The Ministry of Defence will defy two Parliamentary select
committees next week by formally backing the verdict of negligence
against the pilots who were blamed for the fatal crash of Chinook
helicopter ZD576 in 1994.
In response to criticism of the verdict by peers and MPs from all
political parties, the MoD will cite a new computer simulation of
the last moments of ZD576's flight by the aircraft's manufacturer
Boeing. The simulation results, for the first time, include some
detailed characteristics of the Chinook's software-controlled Full
Authority Digital Engine Control (Fadec) system.
Problems with the Fadec, which regulated fuel to the Chinook's
engines without direct commands from the pilots, caused the engines
on other Chinooks to behave unpredictably at about the time of the
crash of ZD576 on the Mull of Kintyre on 2 June 1994.
The results of Boeing's new simulation are expected to reach the
same conclusions as its original mathematical model in 1994. Boeing
had created diagrams which depicted the pilots of ZD576 flying at
high speed directly into the Mull in full control of the aircraft.
In a detailed report dated 31 January 2002, a specially convened
select committee of the House of Lords, under former senior appeal
judge Lord Jauncey, examined the crash and its possible causes. It
said the Boeing simulation "presupposed that the aircraft was at
all times under control and flying a straight course although there
was no evidence that this was necessarily the case".
The Lords' report added, "We conclude that it would be quite
inappropriate to treat the results of the simulation as proven
fact." The committee concluded unanimously that two RAF air
marshals were "not justified in finding that negligence on the part
of the pilots caused the aircraft to crash".
Next week the MoD will publish a statement in response to the
Lords' report. It is expected to say there are no new grounds for
reconvening the RAF Board of Inquiry or setting aside the verdict
against the pilots.
Although the MoD will release the results of Boeing's new
simulation, the assumptions on which the mathematical model was
based are likely to be kept secret.
Next week's MoD statement - to be made nearly six months after the
Lords' report was published - will come too late for a full debate
before Parliament breaks for its summer recess.
In November 2000, the most powerful select committee in the House
of Commons, the Public Accounts Committee, found that Fadec
software on the Chinook Mk2 was flawed.
Doubts about Fadec led in part to the committee's rejection of the
finding of negligence. It accused the MoD of "unwarrantable
arrogance" in standing by the verdict.