Tony Collins's IT Projects Blog

This is a longer version of an article on ComputerWeekly.com

A former senior officer who helped write rules for RAF accident inquiries has spoken publicly for the first time about his concerns over what caused the crash of a Chinook helicopter 14 years ago which killed the aircrew and 25 VIPs.

Retired Air Commodore Derek Hine says there is too much evidence of software problems on the type of Chinook which crashed to convince him that the pilots were definitely to blame.

Hine's comments come as the Defence Secretary Des Browne considers a lengthy file on the circumstances surrounding the crash of Chinook ZD576 on the Mull of Kintyre in June 1994.

The dossier contains new evidence which campaigners hope will lead to minsters setting aside the verdict of gross negligence against the pilots Fl Lieutenants Rick Cook and Jonathan Tapper.

Shortly after 7.30am on Friday June 2 1994, crew members of a Chinook helicopter,

airframe registration number ZD576, had their last breakfast.

They ate cereals; one had poached eggs as well, and another had a full fried breakfast.

Then the crew collected their weapons, ready for the day's duties, which were mostly

around Northern Ireland.

"Don't blame operators for lack of evidence". Below is an editorial we published in 2002 which explains Computer Weekly's interest in the crash of Chinook ZD576 on the Mull of Kintyre in June 1994.

This photo of Chinook ZD576 is the copyright of Robin Crorie who has given kind permission for it to be used by Computer Weekly in connection with the Campaign for Justice to clear the names of the pilots. The photo of ZD576 must not be copied, shared, circulated, used or reused without the permission of the copyright-holder. 

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Reproduced here is a memo which is arguably the most important document yet to show that the type of Chinook which crashed on the Mull of Kintyre this week 15 years ago, killing all 29 on board including 25 senior police and intelligence officers, was unsafe to fly.

Last week's press conference on the loss of the AF447 Air France Airbus A330-200 highlighted the importance of black boxes in any major fatal crash investigation.

Spokespeople for BEA, the French air accident investigators, were at the conference to report their interim findings. Without the cockpit voice and flight data recorders they don't know why the Airbus went into the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil on 1 June.

They still hope to find the cockpit voice and flight data recorders, although hopes of finding them before they are damaged by salt water, are fading.  

There's an extraordinary contrast in the [separate] investigations into the causes of the Airbus and Chinook crashes. In one, accident investigators admit they don't know what happened because there are no black boxes.

In the other, the MoD and two air marshals said the pilots caused the crash although the helicopter wasn't fitted with black boxes. Chinook ZD576 went into the Mull of Kintyre in June 1994, killing all 29 on board, including 25 VIPs.

The MoD and the air marshals didn't simply blame the pilots: they found them grossly negligent. RAF rules at the time said that deceased aircrew could be found negligent only if there was "absolutely no doubt whatsoever".