Article from Scotland on Sunday 12th May, 2002, that may be of interest. Keep up the good work guys.
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Chinook pilots may be cleared by report
BRIAN BRADY WESTMINSTER EDITOR
A CONFIDENTIAL report that could clear two pilots of blame for the Mull of Kintyre helicopter disaster is lying on the desk of defence secretary Geoff Hoon, it emerged last night.
The Ministry of Defence has taken delivery of a technical report on the last seconds of Chinook flight ZD576 before it crashed into a hillside, killing the cream of Northern Ireland’s anti-terrorist intelligence forces, Whitehall sources have confirmed.
Ministers last month ordered Boeing, manufacturers of the doomed aircraft, to review their original analysis of the Chinook’s fatal journey in 1994 - including a flight simulation - after a House of Lords inquiry raised new questions about the cause of the crash.
But the families of RAF Flight Lieutenants Richard Cook and Jonathan Tapper may have to wait another four months to see whether the Boeing report backs the Lords’ decision to clear their sons of blame for the catastrophe.
The dossier will be sent to experts within the aviation industry for independent analysis before defence secretary Hoon makes a final decision.
MoD officials said he plans to answer the Lords’ points by September, when the six-month deadline for a response expires.
But it was clear last night that key figures within the department remain dead-set against overturning the original verdict of gross negligence handed down on both airmen.
"The technical questions the [Lords] report raised basically left us with no option but to go back to Boeing,’’ one senior ministerial source told Scotland on Sunday.
"But these are not fundamental issues. I don’t think any technical review can explain why these pilots were flying too low and too fast and into fog and therefore acting negligently before they crashed.
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