Having had one thread pulled by the OP and a further one enquiring after it locked by the Mods in the past week or so, I hope that this is third time lucky. I do not intend to pull this one so it will whither only from lack of interest or Mod action.
The following is a piece in the Sunday Times 15 Nov 09 by their Defence Correspondent Mick Smith:
Sea Kings incident: Military aircraft accident summary, Board of Inquiry report and letters - Times Online
Sea Kings incident: Military aircraft accident summary, Board of Inquiry report and letters
The Board of Inquiry report into the loss of the two Sea Kings is heavily redacted throughout. The redactions include the references to the problems with the high intensity strobe lights (HISL), even though this is not a secret piece of equipment. The references to the lights being unfit for purpose as fitted on the helicopter and the breach of airworthiness regulations are at paragraphs 100-102, and the conclusion with regard to that problem is at paragraph 141, with a recommendation to replace the forward strobe light with an anti-collision light immediately at paragraph 146.
The Military Aircraft Accident Summary, which is undated and is not redacted, notes in paragraph 14 that the strobe lights were switched off making it difficult to see the other helicopter and assess the distance between them.
The first letter is from the former civil servant to his MP and was passed to Bob Ainsworth, now defence secretary, but then armed forces minister, in September last year. Headed "Military Airworthiness", it repeatedly points out the problems with airworthiness on both the Nimrod and Sea King fleets and the implications for military airworthiness as a whole. It also shows that Ainsworth has been misled by his officials over the board of inquiry into the loss of the two Sea Kings. It is dated 9 September 2008, more than a year before last month's publication of the Haddon-Cave review of the loss of an RAF Nimrod which condemned military airworthiness as a whole
The second letter from the civil servant to his MP, dated 15 March this year, and also passed to Ainsworth, refers to the attempt to force the former civil servant to make a false declaration that the Sea Kings with the forward strobe light as fitted was airworthy. It also refers to the way in which the breach of airworthiness regulations and the correspondence and reports referring to it, were not revealed to either the board of inquiry or the inquest.