How good is the UK Defence Ministry (the MOD) at releasing information to the public? Let’s look at its news releases for 13 May, 2008.

1. Army launches ‘The Pipers’ Trail’ 13 May 08 – History and Honour – British Army
2. Army Officer survives Taliban grenade attack 13 May 08 – People In Defence – Ministry Of Defence|British Army
3. Red Arrows give an ‘Illustrious’ display 13 May 08 – Training and Adventure – Royal Navy|Royal Air Force

And you can subscribe to its news releases via RSS, in case you want to know more about lucky escapes, bagpipes and air displays.

Also released that day was a Board of Inquiry into a Hercules crash in Iraq in 2007. It is a heavily redacted inquiry into the loss of an aircraft that will cost over £30m to replace. Unless you know what a Board of Inquiry is, you might miss it. The site is effectively buried online.

Further entombed in the information mausoleum of a – technical term – crappy PDF of the hearing is this gem:

The UK ACC’s sound and well-reasoned approach to the release of information surrounding the incident and the subsequent ac [aircraft] destruction, resulted in minimal media interest. This denied the enemy the opportunity to exploit the situation for the benefit of their IO campaign.

And denied the British public and its representatives an opportunity to question the effectiveness of the protection of its forces.

Want another gem? The plane was landed by the co-pilot who wasn’t cleared to fly.

This was not, in the Board’s view, a deliberate disregard of the rules but rather an unchallenged cultural acceptance of a practice that had been conducted by other crews across the C130J fleet.

So basically the MoD’s Hercules pilots play to their own rules operationally. What if those same “unchallenged cultural acceptances” extended to rules of engagement in Iraq? Why wouldn’t they? That might be one for another inquiry.

Sounds a little harsh perhaps, but inquiries raise questions and questions need answers.

BTW this was how the Evening Standard reported the incident:

BRITISH forces blew up a damaged RAF Hercules in Iraq today to stop it falling into enemy hands. The plane was seriously damaged during landing north of Al Amarah in southern Iraq. Military chiefs decided repairs would have taken too long.

Let’s remember the rationale for not admitting this was the result of IEDs. A propaganda victory for enemy “information operations.” Now the Iraqi insurgency doesn’t own the BBC or CNN or Al Jazeera or Al Hurra etc. etc.

The absolutely rightful media interest in the loss of an aircraft was effectively blacked out. No questions in parliament either.

The executive has to do better than this.