said, the system of airworthiness of the aircraft of his Air Force has become a broken system, dysfunctional and inherently dangerous, and all on his watch. There has to be massive reform before we can once again have confidence in it. Item 1 on the agenda should be the resignation of the CAS. It is not his fault, it is his responsibility, and in that he has failed those under him.