Tony CollinsParliament's most powerful select committee has begun new
enquiries into software problems on the Chinook helicopter type
that crashed on the Mull of Kintyre in 1994.
The Public Accounts Committee is concerned over whether the
Ministry of Defence made the right decision to allow Chinook's Full
Authority Digital Engine Control (Fadec) system to go into service,
despite flaws.
Fadec was incorporated into a £143m mid-life update of the
Chinook. The modified helicopter went into service in early 1994, a
few months before a Chinook crashed killing four crew and 25 senior
intelligence and police officers.
During a committee hearing last week that was at times heated,
the Ministry of Defence's Permanent Under- Secretary of State Kevin
Tebbit tried to assure the chairman David Davis that Fadec had been
safe since it went into service. He said it was not a
safety-critical component.
But committee members with MoD documents from independent
specialists and from Computer Weekly, were dissatisfied with some
of Tebbit's answers. They said that Fadec was designated
safety-critical by Boeing and there had been Fadec-related engine
problems.
Davis asked the MoD to answer, in writing, a series of questions
on Fadec. The committee is expected to issue a report which could
call for a reopening of investigations into the crash. The pilots
were blamed for the accident on the Mull of Kintyre but questions
remain whether Fadec could have been a factor.
News Analysis
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