November4,
I in my innocence thought we had sorted all this troop loading business at the meeting. As you say It was all about 'ass covering' . I recall a signal we received in the build up phase saying all the normal DAC (Dangerous Air Cargo) regulations were to be observed. Of course this swiftly proved to be impossible so MOD were reduced to issuing exemptions on an almost daily basis. The subsequent file would have chocked a jumbo jet.
dragartist,
the issue of the crashworthiness (actually otherwise) of the 'K' para seats was raised during the HEART investigation. I understood the the 'J' would be in the same situation under the 'grandfather rights'.
'Proper seats (ex Beverley) had been trialed on the 'K' in the early days with adaptors to fit the seats to the floor points. As you point out others had used modified 463L pallets on which to mount the seats. The drawback to any of these schemes was the added weight and the loss of role flexibility which was such a vital part of Herc ops.
When I was on 48 in Changi we used to do a trip known as the Gan-Karachi.
This entailed taking the Pakistani workers home from Gan at the end of their contract. To comply with the insurance requirements we had to transport them with the modded ex Beverley seats !