Tony CollinsMPs are next week expected to investigate the air-worthiness of
the engine control software on the type of Chinook helicopter that
crashed on the Mull of Kintyre in 1994, killing 29 people.
The enquiry, to be staged by the Public Accounts Committee
(PAC), is expected to question whether the Chinook should have been
allowed to fly with flawed safety-critical software.
The PAC's investigation was triggered by a National Audit Office
report into the Ministry of Defence's acceptance into service of a
range of projects and systems.
At the centre of the Mull of Kintyre crash is the role played by
the helicopter's two Special Forces pilots.
A subsequent RAF board of enquiry judged both to have been
grossly negligent, largely because no evidence of technical
evidence was found in the wreckage of the aircraft.
However, many computer and helicopter specialists believe that
software could have played a part in the accident without leaving
any physical trace.
In the weeks before the crash, a new software-based Full
Authority Digital Engine Control system (Fadec), which manages the
operation of the helicopter's engines, was known to have
malfunctioned.
As part of a year-long investigation, Computer Weekly has
catalogued several instances where pilots reported unexpected
behaviour in the engines and false warnings of engine failure by
cockpit control instruments.
Fadec is expected to be of particular interest for the PAC
because auditors found that the MoD's own airworthiness assessors
had refused to endorse the software.
The assessors had recommended that the software be
rewritten.
Analysis