With the changes to the baseline aircraft and the issues some of these had caused the pause in flying was probably not unreasonable. Bringing in the costs incurred is new ground, especially with respect to a punitive contract arrangement agreed by MOD.
This cost precedent has got quite a few of us scratching our heads. It is not uncommon for this to be raised in civil proceedings but it is the first case I can recall where costs incurred to military aviation by a military pilot have been considered in court as part of a criminal sentence for negligence.
Legal precedence is a remarkable thing. Previous to this event we did not raise it when a Jaguar pilot ejected from his aircraft after driving it through trees, or the Jaguar pilot who shut down his only serviceable engine, or the Phantom crew who ejected over the Med from their departed but otherwise serviceable aircraft, or the Tornado pilot who didn't complete his after T/O checks and then departed his aircraft at low level on his first hard manoeuvre, or the Tucano display pilot who failed to meet his gate parameters, or the Tornado crew who accidentally drifted into their leader during a boring tanker trail, or the Hawk pilot who mismanaged his practice turn-back and crashed an otherwise service aircraft, or the Hercules crew that landed gear-up at Brize, or the Typhoon pilot at China lake, or the Hawk gear-up pilot at Cranwell, or the Harrier pilot grabbing the nozzle leaver and dropping his aircraft into the sea and the list goes on....
Aviation is an unforgiving environment when mistakes are made and sadly many pay the ultimate price even when aircraft have escape systems. But we recognise that people make mistakes with consequences that can cause death, injury and the loss of multi-£M aircraft.
Until now that is.
A new legal threshold has been set by a pilot-induced control restriction that caused an uncontrolled decent, numerous injuries and a financial cost to the MOD. It will be interesting to see what happens to the next serviceman who crashes an otherwise serviceable aircraft.
Everyone must respond to this and lawyer-up as soon as possible after any incident or accident. You must protect yourself to the fullest extent possible under the law. Do not use ASIMS, DASORs or even the aircraft F700 to postulate what you thought had happened. They can and will be used against you in a court of law.