Pobjoy,
Well said, and entirely logical. Given that the two fleets were maintained by and under direct control of the RAF until a few years ago, and furthermore that the very much underrated, and underestimated VGS staff have diligently A/F and B/F ' d and OOPS'd them then flown them, I doubt that there would be huge issues that could have remained undiscovered and which could not have been checked on a planned rolling clearance long ago.
I would be extremely interested to see what exactly are the suspected major airworthiness issues.
All of the many that I have served alongside, including former aircrew and ATPL's , qualified Aeronautical graduate engineers and many other varieties of professional including myself would never have entertained the thought of taking to the air in anything having the slightest hint of a problem - they too have wives and young families and all were greatly aware of the huge responsibility of flying our young ATC and CCF Cadets. 🔦