Wrathmonk, the time to stand up and be counted was when those charged with implementing airworthiness regulations were given a direct illegal order to suborn them yet to sign them off as being complied with. As a result, for instance, a fleet of knowingly grossly unairworthy aircraft was released into RAF squadron service and 29 people died.
What is said or not said in that RAeS Conference Room will not change things one iota. The RAeS is the lapdog of the MOD and certainly won't want to make any trouble for it. Those Fellows who tried to raise this issue previously were effectively silenced. The RAF High Command will carry on in its default mode which is to protect its members, serving or retired. That is where its loyalty lies, nowhere else. This matter will be resolved eventually outside of the MOD and despite of it, just as the scandal of Hillsborough has vis-a-vis the Emergency Services.
The depressing thing is that, dreadful though it was, Hillsborough was a one off event. Airworthiness related fatal military air accidents will be with us for years, MAA not withstanding, until the Regulations can be reliably enforced.
That cannot happen unless and until the MAA, its heirs and successors, are demonstrably free of interference from above.
That cannot happen unless and until it is independent of and separated from the MOD.