Interesting story on forces TV & BFBS News
Also Interesting the way its been covered - looks a little shody on the journalism and makes me wonder if there was a bit more to the “health & safety hazard” than made public.
Several write-ups too:
Can’t see this has anything to do with H&S and more to do with someone seeing the material worth that can’t be realised while it sits there. A Harrier recently sold for £100K, wouldn’t have any bearing of course. The MoD needs to realise its assets to fill financial holes.
If there were any H&S concerns they wouldn’t have been allowed it in the first place. To get it on the property all the pen pushers and paper shufflers would have been involved and it’s not something you could have hidden when you had visitors.
Until someone from the Sqn actually comes on here and says for definite why the aircraft was withdrawn, we can only speculate. However, the report itself says that the aircraft is being withdrawn ‘due to its age and deteriorating condition’ and I would suspect that there has been no maintenance, other than an external wash every now and then, carried out since the Sqn got it. There has probably been no corrosion inspection and treatment, and therefore the integrity of key areas of the aircraft could be suspect. Many of you will no doubt recall that several Stn Gate Guardians have been removed and replaced with replicas over recent years and although some of these were sold on and actually returned to flying condition in a few cases, most will have been removed because they had deteriorated to such a condition that they were unsafe.
Having surplus aircraft as ‘training aids’ is good in theory, but they have to be looked after and Sqns simply do not have the capability to do it properly.
The ATC unit site looked a tad unloved…