The British government is resisting pressure to reopen inquiries into the cause of a Chinook helicopter crash on the Mull of Kintyre in 1994 which killed all 29 people on board. Those who died were 10 members of the RUC Special Branch, nine British army intelligence officers, six MI5 officers and the four-man RAF crew. The Mark II Chinook helicopter crashed into a hillside in dense fog on June 2nd, 1994 on a flight from Aldergrove airport in Belfast to an RAF base in the west of Scotland. Labour Party ministers recently announced support for the decision of an RAF board of inquiry that the accident was due to gross negligence by the pilots, Flight Lieut Richard Cook and Flight Lieut Jonathan Tapper.
However, Channel Four News last night claimed to have new evidence pointing to fresh doubts about the Chinook's computerised Fadec engine control system. The programme said that after Fadec-related problems, test pilots at Boscombe Down suspended all flight trials on June 1st, 1994 but that operational pilots were told to continue flying.
It claimed Flight Lieut Tapper had asked for a Chinook Mark I - which did not have the Fadec system - to be standing by for his ill-fated flight, but that the request was refused.
The day after the crash, a previously unpublished memo from the electronic assessment section at Boscombe Down was sent to the British Ministry of Defence listing continuing faults in the Fadec software, said Channel Four.
"The problem remains that the product has been shown to be unverifiable and is therefore unsuitable for its intended purpose," said the memo.
Tomorrow, members of the Commons Defence Select Committee and other interested MPs will have, at their request, a private briefing on the crash from Ministry of Defence officials.
Last night a spokesman told The Irish Times the ministry was "certain" that the computer control system was not the cause of the crash but "pilot error" was to blame. Describing the last moments before the Chinook crashed, the spokesman said: "It was being flown very low and fast into fog. Only in the last four seconds did the crew make emergency manoeuvres to avoid impact. The guidelines clearly state that pilots should fly over fog or away from it, not into it. The pilot flew through the fog in contravention of the guidelines."
The British Armed Forces Minister, Dr John Reid, said the information presented on Channel Four News last night was not new. He added that there was no evidence that the helicopter's Fadec system had stopped the pilots flying, as they should have done in foggy conditions. He also rejected any suggestion of a cover-up by his government.
"There is no earthly reason why a new government with new ministers should feel any compulsion to cover up for the former Conservative government, or their decision to back the board of inquiry's findings.
"We have subjected this case to minute scrutiny and come to exactly the same conclusions as them (that the pilots were guilty of gross negligence)."
Dr Reid added: "All the evidence from this crash site, which was investigated not by the MoD but by the Civil Aviation Investigation Branch, indicated that the engines were working at the time of impact, that the Fadec system . . . was working at the time of impact.
"I understand how tragic that is for the families involved and I have some sympathy for the plight they are in, but we could not come, on the evidence, to any other conclusion."