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Old 28th Dec 2011, 14:01
  #86 (permalink)  
tucumseh
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: uk
Posts: 3,226
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To repeat a previous post, the vast majority of what has been posted here is in the public domain. Certainly, in my case, when I say advance notice was given to 2 Stars in 1998 and 2002 of the systemic failing later identified (reiterated) in the BoI report (i.e. refusal to ensure functional safety), this is a simple matter of record and the subject of unclassified letters from MoD/Ministers to MPs (and hence, constituents). MoD and successive Governments have quite happily upheld the formal ruling that contracts may be signed off as complete and aircraft as safe, in the full knowledge they are not. MoD acknowledge this is a form of fraud, but openly condone it and protect those who commit it.

In this particular case, there would seem to be a number of contributory causes. The consensus is that if any one of these had not occurred, then the aircraft and aircrew would have had a very good chance of getting home safely. This can be said of most accidents discussed here. The key point and common denominator is that MoD disingeniously present their "findings" as a revelation and lesson to be learnt; when in fact the failures were predictable, predicted and ignored. That is, nothing in these BoI reports, or those of Haddon-Cave and Lord Philip, came as a surprise. Most are a simple collation of long known, and very public, facts. Whether or not this should have remained "classified" is another matter. MoD made that choice.

The final point I'd make is this. What makes anyone here think MoD are keen to correct matters? It is not they who have been proactive here. They did not hold their hands up and report systemic failures. They actively hid systemic failings that placed aircrew in grave danger when, as I have demonstrated so often, it would have been cheaper and quicker to do the job right in the first place. Properly integrated IFF failure warnings is a simple example. They were dragged screaming through numerous Coroners Courts and Inquiries until eventually some of the truth was reluctantly revealed and acknowledged. Senior staffs and politicians should be asking why these failings were concealed behind a tissue of lies for 20+ years. And ask why those responsible are routinely protected and advanced. And what, in God's name, makes these people suitable to manage amelioration.
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