Hoon's response - Monday(22/7)?
From the BBC(19/7)
"Campaigners for two pilots blamed for the 1994 Chinook helicopter crash have promised to fight on if defence officials refuse to exonerate them. They have been waiting for a response from Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon to a House of Lords select committee report into the accident on the Mull of Kintyre.
The crash killed 29 people - many of them senior Northern Ireland intelligence experts. Senior peers decided that it was "not justified" to blame the pilots for the accident.
........................................
Mr Hoon has confirmed to BBC Scotland that he will make a statement on the issue to the Commons on Monday.
However, there is mounting speculation that he will refuse to overturn the findings of the Royal Air Force marshals who investigated the crash in 1996. Computer Weekly magazine has reported that ministers will say there are no new grounds for reconvening the RAF Board of Inquiry or setting aside the verdicts.
Lord Chalfont is one of those who has championed the cause of the pilots. He told BBC Scotland: "If the Ministry of Defence (MoD) do decide to ignore the House of Lords select committee and refuse to remove the verdict of gross negligence from the record it really will be a most extraordinary development.
"What they will be doing is preferring the conclusions of two air force officers over the conclusions of a House of Lords select committee presided over by a distinguished judge.
"It does seem to me to be the air staff in the Ministry of Defence making themselves look extremely foolish, apart from anything else."
...................................................
Lord Chalfont stressed that it would not be the end of the road if the MoD refused to overturn the verdicts. He said there would be a debate on the issue in House of Lords after the summer recess.
"There are a lot of questions that still need to be asked about what lies behind all this," added Lord Chalfont.
"Why is it that the MoD are year after year being so obstinate about this and refusing even to reopen the inquiry to see if they can find out what the truth of the matter is?"
The MoD has refused to comment."