Noticed this on an obscure site - is this fresh news? Looks like a lot of money riding on outcome - interesting to see differences/errors in tech details/perceptions!
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Intelligence, N. 63, 30 June 1997, p. 23
GREAT BRITAIN
CHINOOK CASE CRASHES IN THE COURT
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has paid almost œ
8 million in
compensation to the relatives of 17 top intelligence officers
killed in the Chinook helicopter crash in Scotland, in June
1994. The information was revealed after Delyth Gregory-Smith,
the widow of an Army intelligence officer, accepted an
undisclosed out-of-court settlement (believed to be in excess
of œ500,000) on 16 June. Twelve of the 29 claims against the
MoD have still to be settled. If the present rate of
compensation is maintained, payments will eventually exceed œ
14
million.
The twin-engine, recently-modified Chinook Mk2, with 25
passengers and four Royal Air Force (RAF) crew, had been
travelling from RAF Aldergrove, in Belfast, to a weekend
conference of intelligence and anti-terrorist experts at Fort
George, in Inverness, according to the MoD, when it failed to
clear the mist-covered, 240-meter high Torr Mor on the Mull of
Kintyre. Ten Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Special Branch
members, nine senior Army intelligence officers and six MI5
agents attached to the Northern Ireland Office, as well as the
four RAF crew, died in the crash. An MoD/RAF board of inquiry
blamed the crash on the "gross negligence" of the pilot Flight
Lieutenant Jonathan Tapper, and his copilot, Flt. Lt. Richard
Cook. However, a Scottish Fatal Accident Inquiry later found
that there was no evidence of pilot error (INT, n. 34 1).
Mrs. Gregory-Smith sued the MoD claiming the helicopter had
been flying too low in poor visibility and had ascended to
rapidly in an attempt to clear the rocky outcrop when the crash
happened. The Chinook had been fitted with a computerized
automatic pilot, called a Mission Management System, which,
using a set of vectors and other flight data, allows pilots to
sit back and fly by computer.
Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Gregory-Smith, of the Army
Intelligence Corps based at Army Headquarters, in Lurgan,
County Armagh, could have expected to reach the rank of full
colonel by January 1996, and eventually brigadier. He was
posthumously awarded the Queen's Commendation for his covert
work in Northern Ireland. The agreement on compensation for
loss of earnings and bereavement was reached as the case was
about to be heard by the High Court in London. The MoD had not
contested the claim, but had failed to reach agreement on the
amount of damages. Later an MoD official, Ian Burnett, said
his department was satisfied with the outcome, especially as
Mrs. Gregory-Smith had not been required to take the witness
stand.
... -- Of course, the settlement also means that no MoD
officials were called to give evidence or face cross
examination and, as a result, the cause Chinook crash still has
not been properly explained. The MoD may have decided to avoid
a confrontation in court if it "got wind" of a recent U.S.
Department of Justice case against Boeing for providing
defective parts that caused two Chinook Ch-47D helicopters to
crash, one at Fort Meade, Maryland, and the other in Saudi
Arabia. The government claims Boeing knew that Chinook engine
transmissions, made by subcontractor Speco of Springfield,
Ohio, were faulty but nonetheless sold them to the U.S. Army.
The suit charges that for more than seven years Boeing
knowingly delivered helicopters with gears that did not meet
contract specifications. The RAF's Mk2 may well have been one
of those helicopters. Boeing has consistently refused to
answer questions concerning the Chinook involved in the Mull of
Kintyre crash.-------------------------------------------------------------------