All in all, I agree with most of what you are saying.
I am not advocating a "no blame" culture at all, what I would like to see in any company, RAF included, is a "just and learning" culture. To put the cause of this accident on the shoulders of the crew only, and to use the recording of the CVR to support this really upsets me. That will not facilitate the learning which this institution obviously needs. The crew should not have been put in the situation where they thought it was all right to do what they did during this flight. They should have been told in very clear terms, long before the accident, that this kind of flying leads to severe consequences. This is about Squadron Safety Culture.
There seems to have been a serious flaw in the safety culture in that squadron or wing or station. I don't know where the root cause lies, but it there is certainly a serious problem there..
Last edited by SafetyCase; 29th Oct 2009 at 17:08.