Sent today to the MP - I thought I'd better let the red mist dissipate first! God, we've had some ropey MoD ministers but that Ingram takes the biscuit. Anyway my MP is a junior minister (not MoD) so I don't hold out much hope but we'll see.
. .I am a former RAF officer who was serving at RAF Aldergrove in June 1994. I have never been moved to get in touch with you before ... I write to ask that you support early day motion No 829:
"That this House notes the House of Lords Select Committee Report on Chinook ZD 576, which concludes that: 'the Air Marshals were not justified in finding that negligence on the part of the pilots of ZD 576 caused the crash' in the Mull of Kintyre on 2nd June 1994; and calls on the Government to quash the finding of the Air Marshals who reviewed the conclusions of the RAF Board of Inquiry, which unjustly and on the basis of insufficient evidence ascribed negligence to the deceased pilots, flight lieutenants Jonathan Tapper and Richard Cook."
The question in issue is really now quite simple. Like many previous inquiries, the Lords' committee has asked itself the question: Is the available evidence regarding the circumstances of the crash of ZD576 sufficient to prove "beyond any doubt whatsoever" that the pilots were negligent to a gross degree? And they have concluded that it is not.
I ask that you consider that this issue is now in danger of going far beyond even the highly important matter of the reputations of 2 very fine pilots: To disregard the findings of a Scots Sherriff sitting at an FAI and the findings of the Public Accounts Committee is one thing, but for the MoD to be allowed to disregard the findings of a House of Lords committee of the calibre of Lord Jauncey's committee raises serious questions about the public accountability of the MoD.
If the highest legal authorities in the land conclude, on an essetially legal point, that the MoD is wrong; then surely the MoD must be forced to submit to that authority.
People joining the Armed Forces recognise that they give up a lot of the rights and freedoms of private citizens. However, they do so in the sure knowledge that the military authorities they submit to are themselves governed and overseen by the civil powers and the law of the land.
I fear that if the MoD is not brought to heel by parliament on this issue, and it is allowed to continue to break even its own rules, then the confidence of both current Servicemen and potential recruits that the civil authorities will ensure that miltary powers do not abuse their authority will be seriously undermined.
For this reason, and to put and end to the wholly unnecessary additional suffering caused to the Cook and Tapper families by the inexplicable obduracy of the MoD, I urge that you support the motion and do what you can to see justice prevail.
Yours sincerely,