The Tories have made it party policy to appoint a senior
judge to review a finding of gross negligence against the two
deceased pilots of a Chinook Mk2 helicopter which crashed on the
Mull of Kintyre in June 1994.
David Cameron's position is that the reputations of the two
pilots deserve to be reinstated. "In the absence of any
overwhelming argument presented to me as Prime Minister, that is
what I would do," said Cameron.
The crash of Chinook ZD576 killed all on board: four crewmen and
25 senior police and intelligence officers. It has become the
RAF's most notorious peacetime accident.
An RAF Board of Inquiry found that problems with the Chinook's
software-controlled "Fadec" engine control system could have been a
factor in the accident.
Computer Weekly has
campaigned for more than a decade, with many other
organisations and individuals, for a new inquiry which could clear
the names of Flight Lieutenants Jonathan Tapper and Rick Cook, the
pilots of ZD576.
Software problems should have halted operational
flights
No clear cause of the crash has ever emerged. New evidence since
an RAF Board of Inquiry into the accident in 1995 has shown that a
commanding officer at the Ministry of Defence, Boscombe Down, was
so concerned about various faults related to the helicopter's
"Fadec" engine control system that he asked for operational flights
to stop.
His
memo called "in the strongest possible terms" for a formal
recommendation that operational flights of the Chinook Mk2 cease
until Fadec faults were explained and corrective action taken.
The memo was dated 2 June 1994 - the day of the Mull crash.
At the time of the accident, the MoD was secretly accusing
Fadec's supplier of having designed a software-driven fuel control
system that was not airworthy, did not meet international safety
standards and had not been tested adequately.
No details of this
legal action were given to the Board of Inquiry into the crash
of Chinook ZD576.
Fadec software was critical to safe flight
The Fadec software was an intermediary between pilot controls
and the engines. It controlled fuel to the Chinook's two jet
engines and was categorized by the helicopter's manufacturer Boeing
as
"flight critical".
Fadec problems included engines shutting down or surging
unexpectedly, and warning lights illuminating in the cockpit.
An RAF Board of Inquiry did not rule out the possibility of a
major technical malfunction distracting the crew but two air
marshals, after reviewing the Board of Inquiry's report, decided
that Cook and Tapper had been grossly negligent.
RAF rules at the time were that deceased crew should be found
negligent only when there was
"absolutely no doubt whatsoever" about the cause of a crash.
The Chinook had no black boxes and parts of the aircraft were
damaged by fire after the impact.
In written evidence to the Public Accounts Committee in 2000,
Computer Weekly said: "In the case of the Chinook's Fadec there
has never, to Computer Weekly's knowledge, been a procurement or an
implementation of safety-critical software that has had such a
dense history of significant problems."
Analysis of Fadec software stopped because of so many
faults
In 1993 an assessment of the Fadec by defence contractor
EDS was abandoned because of the large number of anomalies
found - 485 after an analysis of less than 18% of the code. EDS
said in a report that a potential flaw in the Fadec's main computer
"may cause incorrect operation of the Fadec".
MoD IT experts at Boscombe Down wanted the
Fadec software rewritten but the MoD and RAF rejected this
recommendation.
Now Conservative Central Office has confirmed in a statement to
Computer Weekly that it is official Party policy to review the
finding of gross negligence against the pilots.
In an exchange of emails with Computer Weekly, Central Office
said the Party's policy is "for the existing evidence to be
examined by a senior judge with the remit of advising if such
evidence is sufficient to sustain a verdict of negligence at the
required standard of proof".
The Tory Party's statement means there is a clear gap in policy
between the Conservatives and the present government over the
Chinook accident.
Labour rejects calls for a review
Without exception, Labour ministers have rejected calls for any
new inquiry over the crash. In June this year Bob Ainsworth, the
Defence Secretary, wrote to
Lord O'Neill, a longstanding campaigner for the Cook and Tapper
families, rejecting calls for a new inquiry.
He said: "Whilst I acknowledge that you have gained the
agreement of a number of your key stakeholders, I cannot agree that
the suggested review would be an appropriate way forward."
Tory defence ministers
Sir Malcolm Rifkind and James Arbuthnot, who had backed the
finding against the pilots when they were in office, have since
changed their minds.
A former Tory defence spokesman
Robert Key has also
campaigned for the reputations of the pilots of ZD576 to be
restored.
The MoD declined to comment on what is now official Party policy
over the Chinook crash. It has always supported the finding of
negligence against Cook and Tapper.
The father of one of the pilots, Mike Tapper, said of the Tory
policy statement: "After 12 years of totally negative response from
the Labour government this has to be good news."
If the Tories win the next general election, and a judge
disagrees with the finding of gross negligence against Cook and
Tapper, it will be incumbent on the Party to accept the judge's
decision because it had, after all, set up the inquiry.
But would the MoD accept a judge's finding, even if it were
accepted by its Secretary of State for Defence? If the MoD refuses,
that would raise questions of who is ultimately in control of the
MoD: the civil servants and military advisers, or elected
ministers.
Chinook crash: critical internal memo on software flaws
Chinook helicopter disaster - software failure or pilot
error?
Battle for Justice -
campaign website
Channel 4 News - Chinook tragedy - new evidence emerges
Chinook helicopter disaster
Computer Weekly's evidence to the Public Accounts Committee on the
Chinook Mk2's software problems
Chronology of Chinook crash and aftermath
RAF Justice - Computer Weekly's 140-page report on a cover up of
Chinook Mk2's software problems