PA Media
Four crew and 25 passengers were killed when the helicopter crashed in June 1994
Families of those killed when a Chinook helicopter crashed in Scotland more than 30 years ago are preparing to hand in a petition to Downing Street calling for a public inquiry.
The crash on the Mull of Kintyre, which killed 25 intelligence experts and four special forces crew on 2 June 1994, was initially blamed on pilot error, a finding that was overturned in 2011.
The Chinook Justice Campaign has now released 110 “critical questions” about the tragedy and has collected more than 47,000 signatures on its petition.
Members have said they will “see the UK government in court” after the prime minister rejected calls for a judge-led inquiry.
The petition will be handed in to Downing Street on Tuesday, along with a letter the campaign also plans to deliver to the Ministry of Defence.
‘Machiavellian cover-up’
Niven Phoenix, who’s father died in the crash, said 31 years later families had 110 questions but “zero answers”.
He told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme that campaigners were hopeful of securing a judge-led public inquiry.
“If they don’t do this as a public body and exercise duty of candour, what’s to prevent it from happening again,” he added.
He said there had been a “machiavellian cover-up”, and said it was “unacceptable” that people involved had been allowed to go unchallenged.
Mr Phoenix added that growing up in Northern Ireland during the troubles he “half expected” something to happen to his special branch father, but having it happen “due to the incompetence of senior officers” in the RAF and MOD “blindsided” him.
He said: “That led to this sense of ambiguity to this loss. There is a duty of care expected, and it just wasn’t provided.
“My father and his colleagues were all about protection of life and why was that same protection not offered to them?”
The crash happened at the southern tip of the Kintyre peninsula
Among the 110 questions, the campaign asks who authorised the mission, why that aircraft type was selected, and whether passengers and crew were warned of the risks.
David Hill, the campaign’s technical expert, said refusal to grant a public inquiry and to seal key documents until 2094, was “a betrayal by the state” of both families and victims.
He said: “The prime minister and his defence ministers keep claiming that ‘this was a tragic accident’ and that there have been ‘six inquiries’ and that no fresh evidence is likely to emerge in a new judge-led public inquiry.
“This new list of 110 questions explodes that myth. It blows a massive hole in the government’s argument because none of these questions have been answered properly.”
He added that the questions sought to assist in establishing why “25 passengers and four crew were placed in an unairworthy aircraft that the MoD’s most experienced test pilots were forbidden to fly.”
The helicopter was en route from RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland to Fort George near Inverness when it went down, killing everyone on board.
A BBC documentary last year, Chinook: Zulu Delta 576, revealed that files relating to the crash had been sealed by the Ministry of Defence for 100 years.
Jenni Balmer-Hornby, whose father Anthony Hornby was killed in the crash, said: “Every time the Ministry of Defence says there is nothing new to uncover, we can now point to 110 very specific, very serious questions that have never been answered.
“These questions are not speculation – they are based on evidence that was withheld, ignored or misrepresented to previous inquiries.”
She added that the families deserved answers, and that those who “died serving their country deserve to be honoured not subjected to continuing deception from the MoD”.
An MOD spokesperson said: “We have now received the Chinook Justice Campaign’s formal claim for a judicial review of our decision to reject the demand for a judge-led inquiry into the circumstances of the crash.
“Our focus is on responding to that claim and to the allegations contained within it and we are unable to comment further at this time.
“The accident has already been the subject of six inquiries and investigations, including an independent judge-led review.”
