M2N, if I might respond while we await dervish. The MAA seems to be doing as you suggest regardless of the reform that I propose, having rid us of our MR force and the ACO's Gliders (Oh sorry that's a "pause" isn't it?). I assume that you don't seriously propose what you have posted. Whatever the state of our operational fleets, they have to remain available for our defence no matter. Any Regulator, whether it be the MAA (nee MOD) or one independent of the MOD simply has to do the best with the hand it is dealt. The problem is that the MAA won't admit what the hand is that it has been dealt.
The MAA proclaims its bedrock to be Haddon-Cave's Nimrod Report. It is not bedrock, it is sand, hence the parable quoted earlier. By claiming the period late 80s/early 90s to be a "Golden Period" of airworthiness it sought to obscure the lasting damage to UK Military Air Safety rendered by RAF VSOs in that very period. Unless and until the RAF and the MAA face up to that fact (which they haven't so far in order to protect those same VSOs) then the extent and effect of their subversion cannot be assessed, and further accidents as covered by this thread can be expected.
HH, wartime risks are one thing, but aircraft that self combust or ejection seats that kill their occupants are unacceptable in peace or war.
drsoe, this isn't about being wise after the event, or worse still before it and saying nothing, this is about aviation. It will try to kill you given half a chance. You point to mods made to the MB seat that would have saved Sean Cunningham's life. Very good, but they didn't did they? Too little and too late! If the seat had a Safety Case Report, and the RAF a Flight Safety System that had fed back those 765's in good time, then such mods would have been incorporated without anyone having to die.
I understand the resentment of those doing the doing while we old farts simply hammer away at keyboards. We all want the same thing, the avoidance of avoidable accidents. That can only happen if we face up to reality. I maintain that the MAA has yet to do that.