Public ‘sick of cover-ups' at MoD, says Chinook crash campaigner
The bereaved families have called for a judge-led inquiry into the incident, which was initially blamed on pilot error before this was overturned in 2011.
A petition calling for an inquiry saw a surge in support last week after campaigners took to social media to criticise efforts to cover up the leak of thousands of names of Afghans who had helped UK troops, which they said was another case of the MoD 'covering up its own mess'.
Chris Cook, whose pilot brother Rick was killed in the 1994 crash, said: 'This Afghan cover-up shows that the MoD hasn't just lost its moral compass but has managed to avoid all democratic accountability and scrutiny.
'It hid this data leak from the very people who are meant to keep it in line – the Intelligence and Security Committee, which had a legal right to see the intelligence assessments.'
He added: 'The MoD has become the Ministry of Deceit. It lies, it obfuscates and it squirrels away its mistakes until it is found out – just as it has with the Chinook crash.
'It took us 16 years to clear my brother's name, and all that time the MoD claimed information didn't exist – until we found it and then they questioned how we got the information.
'The trouble with this whole case over 31 years, and so many other MoD cases – the helicopter cancer cases, the nuclear vets, is that so much information has been suppressed.
'It seems that the Ministry of Deceit is unable to uphold the values of integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality which they expect our armed forces to serve with.
'It's time for truth and transparency at the MoD and it's time for the Prime Minister to step in and clear up the MoD's many outstanding cases of deception, with a legal duty of candour imposed.'
'This Afghan cover up shows that the Ministry of Defence hasn't just lost its moral compass but has managed to avoid all democratic accountability and scrutiny. Just like the Chinook crash, it has covered up its own mess as usual. The MoD has become the Ministry of Deceit."
— Chinook Justice (@ChinookJustice) July 18, 2025
In a social media post, the Chinook Justice group said: '#Coverup appears to be the mantra of the British state… with the MoD at the centre of it. Again.'
In another it said the petition had got the 'zoomies' as the number of signatories doubled in the space of eight hours to more than 22,000.
Andy Tobias, who was eight when his father Lt Col John Tobias was killed in the crash, said: 'Clearly, we have touched a nerve with the British public who are sick of cover-ups and secrecy at the MoD.
'Like many other families – from Hillsborough to sub-postmasters, the infected blood scandal to nuclear veterans and MoD helicopter cancer victims, and now Afghan families – we should not have to fight tooth and nail for truth, transparency and justice from the Government.
'That's why we are calling for a legal duty of candour. Enough is enough.'
Following an appeal by Mr Tobias, former defence secretary Sir Liam Fox has agreed to meet the bereaved families to discuss the matter.
The news comes on the back of the former minister's offer to intervene on their behalf with the MoD and 'if necessary' the Prime Minister to push for an inquiry, as reported in the Daily Mail newspaper.
The MoD has been approached for comment.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
28 minutes ago
- Times
BAE Systems boosted by Turkish order for up to 40 jet fighters
Turkey has struck a deal with the British government to buy up to 40 Typhoon combat aircraft, a move that should see work restart at BAE Systems' final assembly line for the planes at Warton in Lancashire. A memorandum was signed on Wednesday at a defence trade show in Istanbul by John Healey, the defence secretary, and the Turkish defence minister Yasar Guler. Turkey first discussed buying the aircraft three years ago, but the sale was blocked by the German government over concerns about Turkey's foreign policy. • Jailed Turkish opponent 'begs' Berlin to lift ban on fighter jet sale Germany — a member of the four-nation Eurofighter consortium that makes the Typhoon, along with the UK, Italy and Spain — has now dropped its veto. A statement from the British and Turkish government said the deal 'codifies the relationship between the countries, taking them one step closer to a full agreement on Typhoon'. This month BAE Systems demonstrated an improved cockpit display for the Typhoon PHIL NOBLE/REUTERS Turkey has been eager to re-equip its air force. Last year it signed a $23 billion deal with the United States for 40 new F-16 jets and upgrades to its existing fleet of the aircraft. The upgrade package was later ditched. A deal to buy a more advanced combat aircraft, the F-35, was blocked by the Pentagon after Turkey purchased Russian-made air defence systems. A deal for 40 Typhoons would be worth about £2.8 billion for the aircraft alone, with the value of the contract likely to be taken higher with provision for training, spares and support. Work at Warton stopped earlier this year after the completion of aircraft for export to Qatar, and staff were sent to other operations and Royal Air Force stations. The union Unite warned that a lack of UK orders for Typhoon was putting valuable aerospace skills at risk. The RAF has 137 of the aircraft, and is in the process of retiring its oldest 'Tranche 1' models. It last placed an order for Typhoon in 2009. Last month's strategic defence review prioritised the purchase of 12 F-35A planes instead. BAE Systems, whose shares are up nearly 50 per cent in the past year on hopes of rising defence spending, welcomed the agreement with Turkey. Chief executive Charles Woodburn said it underscored 'the critical role Typhoon plays in security and defence in Europe and the Middle East.' Although Typhoon has lost out to the F-35 in recent tenders, BAE Systems still has hopes for more export deals. Saudi Arabia, which operates 71 of the aircraft, has proposed buying another 48, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed a memorandum for the new planes on a state visit to the UK in 2018. • Captured: moment seagull hits 600mph Typhoon at air show No final contract has been signed. Defence industry sources said the deal was not dead, but could be linked to talks on Saudi participation in the Global Combat Air Programme, which is led by the UK with Japan and Italy as partners. This plans to produce an advanced, stealthy aircraft to enter service in about a decade's time.
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
'If energy communities are left behind then more will be attracted by climate denial'
'Thousands of jobs in oil and gas are at risk of disappearing without being replaced by new work - this is the context that the populist Right is seeking to exploit,' warn union leaders The energy transition will only happen thanks to the efforts of tens of thousands of energy workers. This might seem an obvious point, but it is one that is surprisingly absent from the national debate on Net Zero. We talk about the technologies we might need, the costs to government or the potential savings on household bills and the impact on our energy security, far more than we talk about the workers. As a country we spend far more time debating the people blocking wind farms than we do discussing the people building them. If we are going to achieve the government's ambitious decarbonisation goals, we need to bring energy workers to the centre of the national conversation. This is vital to resolving the serious workforce challenges presented by a rapid transition to new forms of energy generation. If we are going to seize the opportunities on offer, we will need tens of thousands of skilled workers to build new wind farms and nuclear power stations, install millions of solar panels, retrofit houses and change heating systems, and deliver the upgrades to the grid that will get clean power to where it is needed. And if the UK is going to maximise the economic benefits from this transition, we also need to make sure that the kit we use is manufactured in the UK as much as possible, whether that is for turbines or nuclear fuel. For the first time in decades, we have a government that understands that this can only be done with a clear industrial strategy. The market alone will deliver a transition that is neither quick nor just. The approach of the previous government saw major infrastructure decisions like Sizewell C kicked into the long grass, a ridiculous ban on onshore wind, and no interest in British jobs. As a result, we missed crucial opportunities to onshore key production lines, and thousands of jobs that could have been based in Britain were shipped overseas. This was a tragedy and it was avoidable. The Labour government's Clean Energy Industrial Strategy is a welcome antidote to this, backed up by Great British Energy and a National Wealth Fund investing in UK energy projects. The first year has seen progress on new nuclear and renewable projects. For the first time in years, energy trade unions like Prospect and GMB have been properly consulted on the polices that will shape our members' lives. But we need to be bigger and bolder when it comes to the workforce and jobs. Research we commissioned from YouGov has found that only 8% of UK voters have seen an increase in energy jobs in their area because of the transition. When thinking about the future only 31% of people in the UK think that the transition will have a positive impact on jobs nationally, and that falls to 20% when asked to think about jobs in their local area. These numbers fall still further in traditional energy communities in the north of England, Wales and Scotland where thousands of jobs in oil and gas are at risk of disappearing without being replaced by new work. This is the context that the populist Right is seeking to exploit, and it is these energy communities they are often targeting. Let's be clear, Reform's policy to scrap the energy transition would be a disaster for Britain and would put thousands of jobs at risk. The public aren't convinced either, only a small minority oppose the transition, but the majority do want to see a focus on the economy and on jobs. If this transition doesn't result in good, unionised jobs, and if energy communities are left on the scrapheap, then more and more people will be attracted by the siren voice of climate denial. The answer is to put workers front and centre, and make clear that this transition is going to be delivered by them and with their interests in mind. We need an ambitious energy workforce plan that focuses on job numbers and job quality, a real Just Transition plan for energy communities, and a huge national effort to train the next generation of energy workers. Our unions have formed a new campaign group, Climate Jobs UK, to fight for these outcomes and we will be turning up the volume in the coming years to make sure the voice of energy workers is impossible to ignore.
Scotsman
2 hours ago
- Scotsman
Glenrothes is living proof why UK needs a second Clement Attlee in charge
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... On the back of its landslide victory at the 1945 general election, Clement Attlee's Labour government decided that a better Britain should be built. A high-point of this vision was the 35 new towns built across the UK, with five in Scotland: Cumbernauld, East Kilbride, Glenrothes, Irvine and Livingston. Their role was to give working-class families decent homes, fresh air away from polluted industrial cities, modern schools and easy access to leisure and culture in places that separated industry and busy roads from where people lived. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The British state financed, planned, built and ran the towns. Everything was developed from scratch on what had been green fields. Until the mid-90s, when their management transferred to local authorities, all this was done by unelected development corporations. This was moderate, gradualist, altruistic social democracy writ large. Children play in Glenrothes, one of five new towns created in Scotland by an Act of Parliament in 1946 (Picture: Keystone Features) | Getty Images A modern mining town I was once the London representative of the Scottish new towns. Since then, I've had a lingering affection for them. I opted for a visit to Glenrothes, a town born in 1947. Glenrothes' genesis was the Rothes Colliery 'super pit'. Opened in 1948, it was forecast to produce coal for many decades. Glenrothes was to be a modern mining town. Geological problems closed the pit in 1962. Glenrothes joined the other new towns in seeking fresh types of employment, mainly through inward investment by US electronics concerns. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad My day in the town starts with coffee at the recently refurbished Kingdom Shopping Centre. Bakers & Barista's manager Jackie Beveridge says the centre is busy all day, 'and getting busier'. I find a library is part of the Kingdom Centre. Library assistant Sheena Balls helps me find books on the architecture of the town and on the many sculptures by the artists once employed by Glenrothes Development Corporation. Almost all the works still exist and are much loved by locals. The motivation for the sculptures was the same as that which brought us the Arts Council and the Open University: a better society. Clement Attlee and his wife Violet wave to crowds in London in July 1945 after Labour won the election earlier that month (Picture: Keystone) | Getty Images 'A glorified housing estate' Sheena Balls lives in the town. She thinks the idealism and vision that created the place has been lost. 'Subsequent leaders have strayed very far from the original concept. Glenrothes is now a glorified housing estate.' Church of Scotland minister, the Rev Alan Kimmitt, has a rosier view of Glenrothes, though his feet are firmly planted on the ground. He deals daily with every sort of despair, isolation and joy that human beings encounter. Kimmitt had a business career before taking the cloth. St Columba's is his first charge. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Forty years ago, the Church of Scotland was a dominant force in Scottish and Glenrothes life. Today, Kimmitt's architecturally magnificent St Columba's Church, built in 1962, is part of an alliance of six local kirks, mustering only some 150 people for Sunday services, which rotate between the parishes. Kimmitt acknowledges Scotland's growing secularism, finding it hard to pin down how it has happened. He's more comfortable discussing his pastoral role. He knows his parish and can read the heartbeat of Glenrothes. He sees a place of civic pride, perhaps less insular and more welcoming than older, more traditional places. 'There's a strong and distinct civic identity tied up with the new town. Everybody's an incomer or the child of an incomer.' Dancing pumps If religious observance has changed dramatically in Glenrothes, so too have other elements of its canvas. Where once multi-national, high-tech businesses made Glenrothes a key part of Scotland's 'Silicon Glen', most have now gone. The companies making things today are mainly smaller concerns. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Local SNP MSP Jenny Gilruth says small-to-medium enterprises are 'the backbone' of the local economy. 'Last year, 9,270 properties in Fife, including in Glenrothes, received £39.9 million from the Scottish Government in non-domestic rates relief,' she says. I visit Thistle Shoes, a 40-year-old family business making dance pumps and supplying shoes to pipe bands internationally. Managing director Pamela McDowall tells me her business is the official supplier of pumps to the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Each dancer goes through three pairs of pumps. Three of her six staff live in Glenrothes. She says she couldn't ask for better folk. 'Everybody here mucks in.' Richard Baker, the town's Labour MP, found a minute to call and talk about the various renewable energy projects in the district. We spoke the day after the Reform party announced that if it wins the next UK general election it will end all subsidies for renewable energy. Baker was scathing in his response. 'Reform's proposals are reckless in the extreme. Their idiot plan would be devastating for Scotland, for consumers, for industry and for energy security. It would lead to lost jobs, higher prices and businesses collapsing.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Paternalistic social engineering? Glenrothes has its poverty and deprivation and its fair share of often struggling immigrants and disaffected young people. However, it felt livelier and a bit more self-confident than other towns of similar size I've visited on my tour. Critics of the post-war new towns accused them of social engineering, a paternalistic state telling the working classes how to live, while giving their early inhabitants no democratic say in the priorities of the towns. Some British new towns are far from socially or economically successful. Glenrothes, I think, is not among them. Is there any political party with the vision, courage and ideas for improving the economic and social lot of ordinary people shown by Clement Attlee's 1945 government? If there is, they're doing a good job of hiding their boldness from us.
