Those, like me, who see the Mull Tragedy as the cause celebre of the fight to get a truly independent MAA should draw encouragement from this pathetic letter from the Chief of the Air Staff. This aircraft was Grossly Unairworthy because of, not despite, the machinations of the UK Military Airworthiness Authority, AKA The Ministry of Defence. Whether 29 lives were lost wholly or partly because of that we don't know and is beside the point. The Airworthiness Authority has never admitted that the RTS was illegal, ie in direct confliction with its own Regulations. Well it wouldn't would it? The Royal Air Force Board of Inquiry never found that the aircraft, together with the entire Mk2 fleet, was unairworthy. Well it wouldn't would it? That is the scandal that the CAS is trying to obscure, that Airworthiness Provision and Accident Investigation under his command was, is and will remain dysfunctional until there is established a truly independent MAA, that includes full RTS authority, and a truly independent MAAIB. The fudge outlined by the SoS in response to the Nimrod Review, and the Review itself for that matter, is a turkey and will not fly. In resisting the very measured and reasonable calls by Brian and his campaign over the years to simply have W & D's wretched "finding" struck off to be replaced with "Cause not Positively Determined" their Airships have shone a light into a scandal that will rock the MOD. The CAS is merely trying to delay the inevitable. He will not even manage that.