teeteringhead:
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.... and of course technically, the BOI isn't complete until the Airships add their dit, so it's not overturning conclusions, it's disagreeing with recommendations.
Not pedantic at all but a key point well made as we approach the apparent culmination of this long frustrating journey, especially for those who have trodden it from the very beginning.
This is the third great PPRuNe Airworthiness related fatal accident thread to approach that point, but the very first to start and by far the most significant. It is not merely the scale of the tragedy, by far the worst RAF fatal aircraft accident, nor the longevity of the campaign to restore the reputations of the deceased pilots, as the real prize within its grasp is to save countless lives in the future by ensuring the restoration of UK Military Airworthiness.
The other two campaigns succeeded within the limited scope that was set. In the case of the Hercules it was to fit ESF to the unprotected fuel tanks that could mean that an aircraft could be brought down with a single small arms round. In the case of the Nimrod Mk2 it unfortunately meant its premature retirement due to inherent airworthiness problems. Now at last we have the chance to move beyond such single type solutions to a generic one that provides for enhanced safety for all military airfleets. Haddon-Cave was supposed to have achieved that with the Nimrod Report but unfortunately failed to do so, for the MAA that resulted is not independent as claimed and cannot achieve the root and branch reform needed until it is.
The Mull Review must succeed where the Nimrod Report failed, and at last grasp the nettle by recommending the MAA be moved without the MOD and be completely free of it. It will take many years to repair the malevolent vandalism wrought over two decades and it can only really begin when the MAA lives up to its name, that is become truly an Authority. In parallel to that the MAAIB must also be independent, both of the MOD and the MAA. If all that can be achieved then the tragic loss of 29 lives on 2 June 1994 will not have been entirely in vain.