https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...port-alex-parr
A damning report into the death of one of the RAF’s top test pilots said the aircraft he crashed in had “significant equipment defects” before it took off. Flt Lt Alex Jay Parr, a 40-year-old father of three, died in July 2016 when a Yak-52 he was piloting suffered engine failure and crash-landed on farmland. Parr was thrown from the plane and his body was found several feet from the wreckage.
A report by the Ministry of Defence has strongly criticised the RAF and the defence firm Qinetiq for a string of failings which contributed to the accident. These include the fact the plane, used in instruction flights to train test pilots, took off with broken flight instruments, out-of-date parachutes and worn-out seat harness straps. A separate inquiry by the Air Accident Investigation Branch is being carried out, but MoD investigators discovered that the aircraft, built in Romania in 1993, did not have an engine overhaul in 24 subsequent years of flying.
The plane took off from an airfield at Boscombe Down, Wiltshire, in July last year. The military base, operated by Qinetiq on behalf of the MoD, is the home of Empire Test Pilot School, where elite pilots from Britain and the rest of the world, including the US, are trained to become test pilots. Several Nasa astronauts have honed their skills at the school. It is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading flight schools and the report will be a deep embarrassment to the MoD.
Air Marshal Richard Garwood, head of the Defence Safety Agency, last year told MPs on the parliamentary defence committee investigating the safety of military training, that the MoD and the RAF in particular, had “far better [safety] processes in place” since a 2006 incident in which a Nimrod aircraft exploded over Afghanistan killing 14 crew members. An inquiry into the Nimrod explosion later found “systemic failings” by defence officials and manufacturers were compounded by the MoD sacrificing safety to cut costs.
The report into Parr’s death concludes there was a failure to carry out due diligence to ensure a safe flight, that there was inadequate supervision, a lack of risk assessment and that the plane took off with “significant defect failures” including no gyro compasses, a broken altimeter, and failed engine gauges. “These failures would have denied the crew critical information during the emergency and likely caused distraction and confusion,” says the MoD report.
Investigators said parachutes on the aircraft “appeared out of date”, seat harness straps were “significantly weakened” and the pilot was not wearing a helmet.mThe plane was privately owned but sub-contracted to defence contractor Quinetiq. A second pilot, who survived the crash, was “inadequately prepared” for the training flight, having only logged one hour in the aircraft in the previous 12 months, investigators said.
“Overall, no stakeholder grasped the reality of a sub-sub-contractor operating a borrowed airplane. This led directly to [training school] personnel flying in an aircraft that was unfit for purpose and operating in contravention of the Air Navigation Order,” the report says.
Before the crash, the aircraft had been operating training flights at MoD Boscombe Down for a week “without either the aircrew, engineers or supervision picking up on what was clearly an unprofessional and deteriorating situation. We need to ask ourselves why this could happen under the gaze of the world’s premier test pilot school”.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, describing Flt Lt Parr’s death as a tragedy, paid tribute to him as an “outstanding husband, father, Royal Air Force officer, pilot, test pilot and friend. Clever, witty and warm, he will be missed by many.”