The Government is facing mounting pressure to overturn the Ministry
of Defence's verdict of gross negligence against the pilots of
Chinook ZD576, following this week's historic House of Lords report
which exonerated the men.
Both MPs and the parents of RAF flight lieutenants Jonathan Tapper
and Richard Cook welcomed the Select Committee report's findings
and urged the Government to quash the original MoD verdict.
"The families of those who died have waited a very long time for
this report," said Menzies Campbell, Liberal Democrat foreign
affairs spokesman. "Now the Select Committee has found that the
verdict of the Board of Inquiry is flawed, the Government's duty is
clear - it should accept the report, and the finding of negligence
should be quashed."
Conservative party chairman David Davis was equally insistent. "The
prime minister really has to sort this out, do the honourable
thing, reinstate the reputation of these pilots and make their
families and everybody else involved feel that justice has been
done," he said.
John Cook, father of one of the pilots, said, "We have known right
from the start that there was no evidence to support the accusation
of gross negligence and we hope the Government will now catch up
quickly."
However, a MoD spokeswoman refused to accept the report's
conclusions.
"'No doubt whatsoever' is a very high standard of proof. The senior
officers who reviewed the case, the air marshals and the MoD are
satisfied that that standard was met," she said. "We stand by the
conclusions of the inquiry and the review officers, which were
based on the evidence available to them.''
Former Tory defence minister Lord Chalfont was horrified at the
MoD's reaction. "I am delighted at this verdict but I am horrified
to hear that the MoD has suggested that it will ignore the
committee's findings,'' he said.
Les Hatton, a safety-critical software expert said, "The worrying
thing is the lack of accountability of the MoD, which has behaved
appallingly throughout the episode."
Mike Tapper, father of pilot Jonathan, echoed Chalfont's views. "In
my more charitable mood I am thinking that the MoD is trying to buy
time because it knows its position is unsustainable," he said.