Crew members of Lancaster DS678, a Royal Air Force (RAF) bomber, took off on the evening of 24 March 1944 for a raid on Berlin, Germany but never returned. Sadly, nothing further was heard of their fate. A service of commemoration to honour 5 of the crew members was held yesterday, Wednesday 27 June at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) Niederzwehren war cemetery in Hessen, Germany.

The service, organised by the MOD’s Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC), part of Defence Business Services, was conducted by the Reverend Doctor (Squadron Leader) John Harrison, Royal Auxiliary Air Force.

Tracey Bowers, JCCC said:

It’s a great pleasure to be here today to pay tribute to these brave men who made the ultimate sacrifice for king and country. Although the location of their actual graves has been lost over the year it’s fitting that they are commemorated by name and I’m delighted that we have some of their family from the UK, Canada and the USA here with us today.

The 5 crew members remembered were:

Terri Griffin, on behalf of Sergeant Watson’s family, said:

It has been a fabulous event for the family, so well organised and a great tribute to uncle Johnnie.

Liane Benoit on behalf of Pilot Officer McCann family, said:

We are so grateful to the British Ministry of Defence for this honour. It was a beautiful ceremony in a generous and hospitable community and we know they will rest in peace.

The 5 were killed and buried in the Prisoner of War (PoW) cemetery at Ohrdruf. After the war, the Missing, Recovery and Exhumation Services (MRES) were unable to identify the graves as the cemetery was under Soviet control and remained so until 1991. Over the years, the graves had been declared as ‘lost’. Now, more than 70 years after their deaths, a special memorial for each of the five fallen crew members has been rededicated in Hessen, Germany.

It is believed that only 2 crew members of Lancaster DS678 survived but were taken as PoWs at Ohdruf.

Mel Donnelly, CWGC said:

These special memorials allow us to commemorate the 5 members of the crew of Lancaster DS678, alongside other commonwealth war casualties in the CWGC Niederzwehren war cemetery. Even though their graves in Ohrdruf cannot now be found, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission ensures that all those who served and fell are commemorated by name.

The memorials were provided by the CWGC who will now care for them in perpetuity.

• UPDATE (08:45 28/06): The Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service have notified the MOD that the RAF Chinook is no longer required. There are currently 100 soldiers from 4 SCOTS deployed alongside the fire service at Saddleworth Moor, and the MOD remains ready and able to support where needed.

Approximately 100 soldiers from 4th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland, and an RAF Chinook helicopter have been deployed to support the Great Manchester Fire & Rescue Service operation responding to the Saddleworth Moor fires

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said:

I pay tribute to our Armed Forces’ professionalism, dedication and sense of duty. They are proving once again that Britain can always depend on our troops to protect us no matter the time, no matter the place, and no matter the problem.

The troops will deploy overnight from their barracks in Catterick. Operating out of a nearby Army Training Centre, they will assist the effort to control and reduce the fire, undertaking tasks such as the management of water lines, fire beating and providing general support where required.

The RAF Chinook, flying out of RAF Odiham, will arrive tomorrow (28th June) morning. It will airlift heavy equipment such as High Volume Pump Units to areas that are difficult to access due to the terrain.

As the nation marks Reserves Day today, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson praised these exceptionally talented people and called for more specialists such as engineers, chefs, media operations and electricians to step up and join the UK Armed Forces as Reservists.

Speaking at a reception for Reservists in the house of Commons last night, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said:

Reservists play a vital role in our Armed Forces, bringing a huge range of experiences and skills to the defence of our country.

As the threats we face intensify we need to attract the brightest and the best from all walks of life as part of a modern military.

This morning the Defence Secretary thanked civil servant reservists at a specially hosted breakfast in 10 Downing St.

The men and women of our Reserve forces give up their free time training to work alongside regular troops around the world. From telecoms workers and police officers to students they serve our country when called upon in a huge variety of roles such as dog handlers, logistics movers, intelligence officers and medics.

Reservist Colonel Sion Walker is a teacher by trade. He is currently deployed as Commanding Officer of Op ORBITAL, which is a UK programme to train the Ukrainian military in non-lethal skills and tactics such as the identification of mines, medical care and logistics.

Colonel Sion Walker is leading the operation. He said:

For me, it’s important to give something back. I have been able to use my skill sets as an educator and in the Army to complement each other. In school it gave me a different outlook on life. Some people whinge about how bad things are, but thanks to my military experiences I have a better balance in life, which means I don’t get vexed.

It means you’re more robust as a person. And I’ve been able to give young people better advice in school. I get youngsters asking me for careers advice about joining any of the Armed forces, and that is very satisfying.

BowTie finds its roots in the chemical industry course notes for a lecture on hazard analysis given at the University of Queensland in 1979. The exact origin is unclear but the mainstream use started in the aftermath of the Piper Alpha disaster with Royal Dutch/Shell adopting the methodology as the company standard for analysing and managing risk. It is widely regarded as a suitable visual tool to keep an overview of risk management practices, rather than replacing existing processes or systems.

RA 1205 provides a regulatory framework for an Air System Safety Case (ASSC) for each platform and identifies that it is not a single document, but a living body of evidence. Thus, ASSC based auditing techniques can be both complex and time consuming. BowTie can be employed to simplify this and improve the communication of risk by acting as an overarching document that collates all the documentary evidence of an ASSC together, meaning that it can then be interrogated to source auditable data that underpins the Safety Statement. With the publication of RA 1210 Issue 4, Operating Duty Holders (ODH’s) have been given more latitude in the way in which they choose to record and document risk within their area of responsibility allowing the scope to incorporate and develop good practice. For several years, the majority of ODH’s have been developing risk management systems that embrace the BowTie risk assessment methodology as it is believed that, when used correctly, it can provide an easier to interpret and more holistic view of overall risk exposure.

Of the 6 ODH’s that cover UK military flying, 5 have made a commitment to using BowTie within their respective Air Safety Management System (with the 6th now developing a capability). Early adopters have been working on its implementation for several years and are continuing to make significant developments in the way BowTie is utilised and how the software is implemented. There has been a significant investment in the translation of current risks from the traditional risk register into the BowTie format, and training key personnel in a revised way of working. The MAA has intentionally remained at arm’s length, in order to encourage the development of good practice by the user community, whilst keeping a Regulator’s oversight to ensure that the work implemented remained within the bounds of RA 1210.

Up until 2017 all ODH’s maintained suitable Platform Risk Register’s to meet the intent of the MAA Regulatory Publications, but in early 2017 Air Officer Commanding (AOC) 2 Gp made the decision to move completely from risk registers to using BowTie as the sole method of recording and presenting risks and risk management. The decision was made once the Gp’s SMEs were content that the BowTies were sufficiently developed to ensure no degradation in the risk picture presented.

The BowTie user group has made progress in agreeing a common approach to BowTie creation and produced a pan ODH level BowTie Standard Operating Procedures complete with a description of what a BowTie consists of and the taxonomy that is to be used. This has aided with configuration control and allows for easier analysis across all areas as the picture will look the same. This document continues to evolve as more functionality is included within the BowTies. The choice was made to use the standard taxonomy for BowTie to allow for shared learning from industry and to reduce training cost for personnel involved in the development. Therefore, risk terminology was changed to fit with the barrier (vice mitigation) based risk management model. Rather than dealing with the traditional risk based approach each BowTie deals with a hazardous situation and loss of control and can cover multiple risks.

These elements can then be embellished with additional information to allow for easy viewing of barrier effectiveness, owner, manager and importantly the evidence that underpins that assessment. The inclusion of Air Safety Information Management System data will allow for interrogation of the BowTies to further refine the effectiveness assessment of barriers and will generate a huge amount of quantitative data for analysis by Front Line Command and the MAA alike. There is no automatic process that updates the effectiveness rating and human interpretation is required before a change is made. Additionally, a currently unused but being explored capability is the generation of questionnaires allowing for targeting questioning of personnel to understand how a barrier is functioning.

BowTies are never truly complete as they are subject to continual review and as such are a living document. As the existing documents are further developed more of the existing functionality with the software will be utilised and additional tools will be delivered to increase the synergy between occurrence reporting and the risk management process. As to where we go next, there is significant interest from the Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) community to communicate hazards in the correct language for the ODH risk assessment model, without the need for translation. The DE&S Airworthiness Team via the ASPIRE project, is investigating the viability of transitioning DE&S to BowTie methodology. All ODH’s have been consulted and have agreed that the project is a step towards fully integrating the risk management process.

There is still more work to be done to ensure that the taxonomy used is acceptable by both the equipment and operating stakeholders. Along with this, many of the user groups are starting to use BowTie for functional safety with a clear interest in its ease of interpretation.

This year will see the reinvigoration of the legacy BowTie User Group (BUG). Previously this was a large meeting with representation from a wide cross section of stakeholders attending, each having particular issues to raise.
To improve upon the quality of the information exchanged, the BUG will be rebranded the BowTie User Forum and will have comprise of a periodic symposium that will include topical discussion and Q&A sessions and the creation of a dedicated BowTie SharePoint portal with a discussion board and wiki pages. It is within the dedicated BowTie SharePoint portal that the most current and up to date information regarding BowTie and its development will be found. Training availability will be advertised with links to application forms in addition to how to get a software or BowTieServer licence. Introductory training is provided currently through the MAA Air Safety Risk Analysis & Management Practitioners (MASRAMP) course held at Centre of Air Safety Training (CoAST) and there is a desire to include a bespoke BowTie training course for more advanced users as part of the Safety Training for Error Prevention (STEP) contract.

Minister for Defence People and Veterans Tobias Ellwood hosted the conference, which included delegations from Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.

The conference, the first meeting of its kind, saw Ministers and military officials from six NATO countries share best practice on veterans issues and discuss how nations can further mental health support for former service personnel.

Opening the conference, Mr Ellwood outlined to delegates that while most veterans go on live happy, healthy and successful lives, all Governments had the responsibility to look after the mental health of those who have served.

Minister for Defence People and Veterans Tobias Ellwood said:

In order to recruit the next generation of soldiers, sailors and airmen and women, we need to show that we look after our service personnel and veterans.

Britain is not unique in facing this challenge. That’s why it’s vital that we discuss these issues and share best practice with our close European military partners.

At today’s meeting, Mr Ellwood addressed the need to counter the negative perceptions of veterans. He told the conference that while more needs to be done to help veterans, it’s unhelpful that, despite statistics which prove otherwise, many people think that service life leaves people damaged.

Figures released today show that rates of mental disorder amongst serving armed forces personnel (3.1%) remain slightly below those of the general population (3.5%). Rates of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder also remain low, with 2 in every 1000 personnel assessed with having the disorder in 2016/17.

Every study conducted by the Ministry of Defence has also found that the risk of suicide among the Armed Forces community, including veterans of the Falklands conflict and the Gulf War, is lower than amongst the general population. The UK regular Armed Forces male rate of suicide for 2017 is 8 per 100,000. The UK general population male rate in 2016 was 19 per 100,000.

Support on offer

The Ministry of Defence is now spending some up to £220 million over the next decade to improve mental health services for serving personnel.

While the provision of veterans’ healthcare is the responsibility of the NHS in England and the Devolved Administrations, the MOD is working closely with all relevant government departments to make sure the unique needs of veterans are addressed.

Veterans in England, Scotland and Wales receive priority access to NHS specialist care for conditions stemming from their military service.

Last year the government created a Ministerial Covenant and Veterans Board, to coordinate and address veterans specific issues across all relevant government departments. The board will be presented with the first ever veterans strategy in the autumn

In 2017 the Veterans Gateway was also launched, providing a single point of contact for veterans, service personnel and their families to get the right information advice and support 24/7. The MOD provides £2 million to fund the helpline.