The physics of flying

When I was sixteen, the boy I sat next to at school had a pilot's licence. He was a member of the RAF section of the school's combined cadet force and very good at physics. I was a Royal Navy cadet and could swim.

Our physics teacher, who wore a ridiculous deerstalker hat and smoked a pipe, had no tolerance for boys like me, who didn't understand: He'd fly into rages at our inability to answer his interrogations or produce anything less than perfect homework.

Consequently, to save my skin, I used to copy from the exercise book of the boy next to me, without his knowledge, after he'd placed it in the teacher's pigeonhole. He wouldn't have let me copy it if I'd asked, out of both principle and fear of the teacher's wrath. I took every precaution to avoid being caught by either.

It was an alphabetical friendship, borne out of being made to sit in order of surname most of the time. Outside of the classroom we didn't talk much and when he was off learning to fly I was messing around in boats. When it was no longer compulsory I left the cadet force but he stayed on, intent on a career in the RAF. Naturally I gave up physics and he carried on with it. We left school on different paths and never saw each other again.

In 1995 I saw a photograph of him in the TV section of a newspaper. I'd been out of the country for several years and was unaware of what had happened in June 1994. It was no surprise that he'd become an experienced, well trusted RAF pilot, but to hear of the accident and loss of so many lives was shocking.

The posthumous charge of gross negligence didn't seem right, even before I'd heard the facts. I'd never known him to be negligent of anything, unless you count allowing sneaky cheats like me to copy his homework when he wasn't looking.

Finally, this week, after all these years, an independent review has overturned the MoD verdict, after previously suppressed evidence - which has long been public - concerning malfunctioning Chinook software which the pilots had expressed concerns about, was allowed to be considered.

I'm left pondering the consequences of unswerving obedience and why I didn't have the courage to tell the physics teacher that I just didn't get it.

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