Sir - Do civil and military flying organisations ever discuss their accidents and incidents with each other? If they do, then they do not seem to learn from them.
The report, "Disconnected ailerons are blamed for RAF Hawk crash" (Flight International, 13-19 March, P4), bears an uncanny resemblance to an Airbus A320 near miss in 1994. In both cases, flying controls were disconnected or de-activated during maintenance and not re-instated by the engineers. No subsequent checks were carried out before the aircraft were handed over for flight. The flight-crew in both cases failed to establish "full and free" movement (to use an old phrase). There were three chances to get it right - all were missed. The A320 pilot, who apparently forgot to check his controls, made a miraculous recovery and landed safely (with errant spoilers waving in the wind). The Hawk pilot, sadly, was not so lucky.
The publicity surrounding the A320 incident was widespread at the time and, in civil-aviation circles, is considered to be a classic close shave from which the flight-crew and maintenance engineers have learned a lot. Were Royal Air Force engineers not told about it, or did they not read about it in the technical press? When will we learn from one another?
Source: Flight International
