Originally Posted by
Chugalug2
ATG:-
He's a Flt Lt, ergo he is a JO. As to the PAS business, you make it sound as though he might just as well be a contracted-out civvie by your job description. He is primarily an officer (that's the "O" bit in JO!), as are all commissioned aircrew. It sounds to me as though the RAF is cutting its nose to spite its face. Perhaps though it is attempting to save the face of the RAF Star Chamber rather than that of the Royal Air Force. They are two very different things. The job of the Royal Air Force is to exert Air Power on behalf of the United Kingdom. The job of the Star Chamber is to protect past and present VSOs from the consequences of their actions (be they illegal orders or gross incompetence) by;
a). Covering them up for as long as is possible and,
b). Finding scapegoats amongst those of 1* and below (often well below!) and,
c). Diverting attention by creating contentious situations such as in this case. If we are busy arguing about the rights and wrongs of this sentence then we are not wondering about the overall leadership of the RAF (or lack of it!).
oh what bollocks, frankly.
I know full well that as a Flt Lt he is a "Junior Officer", drawn from the fact that the RFC followed the Army traditions of Field Officers etc. He is not, however junior; he might or might not be a Officer. I'll be honest, most of the PAS/FTC(A) Aircrew I've met are entirely happy to just fly, and whinge mightly if presented with anything outside of that, cf Fitness Test threads and OOA deployment threads passim on here.
Whilst I admire your continued vendetta against your self-described "Star Chamber", every post you make that doesn't acknowledge what AT did was wrong and deserved to be punished diminishes any kind of argument you may or may not have against the process. With 30+ years of experience in the cockpit, it is not excusable to blame a poorly written or incomplete RTS for the fact he took a camera into his cockpit and then didn't take charge of it during a period he should have been even more aware of his actions. If he'd been an Air Cadet, then perhaps the Just Culture would've provided a different outcome, but he's not.
I've been interacting with both the MAA and Defence Accident Board recently, and neither seem particularly vindictive, if anything, the former is frustratingly risk averse.
As for RAF VSOs, they seem significantly more people focused than my own Service, and I rather envy them. I've worked alongside FJ, RW and ME flightcrew in the last 6 months, and they were all good people, led by solid Officers.
tl;dr - stop making excuses for a man who should've know better and has been punished for his mistake.