Michael Armitage Says:
December 27th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
First of all, a Merry Xmas to all readers.
I thought it would be worthwhile posting an update.
The Lord Philip Review has commenced and continues apace. The Review’s terms permit it to go deeper than previous reviews (which you will recall still cleared the pilots). This is making MoD nervous because they are being asked questions which they studiously avoided during the original Board of Inquiry.
This has not prevented them continuing to deny the existence or possession of key documents but the difference this time is that the Review is actively seeking and receiving copies from other MoD sources. That is, when any request is made of MoD, it is normally dealt with by a team which is ordered to toe the party line. In the past, this team’s replies have been accepted at face value, but following the experiences of the Nimrod and Hercules Coroners’ Inquests (when MoD lies were exposed in Court) it seems the Review is pursuing unofficial channels and having some success acquiring these non-existent documents.
One example of the issues being raised is here:
http://www.pprune.org/military-aircr...erged-743.html (at post #7426)
To summarise this single post, the Board of Inquiry were duty bound to consider the possibility of an underlying “Organisational Fault”. They did not. The poster postulates this was under direction from senior officers. Right or wrong, his point about the Board’s report not once mentioning “negligence” or “airworthiness” is perfectly valid and constitutes an extraordinary omission and failure of duty. This is important, because the existence of such an “Organisational Fault” is exactly what the Haddon-Cave report is all about; in that case, a systemic failure to implement airworthiness regulations. Who benefits from such an omission?
This in turn raises a question which Lord Philip has been asked to consider. If senior officers were deemed to have contributed to an Organisational Fault, could a verdict of gross negligence be sustained? (In my opinion) of course not, because such a verdict required proof beyond any doubt whatsoever; and such a high level failure would introduce doubt. Also, please consider this. The officers who handed down the gross negligence verdict and their supporters (primarily retired senior officers of the day) were part of the cadre responsible for Organisation Fault. Not only on Chinook. At their level, their actions affect all aircraft, so they can be seen to be major contributors to the problems exposed by Haddon-Cave.
This plethora of “new” evidence (it is not new as such, but it was not made available before now) is believed to be one reason why Lord Philip has sought a 6 month extension, with mid-2011 now his target. This would suggest that not only has Lord Philip been informed of such failings, but this time hard factual evidence has been produced which MoD can no longer simply dismiss as hearsay.