The Scotsman again:
Blair urged to sort out Chinook fiasco
Hamish Macdonell Scottish Political Editor
TONY Blair was facing demands last night that he intervene personally to end the confusion over the Chinook helicopter crash.
David Davis, the Conservative Party chairman, called on the Prime Minister to get involved after the law officer who investigated the 1994 crash claimed the Ministry of Defence had blocked his efforts to set up a fatal accident inquiry.
Iain Henderson, the then Campbeltown procurator fiscal, said this week that the military stalled a technical report into the crash in which 29 people, including top British intelligence officers, were killed on the Mull of Kintyre.
And he claimed that there was no basis for the MoD’s central finding, that the pilots, Richard Cook and Jonathan Tapper, were guilty of "gross negligence", lambasting the ministry’s inquiry as ridiculous.
Relatives of the pilots have claimed there were technical defects with the helicopter.
Mr Henderson’s intervention represents the latest in a series of developments since the 1994 crash, almost all of which have cast doubt on the findings of the MoD defence inquiry.
Mr Davis said yesterday that the only way the affair could be cleared up now, particularly following the claims that the MoD had tried to block an initial inquiry, was with the intervention of the Prime Minister.
Mr Davis said: "These are very serious allegations, and I expect the government to give full and prompt answers to explain why the MoD seemed to impede the inquiry into the crash.
"What is worrying is that this is yet another indication of the MoD’s less than impartial attitude to this case.
"This shows that nothing less than the personal intervention of the Prime Minister is needed to ensure that justice is done.
"We can never be convinced of a fair and just outcome if the final decision is simply left to the Ministry of Defence."
Mr Henderson sparked the latest controversy over the eight-year-old crash in an interview with Computer Weekly magazine.
He said: "The MoD did not want to have a fatal accident inquiry at all."
The military’s repeated "stalling" over the release of the technical report made him believe the ministry had an "ulterior motive" for the delay, he said.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence insisted yesterday that the military had co-operated fully with the FAI.
This article:
http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/index.cfm?id=618962002
More Chinook inquiry:
http://www.news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=213