3 days ago
Chinook helicopter crashed on 'show flight', says former RAF test pilot
Retired Squadron Leader Robert Burke told the BBC that the Mark 2 version of the helicopter had been chosen for the flight to show it was safe because of internal politics between the Army and RAF.
A former RAF test pilot has said that the 1994 Chinook disaster helicopter was chosen for a "show flight" despite safety worries, according to reports.
RAF Chinook ZD576 hit a hillside in doggy conditions on the Mull of Kintyre, killing 29 people.
The incident was initially attributed to pilot error, a decision that was subsequently reversed in 2011.
Retired Squadron Leader Robert Burke told the BBC that the Mark 2 version of the helicopter had been chosen for the flight to show it was safe because of internal politics between the Army and RAF.
Relatives of those who died in the crash have been campaigning for a new public inquiry.
Burke said the Mark 2 Chinook was chosen even though RAF engineers and pilots had said it may not be fit to fly.
He told the BBC: "The reason why that aircraft was flown in spite of all the reservations, and indeed the request from one of the dead pilots at the time, was to show the Army that the Chinook programme was running on time and the Mark 2 was perfectly safe to go into service.
"It was a show flight. This journey - from airfield to airfield - was a perfect opportunity to fly such a high-profile group in an RAF Hercules for instance.
"Not in a helicopter about which there were so many concerns. It was a gesture, that flight. A reckless act, but a show flight - it's as simple, and utterly tragic, as that."
Many of the passengers who died were senior members of the security services.
They were travelling from RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland to Fort George near Inverness, for a conference believed to about the Northern Irish Troubles.
The pilots had asked to fly a Mark 1 version of the Chinook or two other helicopters instead.
South Belfast woman Patricia Conroy lost her 55-year-old father Desmond Conroy - a Detective Chief Superintendent - in the crash.
She told the BBC: "I feel sick to my stomach to discover that this flight was a show flight to effectively try to end an argument between the RAF and the Army about the safety of the Chinook fleet.
"Instead, that decision ended my Daddy's life and started a lifetime of bereavement, trauma and a search for the truth."
Last week Prime Minister Keir Starmer wrote to families telling them an inquiry would not be in the public interest.
A UK Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: "We provided a detailed and considered response to the pre-action protocol letter stating the reasons why we cannot accept the demand for establishing a new public inquiry.
"It's unlikely that a public inquiry would identify any new evidence or reach new conclusions on the basis of existing evidence.
"The accident has already been the subject of six inquiries and investigations, including an independent judge-led review."
