NutLoose:
Sad fact is as I see it a BOI is set up for one reason and one reason only, to find the truth as to what happened to help prevent it happening again and possibly save some poor soul losing their lives........ When politics get into it and higher ranked officers attempt to alter the findings for what ever reasoning that lesson is lost, the pressure to come to a set finding, even if the incorrect one simply buries the truth and leaves the possibility of it happening again, that is why the Civil AIB works so well, it is independent from the airlines or manufacturers etc and works to find the truth.
Hammer, nail, head! Going over old suspect BoI's may save tarnished reputations it is true, but the essential dynamic is to ensure that future Military Air Accident Investigations are not thus suspect. As NutLoose so correctly points out that cannot be unless they are carried out by a body that is completely separate and independent of the operator (the MOD) and of the Authority (the MAA, ie....the MOD!). That is the real message of Mull and, no matter how many "independent" inquiries and "independent" bodies within the MOD are established, that remains the message. Unless and until we have an independent MAA and MAAIB, separate and independent of the MOD and of each other, avoidable military air accidents will go on killing with monotonous and depressing frequency.
Self Regulation Doesn't Work and in Aviation it Kills!