Chinook inquiry findings 'biased' - BBC 31 May
From your news-reading man ahead of GMT....
Chinook inquiry findings 'biased'
Two former senior military officers have expressed concerns about the inquiry into the Chinook helicopter crash on the Mull of Kintyre in 1994.
The RAF inquiry into the crash, which killed 29 people, found the dead pilots guilty of "gross negligence".
But the two helicopter experts told Channel 4 News that there were flaws in the RAF inquiry and called for the pilots to be exonerated.
Air Commodore John Blakeley accused the inquiry's findings of being "biased".
He said that engineering evidence "was not correctly analysed or followed up".
And he added that the RAF's board of inquiry had either been directed to blame the pilots or was not competent to do its job.
His findings have been backed by Rear Admiral Ron Holley - former director of helicopter projects at the MoD.
He described the aircraft's defect history as "not a happy one".
He has called for the pilots to be exonerated, the first former MoD insider to do so.
"The Board of Inquiry's findings were heavily biased in favour of the verdict that the RAF themselves were not questioned on their decision and shortfalls in their process"
Air Commodore Blakeley
The crash, which killed 25 senior intelligence officers and four air crew, was the RAF's biggest peace-time disaster.
The RAF inquiry blamed the pilots, Flight Lieutenants Jonathan Tapper and Rick Cook.
Subsequent investigations raised concerns about the airworthiness of the Chinook - sparking a long-running campaign by the pilots' families, the Church of Scotland, and politicians, including former prime minister John Major, to clear the men of any blame.
Air Commodore Blakeley, who was the RAF's most senior engineering officer during the Falklands conflict, has compiled a detailed report.
He said there was a "significant amount of doubt that the fleet of Chinooks was airworthy", and that the helicopter that crashed had carried "a potentially significant number of defects".
The retired officer said: "The Board of Inquiry's findings were heavily biased in favour of the verdict that the RAF themselves were not questioned on their decision and shortfalls in their process."
The report has been backed by Rear Admiral Holley - former director of helicopter projects at the MoD.
He said: "Air Commodore Blakeley's report is certainly a credible piece of work. The MoD should take it seriously because he has drawn his research from their own aircraft documentation - and that documentation is hugely important.
"The cogent and important point in the Air Commodore's report is the record of that aircraft's defect history. It was not a happy one."