Bill Wratten

Infobox Military Person
name=Sir William Wratten
lived=1939-
placeofbirth=
placeofdeath=


caption= Air Chief Marshal Sir William Wratten
Crown Copyright
nickname=
allegiance=flag|United Kingdom
branch=air force|United Kingdom
serviceyears=
rank=Air Chief Marshal
commands=Strike Command
No. 11 Group
RAF Coningsby
No. 23 Squadron
battles=Gulf War
awards=Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
Companion of the Order of the Bath
Air Force Cross
Air Chief Marshal Sir William Wratten GBE, CB, AFC (b. 15 August 1939) was Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of RAF Strike Command from 1994.

Flying career

Educated at Chatham House Grammar School in Ramsgate Wratten was the first Station Commander at RAF Stanley in the Falkland Islands after the 1982 war. He had previously served as Officer Commanding No. 23 Squadron, and went on to serve as, inter alia, Station Commander RAF Coningsby and Air Officer Commanding No. 11 Group.

As an Air Vice Marshal he was Air Commander British Forces Middle East from 17 November 1990 until the end of the Gulf War (as such he was the senior air force officer in Operation Granby).

Chinook helicopter crash Board of Inquiry

In 1995, following the Chinook Helicopter Crash on the Mull of Kintyre, Wratten was the Senior Reviewing Officer of the Board of Inquiry which had failed to find a cause of the accident. Despite a lack of Accident Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder, Wratten concluded that pilot error was the cause of the crash and found the pilots guilty of gross negligence [ [http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=213&id=789412002 Scotsman article] ] . Following a subsequent Scottish Fatal Accident Inquiry and House of Commons Public Accounts Committee report, a House of Lords Select Committee was appointed to consider all the circumstances surrounding the crash and unanimously concluded "that the reviewing officers were not justified in finding that negligence on the part of the pilots caused the aircraft to crash". [Report from the Select Committee on Chinook ZD 576 dated 31 Jan 02] However, to date (Jan 08) the MoD has refused to alter the verdicts.

References