§ Mr. ChurchillTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress has been made towards equipping all crews of Royal Air Force fast jets and jet-trainer aircraft with self-inflating life jackets and dinghies.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonWe intended to equip all fast jet and jet trainer aircrew with automatically inflating life-saving jackets. These have already been issued to Phantom aircrew, though the automatic inflation capability is not yet operational. The contract to equip the rest of the fast jet force has recently been awarded and it hoped that all the RAF's needs will be met by the end of 1991. All appropriate aircrew are already equipped with dinghies; these are easily inflatable manually and studies do not suggest that provision of a self-inflating variety would improve aircrew survival.