Everythingbuttheboy said:
this was an accident that occurred due to a cumulative sequence of events....
So with every accident. But the cumulative sequence started not in XV230, rather with a bean counter’s award winning idea more than a decade ago. The RAF Airworthiness System cost money, too much money it would seem. Paperwork was generated for every incident no matter how seemingly trivial, vast data bases were assembled, trends established, potential weaknesses identified, rectification action designed and implemented, and at the end of it all nothing to show for it except for a minor mod and an enormous bill. Why not seriously curtail the reporting side and ensure that money expended subsequently was slashed? Of course the staffs used to dedicating their lives to the provision of airworthiness would have to be made to change their ways, with disciplinary action if required, but the prize would be major financial savings. Well the prize has turned out to be a rather more bitter harvest than that. The RAF may well apologise for it has ended up destroying a Flight Safety system that was the envy of the world and finished up with aircraft fleets whose airworthiness would shame a bucket shop airline. Note please I castigate the airworthiness, not the serviceability. The two are quite separate, and for all I know XV230 was perfectly serviceable right up to the moment that a fuel leak destroyed it. So what now?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2999441.ece says:
Mr Browne vowed that lessons would be learned from the official Board of Inquiry report into last September's catastrophic crash, which was published today, and announced that a review would be launched into the safety of Nimrods. If it is deemed necessary, he added that a full public inquiry would follow.
AND:
The most devastating condemnation of what had gone wrong in maintaining the fleet came from Air Chief Marshal Sir Clive Loader, Commander-in-Chief Air Command.
In an attachment to the Board of Inquiry report issued today, Sir Clive said : "I conclude that the loss of XV230 and, far more importantly, of the 14 Service personnel who were aboard, resulted from shortcomings in the application of the processes for assuring airworthiness and safe operation of the Nimrod."
So all we are promised is an independent review into Nimrod Safety.
ACM Loader to his credit identifies the real cause of this accident, and it is a cause that compromises not only the Nimrod Fleet, but every other one in HM Armed Forces. The full public inquiry is a sine qua non and must be tasked to identify those shortcomings and recommend the remedy. In my opinion that must be to withdraw Airworthiness Regulation from the MOD and vest it in an independent Military Airworthiness Authority.
Last edited by Chugalug2; 4th Dec 2007 at 20:03.