tucumseh:
Their actions have nothing to do with finer points of definition or what the regs say - it is all about people. And I don't think the MAA have the authority or will to sort that one out.
As succinct a summary of my reservations re the "Independent but within the MOD" MAA that I could ever have wished for tuc. And Safeware makes the very valid point that it is the Military
Airworthiness Authority. So if the accident that is the subject of this thread had happened on their watch, having decided that the
aircraft was airworthy, might we expect them to say the equivalent of "Sorry, Chief, we don't do safety only airworthiness, you'll have to enquire elsewhere"? This has all the makings of a Whitehall Farce, though the track record to date is perhaps more of a Shakespearean Tragedy. I think tuc has the measure of this. Many years ago the system used to work as well as it did, I suspect, not because of definitions or regulations so much as peoples attitudes and sense of duty. I know this comes across as old Fogey blah, blah, but that strikes me as the nub of it. Unless and until we restore that motivation in people to regain that old Flight Safety philosophy, be they Engineers, Pilots, Cooks, or Bottle washers, we are on a hiding to nothing.