MoD re-opens Chinook crash case

Thirteen years on the crash of a Chinook helicopter on the Mull of Kintyre, which killed 29 people, is still the RAF's worst peacetime accident.

Two senior RAF bosses blamed "gross negligence" by the pilots.

Since that verdict was passed a whole series of investigations, including the Scottish Accident Inquiry in 1996, has revisited this wild place and concluded the pilots could not be blamed.

Sheriff Stephen Young in the Fatal Accident Inquiry said in 1996: "It has not been established...that the cause of the accident was the decision by the crew...to overfly the Mull of Kintyre..."

The House of Commons ruled in 2000 that "the unsustainable finding of gross negilgence...should be set aside."

The House of Lords in 2002 said the air marshalls "were not justified in finding that negligence on the part of the pilots caused the aircraft to crash."

Now the Defence Secretary Des Browne says he'll look again at the case with an open mind after a new dossier of technical and legal evidence was been handed to him by the Mull of Kintyre Group who've mounted a long campaign to clear the pilots' names.

Share this article

Send this article to a friend »

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Reddit
• Facebook
• StumbleUpon

What are these?