RAF Chinook: Families of sufferers to release criminal motion in opposition to MoD

Families of the ones killed in an RAF Chinook helicopter crash in 1994 have mentioned they’re launching criminal motion in opposition to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for now not ordering a public inquiry.

Four team and 25 passengers had been killed when the helicopter went down in foggy stipulations over the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland.

The helicopter used to be sporting main safety team of workers from RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland to a convention at Fort George close to Inverness.

The households of the sufferers need a High Court pass judgement on to check knowledge which they are saying used to be now not incorporated in earlier investigations. They consider it’ll be offering new knowledge at the airworthiness of the helicopter.

All 25 passengers – made up of team of workers from MI5, the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British Army – had been killed, together with the helicopter’s 4 team individuals.

The households of the sufferers, who’ve shaped the Chinook Justice Campaign, mentioned failing to reserve a public inquiry is a breach of the United Kingdom govt’s human rights duties.

In a letter to the federal government, the crowd mentioned: “The investigations conducted to date, whether considered individually or in combination, have failed to discharge the investigative duty.”

Thirty-one years after, the crowd have often known as for the discharge of paperwork that had been sealed on the time of the crash for 100 years, as published in a BBC documentary remaining yr.

The solicitor representing the households mentioned there’s sufficient proof to persuade the households that there used to be “a failure by the MoD to apply appropriate safeguards in order to protect the passengers and crew”.

Solicitor Mark Stephens added: “In fact, they were put on board an aircraft that was known to be positively dangerous and should never have taken off.

“That is why we’re in search of a judicial evaluation into the federal government’s failure to carry a public inquiry – which the households have searched for greater than a yr.”

After the crash, pilots Richard Cook and Jonathan Tapper, were accused of gross negligence, but this verdict was overturned by the UK government 17 years later.

A subsequent review by Lord Philip set out “a lot of considerations” raised by those who worked on the Chinooks.

The MoD’s testing centre at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire declared the Chinook Mk2 helicopters “unairworthy” prior to the crash.

Esme Sparks, who was seven years old when her father Major Gary Sparks lost his life, said: “We do not wish to need to take criminal motion in opposition to the federal government and MoD however we do need and want solutions surrounding the circumstance of this crash.

“We want to know who or what is being protected? Who made the decision to let this helicopter take off? What is being hidden? In our view, a public inquiry is key.”

The MoD mentioned that data held in The National Archives comprise non-public knowledge and early unlock of the ones paperwork would breach their knowledge coverage rights.

An MoD spokesperson mentioned: “The Mull of Kintyre crash was a tragic accident and our thoughts and sympathies remain with the families, friends and colleagues of all those who died.”