Lord Chalfont, the head of a Parliamentary campaign to clear the
names of two pilots blamed for a Chinook helicopter crash in
Scotland, has written to the prime minister urging him to seek
independent advice on the cause of the accident.
Chalfont's letter comes as the Ministry of Defence finalises its
formal response to a Lords Select Committee report published in
January. In an historic finding, the committee concluded that two
RAF air marshals were "not justified" in finding that the pilots of
Chinook ZD576, which crashed on the Mull of Kintyre in June 1994,
were negligent.
The Lords report said there was doubt over the cause of the crash
because of the possibility of a technical malfunction, such as the
pilots' controls jamming or a sudden engine surge caused by the
Chinook's safety-critical Full Authority Digital Engine Control
software.
"Any of these events could have had a serious effect upon the
crew's ability to control the aircraft," said the report.
Now Chalfont, head of the Mull of Kintyre group of peers and MPs,
has asked Tony Blair to take independent advice on the committee's
report.
Chalfont's letter asked the prime minister to "give your personal
attention" to the crash of the Chinook helicopter ZD576. He added,
"I am aware that this matter lies within the responsibility of the
secretary of state for defence and that normally you would pass the
matter for him to deal with. However, I earnestly beg you to have
the matter, including the House of Lords Select Committee report,
looked at by someone outside the Ministry of Defence, as the air
staff, who have been dealing with it throughout, will simply
provide the brief which they have adhered to for years. The issue
has now reached a critical stage."
Chalfont told Blair that the MoD was unlikely to act on the Select
Committee's conclusion by overturning the verdict. Should this be
the case, the campaign of the Mull of Kintyre group may be stepped
up. For example, MPs and peers may begin to raise the
constitutional matter of whether the final say over what or who
caused the crash should lie with officials or Parliament.
"All this can be avoided if the Ministry of Defence will accept the
finding of the House of Lords Select Committee and set aside the
verdict of gross negligence against the Chinook pilots," said
Chalfont in his letter.
"This is a matter, prime minister, of natural justice which should
not be left to a governmental department in which officials might
justifiably be suspected of a conflict of interest. I beg of you to
intervene before the secretary of state for defence signs off his
response to the House of Lords Select Committee, and opens up
issues which will go far wider than the responsibilities of one
government department."