It does seem to me that relentless cuts in the defence budget together with an increasing demand on operational hours in Iraq and Afganistan are the root cause of this issue.
The 'privatisation' of the maintenance of the RAF aircraft put safety into the realm of cost effectiveness. When the aircraft were maintained solely by the RAF safety was a matter of discipline.
25 years ago I served in the RAF and remember how Junior Technicians could and did face charges of negligence for when a error was made in their work.
The rationale behind this was that a mistake by a 'Techy' could lead to loss of life.
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