Afghan airbridge trial

[Gnd]

Brain,

Not in the slightest, I have delt with crashes that have been caused by overweight aircraft. My point was in reply to an earlier comment that it is a weight issue that is having the changes looked at; it is not as they use the max weight they can take. There may be pay-off issues with sectors 'v's fuel load which means that sector times are manipulated - a fair assumption.

As for the poor crews - I have very little sympathy with the lack of moral, we are all in the same boat and believe me; people using that argument against the misery the troops are suffering is crass and smacks of blinkered selfishness.

A back slapping pis***g match helps no one and as for the aircraft type - it is irrelevant what it is called just that it is capable of doing the job safely and in a timely fashion. The airframe needs to be large enough to do the job and fully fitted. I made no mention of charter, I did however intimate that the RAF (by definition - military) got a suitable airframe to do the job for their selves; are you suggesting that RAF AT pilots couldn't handle a 747 (just a for instance) if it were taken into military service. I would presume not. Agreed, the Civ Servants would baulk at the cost

If we had larger, newer and correctly fitted aircraft this would again, become a non rant.