Cats Five,
Sorry if I didn't make myself clear - if the paper trail is badly maintained, and become inaccurate, then the aircraft is, by definition, non-airworthy. If you don't have a full record of the configuration and the state of the aircraft, you simply don't know whether it's airworthy or not. You can't make the most basic of airworthiness declarations. As I've posted before, it's not a hard thing to do right.
As to the actual state of the aircraft, I've done many inspections of aircraft maintenance organisations. I've been responsible for managing maintenance contracts, and for the maintenance of military aircraft fleets. My experience (admittedly limited) is that if you find problems in the paperwork, you need to start looking hard at the aircraft. Why? Because poor documentation standards are almost always accompanied by poor standards of work on the aircraft. Any good technician knows that the paperwork has to be right.
Making sure that the paperwork IS being done right is also down to strong unit management, good supervision and an effective system of external inspections. QA, TQM, Quality circles, EFQM, 6 sigma, take yer pick. Just choose one and do it properly. In this case, the RAF appears to have failed to do that. It badly needs to know why. From its public statements, it's not asking itself that question. I hope I'm drawing the wrong conclusion here, I really do.
Tuc, I agree that the RAeS hasn't covered itself in glory over the past few years, but it has the right people and the right charter to to a decent job. Perhaps the Public Accounts Committee might want to look at the financial aspects?
Clunk, good suggestion - I'd suggest that there needs to be a tough debate on whether the taxpayer should be shelling out many millions of pounds (and that's what we're talking about here) to allow the RAF to support its recruiting activities. On the (limited) evidence, these millions have not been well used. Perhaps the civil route would be cheaper, and probably safer.
Best regards as ever to those footing the bills,
Engines