I'm not defending the RAF against reasoned and accurate criticism. In some aspects, we have made some huge blunders... and, finally, leaders slavishly adhering to BOI protocol, such that crucial information, that would later assist a crew faced with a fuel leak, was not released earlier.
EdSet100. First I would join the praise of your attitude which I suspect involves a good deal of patience on your part. You will of course know the crew involved in the 235 incident and will no doubt have discussed it all with them but I'm not sure that I, in the same circumstances they were in, would have been prepared to rest on the board's say-so even if I had been told there was no fire in the bomb bay.
The big hole in the post-accident reporting here is that 235 incident and the reaction to it.
The board had already made its conclusions on the source of fuel before that incident occurred. But the board admited it wasn't actually sure, and couldnt be sure, that the fuel that caught fire overflowed from the Number One tank and passed along the the outside of the aircraft. It says this is what it sees as the most likely option, but not the only possibility.
The supposedly irrelevant QinetiQ report of March 2006 was tasked to look at the wing tank leaks (which everyone accepts were irrelevant). But it cast its net much wider and said that there were a number of leaks happening over Afghanistan that could not be recreated on the ground.
I was at the press briefing in December when CAS said AAR had been suspended following the 235 incident because the leak which happened then couldnt be recreated on the ground, yet we have a supposedly irrelevant QQ report 20 months earlier saying just that and no suspension of AAR. You had to be there to see the look of consternation on CAS's face when I pointed this out to CAS. He was clearly unaware of this.
You also in one of your recent posts said you couldnt understand why relatives were still so concerned following the SoS apology. (I dont subscribe to your view that he was calling in a QC because he knew the MoD is not to blame, I'm afraid it cannot escape its blame. Inquiries have been New Labour's standing way of sidestepping blame, as in Hutton, Butler etc.)
But leaving that aside, the reason so many people, not just relatives, are still so concerned, is because they fear that the true lessons havent been learned and therefore at some point something could go badly wrong again. For the relatives, it's too late to stop their own grief, they just don't want it to happen to anyone else.