Chinook crash evidence to be reviewed

Thursday, May 27, 2010

The Ministry of Defence is to launch an investigation of the evidence which led to two RAF pilots being found guilty of gross negligence following Britain's worst peacetime helicopter accident.

Chinook ZD576 was carrying 25 of Northern Ireland's senior police and intelligence officers when it crashed on the Mull of Kintyre on 2 June 1994.

Pilots Flt Lt Jonathan Tapper, 30, from Norfolk, and Flt Lt Richard Cook, 28, from Hampshire were also among the 29 killed in the accident. The two were found guilty of gross negligence in an RAF inquiry, which said that the Chinook was airworthy at the time of the crash. Their families have maintained that the helicopter's overly complex software was responsible.

Since the gross negligence verdict, three further inquiries have found the evidence about the cause of the crash to be inconclusive.

In a debate on the Queen's speech, Sir Menzies Campbell pointed out that several inquiries had found that "the evidence didn't justify the verdict", and urged the Defence Secretary to consider opening a review of the negligence decision.

Defence Secretary Liam Fox said: "In opposition we said there would be an independent review of the evidence and I can confirm that the Ministry of Defence is already looking at the best way to undertake that.

"We will certainly live up to the promise we made in opposition."

Mike Tapper, Flt Lt Tapper's father, has described the announcement as "a huge relief" and said he hoped his son's name could now be cleared.