Families launch legal action against Ministry of Defence on 31st anniversary of RAF Chinook crash as legal team seeks Judicial Review over refusal to hold public inquiry
The families of those killed in the 1994 RAF Chinook crash on the Mull of Kintyre have today launched legal action against the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
It comes exactly 31 years to the day since the tragedy on June 2nd 1994, when RAF Chinook ZD576 crashed en-route from RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland to a conference at Fort George in Scotland killing all 29 on board, including 25 of the UK’s most senior intelligence experts and four Special Forces crew.
The crash of the Chinook Mark 2 has been mired in controversy ever since, and the families have never given up the battle for the truth.
Today, legal proceedings have been sparked in a ‘letter before action’ issued by a pro-bono legal team including Mark Stephens CBE of Howard Kennedy and Sam Jacobs at Doughty Street Chambers.
The families are seeking a Judicial Review into the government’s failure, and refusal, to order a judge-led public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the crash, under Article 2 of the Human Rights Act which protects the right to life.
Although there have been several previous inquiries, including an RAF Board of Inquiry, a Fatal Accident Inquiry and several parliamentary investigations, the families’ legal claims says these have all been “hampered by limited access to important information and evidence and unduly narrow scopes of investigation”.
Last year, in a BBC documentary, it emerged that the MoD has sealed the crash files for an almost unprecedented 100 years - and these could be locked away longer pending review at that time.
The unusual sealing of archive material for such a long period has raised further questions and concerns among relatives about the circumstances surrounding the crash, which at the time was described as the RAF’s worst peacetime loss of life.
Evidence which has emerged since proves that the Boeing Mark2 Chinook experienced “unpredictable malfunctions” as well as “shutdowns and surges in power”. The FADEC engine software was considered by test engineers at Boscombe Down, who mandated the aircraft be grounded, to be “positively dangerous” and “not to be relied upon in any way whatsoever.”
The families’ legal claim points out: “These mandates prohibited engine start-up, never mind flight, but RAF aircrew were not told this, nor the passengers.”
The claim adds: ”Strikingly, both the Fatal Accident Inquiry, and (former Defence Secretary) Sir Malcolm Rifkind, had concealed from them the fact that, at the time of the crash, the Ministry of Defence was in litigation with Boeing due to inadequacies in the operation of the Mark 2 Chinook.”
The two dead pilots, Flight Lieutenants Richard Cook and Jonathan Tapper, were wrongly accused of gross negligence - the equivalent of manslaughter. It was only after a 17-year campaign for justice by the families that the UK Government finally overturned the verdict.
But the families firmly believe there is a continuing cover up by the MoD over the accident - they point to the fact that the files have been locked away for 100 years, the Chinook was unairworthy and grounded but someone ordered it to fly that day, and continuing obfuscation by the MoD and the UK Government.
Nearly all of the 29 families involved have joined the Chinook Justice Campaign and back the legal case for a Judicial Review.
The campaign formally requested a public inquiry in October last year. Despite the Government's commitments over Hillsborough Law and the Duty of Candour on public bodies, Alistair Carns, Minister for Veterans and People, rejected the request.
Today’s letter before action gives the MoD 14 days to respond.
Details of the Chinook Justice Campaign can be found at chinookjusticecampaign.co.uk
Media coverage includes: BBC, The Guardian
