PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Chinook - Still Hitting Back 3 (Merged)
View Single Post
Old 30th Oct 2005, 10:05
  #1676 (permalink)  
WE Branch Fanatic
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Devon
Posts: 2,811
Received 19 Likes on 15 Posts
From the press - this.

TORY golden boy David Cameron is among 112 MPs who have now signed a Commons motion calling for a new inquiry into the Chinook helicopter tragedy, on the Mull Of Kintyre.

Mr Cameron, the favourite to become the next Conservative Party leader, has thrown his weight behind demands for Tony Blair to overturn verdicts of "gross negligence" against the two pilots involved in the crash.

The motion has gained support from across the political spectrum, from Labour left-wingers like Clare Short and Chris Mullin to Tories like Anne Widdecombe and Oliver Letwin.

The DUP's entire Westminster team has also signed the motion, as has the sole Ulster Unionist MP, Lady Sylvia Hermon and SDLP leader, Mark Durkan.

The development comes after Conservative MP Henry Bellingham claimed new RAF rules on fatal accidents, mean that if a similar crash happened today, the pilots would not be blamed.

In light of the rule changes, Mr Bellingham put forward the motion calling on the Ministry of Defence to re-open its inquiry into the Chinook crash, which claimed the lives of many of Ulster's top terrorism experts.

Twenty-nine people, including senior MI5 and RUC officers, were killed when the aircraft crashed on June 2, 1994 - the RAF's worst peacetime disaster.

The senior members of the intelligence community were travelling from RAF Aldergrove to a security conference, at Fort George, near Inverness.

A 1995 RAF Board of Inquiry report blamed the crash on "gross negligence" by the pilots, Flight Lieutenants Richard Cook and Jonathan Tapper.

But, an all-party House of Lords select committee unanimously concluded, in February, 2002, that the MoD's finding of "gross negligence" was not justified.

Mr Bellingham, who represents some of the families of those who died in the tragedy, told Sunday Life: "The RAF's rules on fatal accidents have now changed, and the Chinook pilots would never have been blamed for the crash, if they had been in place a decade ago.

"The MoD has already made its findings, but there's no reason why they can't re-investigate the crash in light of these new rules.

"The families of the pilots will never believe that they caused the crash, and they have been given some hope now with these changes.

"I'm delighted the campaign is now gaining momentum and pleased so many MPs, who sit on opposite sides of the house, now want the MoD to re-investigate the tragedy."
WE Branch Fanatic is offline