Gents
I'm somewhat surprised the following hasn't been articulated:
Chinook crash inquiry
The Times has published a letter from Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton, Chief of the Air Staff, in response to media coverage of alleged new evidence in the crash of a Chinook helicopter on the Mull of Kintyre in 1994. Sir Stephen wrote:
"Sir, Your editorial ('Unfit for Purpose (Continued)') yesterday unfairly argued that 'new' information made the findings of the Board of Inquiry into the Mull of Kintyre Chinook crash 'unsustainable and unacceptable'. Far from 'bureaucratic stubbornness', we have always made clear that we would revisit the findings if new evidence was presented. Despite the efforts over many years of those campaigning to clear the pilots, including an exhaustive report submitted in 2008, no such evidence has ever been found.
"The computer software issues raised in the documents obtained by the BBC were well known at the time and had been factored into the operating instructions. These issues were discounted in the context of this accident following a thorough independent assessment by the Air Accident Investigation Branch. This led the Board of Inquiry to conclude - along with those who have repeatedly reconsidered this over the years - that there was no evidence of technical failure which would have been a factor in the crash.
"What was exposed, in a diligent and logical analysis, was that the pilots consciously breached their operating rules, thereby knowingly placing their aircraft, passengers, crew and themselves at risk. This was the basis for the gross negligence finding.
"The Chinook helicopter has a remarkable safety record and has proved a mainstay of recent operations. Aircraft losses are not always due to equipment failings and it is a disservice to our people, particularly those working heroically daily in Afghanistan, to see a conspiracy behind every tragic loss.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton, Chief of the Air Staff."
The Daily Telegraph also ran a letter from former Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Graydon, which read:
"Sir - The current Chief of the Air Staff has made his views clear (Letters, January 6) following your leading article on the Chinook crash (January 5). That successive CAS's have reached the same conclusion after independent and exhaustive reviews, as have ministers, civil servants and senior military aircrew, can hardly be called stubborn; 'consistent' might be a more balanced term.
"You suggest we may be 'trying to hide something'. Could something have been hidden for all these years when leaks from Government departments are a daily occurrence? As for the so-called new evidence reported by the BBC, in comprehensive responses to reports and submissions by a House of Lords committee, the House of Commons Defence Committee and Mull of Kintyre campaigners, the RAF - through the MOD - has explained precisely why the finding of gross negligence was unavoidable.
"It remains so and can only be set aside if the facts are ignored. Documents dated July 2002 and December 2008 address all issues raised in the campaigners' various endeavours (including, of course, the Fadec computer system), and painstakingly explain why they are all irrelevant.
"In a nutshell, had the pilots not knowingly contravened the strict regulations that govern flight at low level, they could not possibly have crashed on the Mull of Kintyre as they did. This conclusion stems from evidence which is absolutely clear to the open-minded. One can hardly imagine such doughty politicians as George Robertson and John Reid, just two examples, having the wool pulled over their eyes.
"Why would the Royal Air Force wish to blame itself for this accident if there was the slightest possibility that technical fault might have been responsible? You suggest that 'institutionalised resistance' might be involved. For institutional resistance read consistent objectivity. Our duty was to acknowledge our failing and try to ensure that it never happened again.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Graydon, Chief of the Air Staff 1992-97