Nutloose said: "As to the gliding issues, as an LAE, Chief Engineer and Camo, I cannot comprehend how anyone could destroy documents pertaining to an aircraft."
From my perspective, also as an LAE, QM and CAMO since leaving the service, the RAF always disposed of maintenance paperwork that was seen as 'surplus' in that the requirements were (prior to 1999) that any maintenance records that had since been repeated could be disposed.
When the MAA was formed, this practice was still in use by most Eng Records Sections who positively and regularly shredded documents and records. Workshops/Bays were also allowed/required to dispose of records over one year old without the need for permission from anyone outside their domain. The components they referred to may still have been on shelves waiting to be installed.
When I was employed by a large contractor to assist in the implementation of MIL Part M, that company wisely opted to retain all aircraft documents for 10 years beyond the withdrawal of the FLEET. This was done to protect the company from any of the customers 'disputes'. I believe that this policy is still the case, and their records now occupy several large warehouses across the country because they didn't see the need to digitise their records.
One of my (requested) submissions to the company (and the customer) was to enable the MAA to issue ARCs (Airworthiness Review Certificates) to the fleet. the plan was to allow approx 18 months to build enough components under ARC-worthy conditions and rebuild histories on safety critical components from a known point, to recreate a parts tracking system of at least those components and install them onto post-major maintenance aircraft. At the time the LITS system was proven to be error filled and only capable of knitting the fog it generated.
Therefore creating a baseline of known history components into a 'reconditioned' aircraft with at least a best guess at its condition seemed to be a high priority.
Surprisingly (not) the plan to re-baseline the status of the fleet was not adopted.