SHOW SOME RESPECT FOR OUR BOYS!

Saturday 18 July 2009

RAF HELICOPTER WAS MADE FROM 2 OLD CHINOOKS......

"BOLTED TOGETHER"

Story Image

A Royal Air Force Chinock helicopter takes part in training exercise


By Brendan Abbott

THE Ministry of Defence admitted last night that an RAF Chinook helicopter flown in Afghanistan has been cobbled together from the front and back of two old aircraft.

Officials earlier denied the hybrid had been operational in the Middle East.

The aircraft was made up from two others – one which crashed in 1999 and one taken from the Argentinians during the Falklands war. The two parts were fused together – a “cut and shut” technique often used illegally by dodgy car dealers – and the aircraft went back into service in 2003.

The MoD statement followed an embarrassing disclosure by former Defence Secretary John Hutton in a letter to Ian Sadler, whose 21-year-old son Jack was killed in Afghanistan in December 2007. Mr Sadler, of Exmouth, Devon, said he was told about the hybrid helicopter by a soldier who claims he had been inside it in Afghanistan within the last year and that it had two different identification numbers.

The MoD would not confirm its whereabouts. But last night a spokesperson said: “We argue it’s a good use of resources.”


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This story so infuriated me when I read it, I thought I should reproduce it here.

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3 Responses to “SHOW SOME RESPECT FOR OUR BOYS!”
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banned said...

I was struggling to remember the phrase 'cut & shut' until I came to that point in your post.
Motor Insurers flatly refuse to insure such vehicles so why should the MOD regard the practise, when applied to helicopters, as 'making good use of resources' ?
Making death traps is more likely.

18 July 2009 at 05:00
RantinRab said...

It just gets worse and worse. Did they but it from Arthur Daley?

I feel a post coming on.

18 July 2009 at 09:58

I really, really hate to defend the government, especially on helos in Afghanistan. However this is probably a non-story, typical press misunderstanding of what they're writing about. Impossible to tell without more details about the repair.

A lot of bloggers have picked this one up, so I felt it necessary to post on the issue, with much more detail on why I think the papers have this one wrong.

Sorry.

18 July 2009 at 14:52