Originally Posted by Distant_Voice
...Also, the Crown Office needs to bring its interpretation of "employee" in line with Lord Neuberger's ruling in the Snatch Land rover case. The crews were MoD employees, and this mandates an FAI.
Interesting point: in other words, that the Crown Office COULD have initiated a Fatal Accident Inquiry on public interest grounds, but an FAI would be MANDATORY if the deaths were regarded as having occurred "in the workplace".
I suggest this is not exactly the same issue, although related, as the "duty of care" question considered in the Snatch Landrover case.
Presumably this did come up at some stage during debate about the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. It certainly should have done.
Taking up DV's point, if it is not too off-topic I would be very interested to know whether the experts here consider that a fatal service flying accident in the United Kingdom should lead to a MANDATORY inquest/FAI, or not.