Sorry Airsound, your notes of the rule 43 were placed on the thread for all to see as part of a homespun "counter-spin" operation against Ainsworth. I was present at the Nimrod Inquest when word came that he had immediately discounted the verdict of Coroner Walker. I saw the reaction of the families there was no way that that man was going to dismiss 3 years of work and 10 deaths in his usual hopeless and offensive way. I didn't see the intervies, I shouldn't have worried it has been described as, Ainsworth came across as an even bigger fool, if that is possible. Jon Snow had him for toilet paper.
What happened with XV179 is clear for anyone with a brain to see. A total breakdown of air worthiness regulations in the same ilk as the Nimrod tragedy. The RAF just doesn't understand the procedures for ensuring an aircraft is fit to go to war.
JTD mentions shredding. Why would anyone want to have destroyed those TAT documents? I have absolutely no idea. The MoD nearly got away with it, but for the recess this Inquest could have stalled at Station Level. Instead we have a formal apology from RAF/MoD something I called for at the very beginning in 2006.
One comment I would like to add on the general destruction of documents crucial to the maintenance of the airworthiness procedure. An engineer was telling me the other day that when he was moved from London to Abbey Wood he was told he would have only have 1 filing cabinet instead of the 8 (EIGHT) he had in his current office. It was a matter of lack of space. So he had to get rid of the vasy majority of paperwork. He was smart with how he went about this process. Careful to maintain corporate memory. However some of the engineers stayed in London, their jobs taken by others. These "others" were then presented with something of a blank canvas, one filing cabinet and a black hole of information.
Many files were archived but the personnel involved in archiving became overwhelmed with work. Archive Reviews had traditionally been held every 10 years but shortly after the Abbey Wood move this time period was reduced to 10 (Ten) months. And so the destruction of airworthiness materiel began in earnest. All those requests for foam dated back to the Falklands went into the shredder. Commanders' ability to learn the lessons of those gone before, vanished.
And then, in the case of Hercules we learned an old lesson, that fuel tanks explode.
Worrying still further, the policy on electronic recommendations, destroyed after just 5 years, inside the time frame of Major Servicing for Herc "K".
I think there is a better way of doing this. Rather than post here on pprune and campaign in public on very sensitive matters, it has been suggested that we should extend an olive branch.
I am going to consider with my main advisers and fellow campaigners what the best way forward is. I know the MoD monitors this site, whole pages of pprune were run off for briefing the MoD team at the Inquest.
Enough to say we remain open minded about another way of doing this.