Chinook Crash Coverup, Investigative Report Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source - "Jay Dooling" PA 05/26/99 14:39 Cover-Up Claims Over Chinook Crash By Paul Hunter and Nick Drainey, PA News A joint investigation into the Mull of Kintyre Chinook helicopter crash in which 29 people lost their lives claimed tonight that new documents pointed to a five-year cover-up of the incident. The investigation, carried out by Channel 4 News and the Computer Weekly magazine, highlights a number of issues surrounding the crash which took place in June 2, 1994. Twenty-five top intelligence experts from Northern Ireland and four RAF crew died when the helicopter hit the ground as it flew through thick mist during a journey to Inverness. A report, broadcast by Channel Four News tonight, made a number of claims including: :: Government defence ministers misled Parliament and the public over concerns about the helicopter's computer engine control. :: The Ministry of Defence knowingly allowed top intelligence officials to fly in a helicopter it knew could be suspect. :: Ministers refused to listen when the world's leading helicopter computer expert and former top RAF test pilot tried to brief them. :: Information that the MoD was suing the computer manufacturer was withheld from the crash investigator and the Air Chief Marshall who blamed the pilots for gross negligence beyond any doubt whatsoever. However, an MoD spokesman said the circumstances of the 1994 Chinook crash have been rigorously examined on no less than five occasions - and each time the original verdict of the RAF board of inquiry had been upheld. Allegations had been made about the computer engine control before. These were irrelevant to the circumstances of the accident, he added. "The fatal error was made by the pilots two miles before the crash when they flew their serviceable aircraft into bad weather which they had been warned to expect and failed to take avoiding action," the spokesman said. "This constituted a breach in their duty of care and the inquiry was regrettably left with no alternative but to conclude that they had been grossly negligent. "The MoD has always said that it will examine any new relevant evidence that might become available. If Computer Weekly cares to share their evidence with us we will consider it in this light." The spokesman said the MoD dismissed the allegation that ministers and officials knowingly misled Parliament and stressed the department had always sought to be as open as possible on the matter. The board of inquiry said its wrong rate-of-climb explanation was the likeliest cause of the crash, based on the limited evidence, and technical malfunction was unlikely but could not be positively disproved. The finding came to be interpreted as "gross negligence" on the part of the two pilots, Flight Lieutenants Jonathan Tapper and Richard Cook, by senior officers who countersigned the inquiry report. But tomorrow's edition of Computer Weekly claims the helicopter's engine control software could have been at fault. Executive editor Tony Collins said the software meant the pilots may have had to ascend into cloud in order to decelerate, which is something they might not have wanted to do. At the time of the inquiry, worries were expressed about the new "full authority digital engine control" (FADEC) computers for the Chinook's engines, as one pilot told how his colleagues were worried about the haste with which it was being put into service. Flt Lt Tapper is said to have voiced his concerns on a daily basis. Peter Watson, the lawyer representing the family of Flt Lt Cook said called for a ministerial reply to the findings of the investigation and a new inquiry. He said: "The RAF's own procedures state that a finding of gross negligence should not be made against any pilot unless the evidence leaves no doubt. That has never been the case. "There has never been a proper factual basis to explain this crash. Mere assumption or speculation is not a basis to destroy the reputations of two pilots in the service of their country." Menzies Campbell, Liberal Democrat foreign affairs and defence spokesman, told Channel 4 News that there appeared to be a contradiction at the heart of the matter. "That's why that contradiction ought to be explored in a further inquiry by the Ministry of Defence," he said. "What we've heard today justifies the view that there should be a reopening of the accident investigation by the MoD and the Defence Committee of the House of Commons to take a wider interest in this matter than they've done before." Mr Campbell said he rejected suggestions that there had been a conspiracy to shroud the issue in secrecy but added that he believed a mistake had been made. "I reject the conspiracy theory behind this. I think an honest mistake was made but mistake it was nonetheless. "I think it would be in the interests of the MoD and in the interest of the families of the two pilots - and the families of the 25 senior officials who were the passengers on this aircraft - if this matter was finally laid to rest. "The only way in which this can done is if, behind the allegations, the sort of additional evidence that has been made available today is reconsidered in a proper form." 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