Puma Crash Sentence
Avoid imitations
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Wandering the FIR and cyberspace often at highly unsociable times
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As an ex Puma operator, including 2 separate tours as an OCU staff QHI, all I can say is:
WHAT a total mess is revealed by that report. Not just the tragic and wholly avoidable accident itself, but the whole sorry organisation (or lack of) of the Puma force in the period leading up to it.
I'm very glad I was well out of it some years before.
The Puma HC1 was always well known to bite the inexperienced, the unwary, the over-confident or the careless. I knew that even as a Shawbury student, prior to gaining my wings in the 1970s. It was re-inforced to me during my Puma OCU training when 33 Sqn lost an aircraft in Norway and on joining my first Sqn (230) when we lost the aircraft in Rhodesia almost before I had my own locker.
One very telling thing revealed in the report, IMHO, was that both the Puma flight commander and the boss of the OCF (his Boss) had "PVR'd" during the period leading up to this.
However, as always, the buck is seen to rest with the pilots on the day.
WHAT a total mess is revealed by that report. Not just the tragic and wholly avoidable accident itself, but the whole sorry organisation (or lack of) of the Puma force in the period leading up to it.
I'm very glad I was well out of it some years before.
The Puma HC1 was always well known to bite the inexperienced, the unwary, the over-confident or the careless. I knew that even as a Shawbury student, prior to gaining my wings in the 1970s. It was re-inforced to me during my Puma OCU training when 33 Sqn lost an aircraft in Norway and on joining my first Sqn (230) when we lost the aircraft in Rhodesia almost before I had my own locker.
One very telling thing revealed in the report, IMHO, was that both the Puma flight commander and the boss of the OCF (his Boss) had "PVR'd" during the period leading up to this.
However, as always, the buck is seen to rest with the pilots on the day.
Alfred,
You are showing your ignorance on a number of levels.
As already pointed out, at the time Cdr JHC was an Army 2*; therefore, you must be a new boy or not from the SH Fleet. Then you go onto say that if the Puma Force was that concerned it should have gone to the CAS or his 3*, but in a separate post you state that 'if the RAF Cared' they should have done something about it........ make your mind up. But if you were involved in any of this (which I doubt) then you would have also been aware that the higher levels of light blue didn't really give damn about what was going on, the Sqn/Stn was a bastard child that no one really wanted to pay or take responsibility for.....Fact!
Also, as has been pointed out, all of the enquiries have been outward looking from JHC, maybe they should have gone down to the QM's and signed out a mirror!!!! Moreover, were they objective in their findings..........? I suppose it depends on which side of the M4 you were reading them!!
Ultimately, feel free to read all of the reports and be aware of the facts before posting!!
You are showing your ignorance on a number of levels.
As already pointed out, at the time Cdr JHC was an Army 2*; therefore, you must be a new boy or not from the SH Fleet. Then you go onto say that if the Puma Force was that concerned it should have gone to the CAS or his 3*, but in a separate post you state that 'if the RAF Cared' they should have done something about it........ make your mind up. But if you were involved in any of this (which I doubt) then you would have also been aware that the higher levels of light blue didn't really give damn about what was going on, the Sqn/Stn was a bastard child that no one really wanted to pay or take responsibility for.....Fact!
Also, as has been pointed out, all of the enquiries have been outward looking from JHC, maybe they should have gone down to the QM's and signed out a mirror!!!! Moreover, were they objective in their findings..........? I suppose it depends on which side of the M4 you were reading them!!
Ultimately, feel free to read all of the reports and be aware of the facts before posting!!
Mate, I use helicopters, and frankly couldn't give 2 ****s about the internal politics of JHC. The RAF has Full Command of the Puma Force, which means they have the ultimate responsibility for their actions. The CoC flows both ways, and I would presume there is an entire cell/desk/empire within the Air Staff that deals with the Puma. The fact that the RAF didn't see fit to take up the complaints of the Force, nor did the Force expose those complaints (formally, if not in-formally), shows that both have some level of fault.
To blame the 'big bad Army' for this is to sidestep the RAF's responsibility. If the RAF want to trigger a BoI/Investigation/whatever, all CAS has to do is write to HQ Land. Or, take the nuclear option and withdraw from JHC.
If the Puma Force is the bastard child no-one wants it should be disbanded immediately, and the funds placed into other SH.
To blame the 'big bad Army' for this is to sidestep the RAF's responsibility. If the RAF want to trigger a BoI/Investigation/whatever, all CAS has to do is write to HQ Land. Or, take the nuclear option and withdraw from JHC.
If the Puma Force is the bastard child no-one wants it should be disbanded immediately, and the funds placed into other SH.
