Top story in today's Scotsman:
Fiscal accuses MoD of Chinook cover-up
John Staples
THE law officer who investigated the catastrophic Chinook helicopter crash has described the conclusions of the Ministry of Defence inquiry as "ridiculous" - and claims the MoD attempted to block his efforts to set up a fatal accident inquiry (FAI).
Iain Henderson, the then Campbeltown procurator fiscal, said there was no basis for the central finding - that pilots Richard Cook and Jonathan Tapper were guilty of "gross negligence" and to blame for the accident on the Mull of Kintyre on 2 June, 1994.
He also claimed the release of a technical report into the disaster was held up, preventing the FAI taking place for 18 months. Mr Henderson also called into question the ability of the military to remain impartial in their attempt to find the cause of the RAF’s worst peacetime accident, which killed 29 people, including the cream of Britain’s anti-terrorism intelligence.
Three reports have already dismissed the MoD’s claims of pilot error, but earlier this year, Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, refused to back the most recent one, by the House of Lords, which also poured scorn on the official version of events. Relatives of the pilots have dismissed the official findings as a whitewash and believe there were technical defects with the Chinook helicopter.
In his first interview about the crash investigation, published today in Computer Weekly magazine, Mr Henderson said: "The MoD did not want to have a fatal accident inquiry at all."
He said the MoD’s repeated "stalling" over the release of the technical report made him believe the ministry had an "ulterior motive" for the delay.
He added: "It was obvious that they were concerned that they could not control the outcome of our inquiry."
Following these findings, doubts were raised about the reliability of a new computer software system - FADEC - used to fly the aircraft. Asked what he thought of the MoD’s verdict, Mr Henderson told the magazine: "Ridiculous."
The Chinook helicopter smashed into the 1,404ft Beinn na Lice in atrocious weather conditions during a flight from RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland to Fort George, near Inverness. As well as Flight Lieutenants Cook, 30, and Tapper, 28, two experienced crewmen and 25 of the most senior SAS and MI5 counter-terrorist officers were killed, including the head of the Special Branch in Northern Ireland.
Mr Henderson, who is now retired, said he believes a technical report by Tony Cable, chief investigator of the crash at the Air Accidents Investigations Branch, was ready in late 1994, a few months after the accident.
He added: "I could not have an FAI without the technical report. There would have been a huge hole in the middle of my investigation"
Although the technical investigation report was dated 5 January 1995, the MoD did not make it available to Mr Henderson until June of that year.
He said he was then told that it could not be used as evidence for an FAI without the MoD’s clearance.
"Eventually I got a grudging letter from the MoD saying I could lodge the report [in September 1995]. That was after I had asked the Crown Office to take the matter up at a ministerial level," Mr Henderson said.
He insisted that the delay made it almost impossible for the families to prepare a case for a judicial review within the stipulated three-month time period of the judgment by the RAF Board of Inquiry in April 1995.
Although Mr Cable’s report found no evidence of any technical cause of the crash, it revealed many uncertainties over the state of equipment damaged by impact. In particular, it said one of the Chinook MK2’s FADEC control systems had been destroyed in a fire .
The FAI eventually concluded that there was no evidence to support the RAF’s findings against the pilots.
But Mr Henderson said the resistance he met in holding an FAI "does not inspire much confidence in the impartiality of the MoD".
In response to allegations of hindering the FAI, the MoD said in a statement: "The MoD believes it co-operated fully with Sheriff Sir Stephen Young's FAI. Indeed, the Lord Advocate has since stated there is no evidence to justify re-opening that inquiry".
This article:
http://www.news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=609222002
More Chinook inquiry:
http://www.news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=213