I think there is a fairly widespread misconception on this forum that there is one certifiable level of risk that can be defined as ALARP. The practicable part of the acronym allows for timely work.
That may be true, drustsoe, but I was present at the inquest when the IPT Leader (holder of the airworthiness delegation for the MR2) confirmed to the coroner, on oath, that the MR2 risks were not ALARP because of the state of the fuel couplings and the hot air ducts.
These risks were not expected to become ALARP until the end of 2008. But apparently, the RAF decided only about a week after the inquest that the risks were, after all, ALARP.
But now we discover that these modifications have not been made to all aircraft - and will not be completed until “early summer”. In the meantime, some of the fleet, but not all, will be “temporarily withdrawn”.
Not only that, but Mr Ainsworth seems to have chosen a very, shall we say, untransparent, not to say opaque, way of announcing this in a written statement well concealed in the ministry’s publication processes.
With the best will in the world, doesn’t that all smell a bit fishy?
airsound