JP, you summarise this scandal well, as would be expected of someone with your background and experience. As to who knew what and did or did not do what, that surely is partly the point of Lord Philip's Review. I say partly because one would hope that the Review will endeavour to determine how the RAF in particular arrived at the point that a Flight Safety regime that was the envy of all was reduced to the point of having to accept knowingly unairworthy aircraft into RAF service, as was the Chinook HC2 at RTS. It would seem that cause and effect can be traced back a decade before the period covered by Mr Haddon-Cave QC in his Nimrod Report. I had left the RAF long before that date so my understanding of what happened is garnered from this thread. You on the other hand were still serving then I believe. Perhaps you can comment on that cause and effect?