Davejb
Good post. You said;
“Unfortunately some of the mods to the aircraft haven't been properly thought out...a bit of an understatement, of course. Nobody seems to have looked at how changes to the original design might age or interact with each other.
Good men died as a result, I'll happily attend the public floggings when it's decided who was responsible”.
This is precisely what we talk about when discussing PHYSICAL and FUNCTIONAL safety. A system may be safe in isolation, but unsafe when integrated (or not, as the case may be) into the aircraft. When integrated, it may be safe in one aircraft type, but not another. It may be safe in one aircraft tail number, but not another in the same fleet (partly because of ill conceived SEMs, especially Role Mods). This is why Configuration Control is so important. And, as Safeware says, very often the Safety Case doesn’t reflect the in-use configurations.
However, this is just my opinion (supported by ALL the MoD’s mandated procedures and regulations). It was NOT, however, the opinion of the various 2 Stars and above I mention, who were happy with an attitude “It works on the bench, so we’ll just stick it in the aircraft and walk away without testing/trialling”. I do hope this comes out at the inquest and during the review. All they have to do is read Public Accounts Committee reports and ask what action was taken.