Two days ago Ainsworth claimed Nimrod was safe to fly, ALARP and therefore airworthy. MoD also claimed that Gp Capt Hickman had been misrepresented.
I now have the full transcript of Hickman's evidence, here is part of his evidence concerning aspects of ALARP and work still outstanding. Needless to say it presents a completely different picture to the one provided in Westminster Hall. Apologies for the length of this post, and the usual cautions apply, it is the official transcript but there might still be errors due to the quality of recording.
THE CORONER: So, to put it another way, the aircraft flying today and other days is not ALARP airworthy?
GP CAPT HICKMAN: No, I do not agree. It is airworthy, it ‑‑
THE CORONER: No, ALARP airworthy.
GP CAPT HICKMAN: I do not recognise that term.
THE CORONER: Well, there we are, you do not recognise that term, even though it appears in the military airworthiness regulation.
GP CAPT HICKMAN: I do not recognise that term.
MR EVANS: It does not appear in the regulations, ALARP does, but not ALARP airworthiness, and that what the witness is ...
THE CORONER: It is semantics.
MR RAWLINSON: My reading of 553 is the definition of airworthiness is in compliance with ALARP, which is either it being tolerable and ALARP, so that is the definition, unless I misunderstand it.
THE CORONER: Yes, but my point is that if one were to use the test for ALARP the aircraft is not airworthy.
GP CAPT HICKMAN: What I am saying is the aircraft is airworthy but it is not yet ALARP.
THE CORONER: Yes. In other words if ALARP is the standard it is not airworthy.
GP CAPT HICKMAN: I do not believe it to be the standard.
THE CORONER: Yes, but the answer is, it is not airworthy if ALARP is the standard. I do not know why it is so difficult to answer that question, it is simply dancing around the answer that you have already given.
GP CAPT HICKMAN: I think it ‑‑ well, for me it doesn’t answer ‑‑ it isn’t a question we should be asking.
THE CORONER: Your question is that the aircraft is airworthy.
GP CAPT HICKMAN: Yes.
THE CORONER: If it is tolerable?
GP CAPT HICKMAN: If it is tolerably safe then the aircraft is fit to fly, yes.
THE CORONER: Do you know whether that applies to civil aircraft, tolerably safe?
GP CAPT HICKMAN: I don’t think they apply the same characteristics that we do for assessment.
MR RAWLINSON: Now, can I ask what timeframe you think is reasonable in the circumstances from the date that XV230 went down to the date when ALARP is achieved?
GP CAPT HICKMAN: As I have said, we have not achieved ALARP.
THE CORONER: When do you expect to?
GP CAPT HICKMAN: Our target is to have the majority of measures completed on all aircraft by the end of the year; that is our target.
MR RAWLINSON: So that would be about three and a quarter years post XV230 going down.
GP CAPT HICKMAN: Yes.
THE CORONER: So your target is in fact ALARP airworthiness?
GP CAPT HICKMAN: As I say, I do not recognise that term.
THE CORONER: What are you working towards then? I do not understand it.
GP CAPT HICKMAN: I am working towards the position where I am tolerably safe and ALARP, I do not believe we can ‑‑ we are probably unlikely to get the position beyond tolerably safe, that is certainly the advice from QinetiQ, but we can reach the stage of tolerably safe and ALARP and that is ‑‑ that will be a perfectly acceptable position to be in.
THE CORONER: They are two different standards?
GP CAPT HICKMAN: Yes, effectively there is the ‑‑
THE CORONER: As low as reasonably practicable and tolerable are two different standards, or do they mean the same thing?
GP CAPT HICKMAN: No, they do not mean the same thing. No, the ‑‑
THE CORONER: So what do you understand ALARP to mean?
GP CAPT HICKMAN: The tolerably safe means that is the combination of ‑‑ that is effectively the risk that we are undertaking, so that is the risk to the aircraft.
THE CORONER: So your goal then is to get your aircraft to the state where it is ALARP airworthy?
GP CAPT HICKMAN: My ‑‑
THE CORONER: (overspeaking), is it not?
GP CAPT HICKMAN: My goal is to ‑‑ we are already tolerably safe, my goal at the moment is to reduce that risk to as low as reasonably practicable.
THE CORONER: Which is the term you do not recognise.
GP CAPT HICKMAN: I do recognise it. I do recognise the ALARP principle and it is the one that we have adopted, we are heading towards the tolerably safe and ALARP position.
MR RAWLINSON: Can you explain why it is that Air Commodore Baber had no difficulty with equating airworthiness to achieving ALARP?
GP CAPT HICKMAN: As I have said, I understand the ALARP principle and that is my goal to achieve ALARP. I am just saying that we are not there yet.