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The Sun
5 days ago
- The Sun
Our families were killed in Britain's deadliest helicopter crash… 100-year-old secret NEEDS to be unsealed
THE families of those tragically killed in Britain's deadliest helicopter crash are still demanding answers more than 30 years on. All 25 passengers and four crew members died when a RAF Chinook helicopter crashed on the Mull of Kintyre, Scotland, on June 2 1994. 9 9 9 The Chinook ZD576 took off from RAF Aldergrove near Belfast at 5.42pm headed for Fort George in Scotland - 20 minutes later it crashed into a hillside. Among those killed were experts from the Security Services, the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British Army including the majority of the UK's senior Northern Ireland intelligence and counter-terrorism experts at the time. It has gone down in history as one of the RAF's worst ever peacetime disasters - but the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has sealed documents relating to it until 2094. Now, the Chinook Justice Campaign is demanding answers and accountability for the circumstances surrounding the disaster, calling for a full judge-led inquiry to review the documents they say were not included in previous investigations. The group, formed by family members of the victims, has also launched legal action after the MoD ignored their calls to order such an inquiry, saying it is a breach of the UK government's human rights obligations. Jenni Balmer Hornby, 44, from Tooting was just a week away from her 10th birthday when her father, Anthony Hornby, was killed in the crash. She told The Sun: "I remember coming down in the morning, me and my brother, and my Mum told us and we just screamed and screamed. "I remember watching the TV, watching all the news reports and seeing this charred landscape of the Mull of Kintyre and just thinking he's going to come over that hill any minute. "I absolutely idolised him when I was younger." The pilots of the Chinook were Flight Lieutenants Richard Cook and Jonathan Tapper, both of whom had exemplary records as members of the special forces. Moment boozy Jet2 passengers are hauled off 7am flight for VAPING in their seats sparking mid-air emergency They were initially blamed for the disaster for gross negligence, a verdict that was only overturned by the UK Government after a 17-year campaign. "The MoD besmirched their incredible careers with that verdict for 17 years and it's disgusting," Jenni said. "When someone dies in the armed forces, one of the few things you have to hold on to is the pride in their career and what they've achieved." The victims' families claim there is evidence that their loved ones were forced to board an RAF helicopter that was not airworthy - evidence they say was withheld or ignored in previous investigations. The MoD's testing centre at Boscombe Down, Wiltshire, had declared the Chinook "unairworthy" prior to the crash. 9 9 A campaign spokesperson said: "No inquiry to date - whether individually or collectively - has properly examined why our loved ones were placed aboard an aircraft which MOD test engineers at Boscombe Down, warned was 'positively dangerous' due to fatal flaws in its software. "The helicopter was declared 'not to be relied upon in any way whatsoever.' "Why were those service personnel put on an aircraft which the MoD's most experienced test pilots were forbidden to fly the day before the fatal crash?' The Chinook Justice campaign was born after the families discovered the official files had been sealed for a century through a BBC documentary on the disaster in 2024. Jenni added: "They didn't notify us of this, that our loved ones' records were being sealed - we had to find out through a TV programme. "I think everyone, without a shadow of a doubt, is sure that there is a cover up here." Lucy Sparks, 33, was only two-years-old when her own father, Gary Sparks, died in 1994 and branded the MoD's behaviour as a "shameful". "I'm appalled really how they've held themselves over the years. "I mean, blaming the pilots in the first instance, knowing that wasn't the case, and those poor pilots' families that had to campaign and campaign and campaign. "The way they have conducted themselves is shameful and I think if this is how they treat people who worked for them, who were fighting for their country, fighting for peace in Ireland - it's abhorrent. "My family and I were appalled to learn that the documents had been locked up to 2094. "My daughter will be in her 70s, we will all be dead, and it just really begs the question as to why they are doing that - it's unprecedented." She added that "we very much believe this is a cover-up" and a general pattern of behaviour from a government trying to save face, citing the sub-postmasters, infected blood scandal to nuclear veterans and now the Afghan data leak. "You see these things all the time - powerful institutions trying to quieten people like us and not take accountability and blame - it's a disgrace." 9 The MoD have said the disaster was a "tragic accident" but have argued a Public Inquiry would not "identify any new evidence". A MoD spokesperson said: '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. "We understand that the lack of certainty about the cause of the crash has added to the distress of the families. '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.' The MoD have also stated that the closed records, which are held at The National Archives, contain personal information relating to third party individuals and the release of this information would breach their data protection rights. But the families' legal team have argued otherwise. Mark Stephens, solicitor for the families said: We are taking legal action for the families because the MoD did not protect the right to life of the 29 people on board. "None of the previous inquiries properly looked into the full circumstances surrounding the crash. We went a judge to be able to look at the files that have been squirrelled away. "Data protection rules do not trump people's lives and should not be abused to hide the culpable and responsible at the top of the MoD from accountability and scrutiny." Andy Tobias, 41, from Watford, was eight when his father, Lieutenant Colonel John Tobias, 41, lost his life in the Kintyre crash. Speaking on the MoD's statement, he said: "It's nonsense, more deceit, more deception, more delay tactics. "We're calling them the Ministry of Deceit because they are just deceiving us. "We are fed up and frustrated with it, but we're still united, we're strong and we're defiant and we're going to keep pushing really, really hard until we get the truth that we all deserve. Just this week, the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, refused their calls for an inquiry in a letter to Andy who called the response "utterly pathetic". 9 9 In the letter, the PM said he does "not believe that a new inquiry can bring any greater certainty" siding with the MoD in saying the records sealed away "offer no insights into the crash". Furious Andy responded, saying: "The Prime Minister talks the talk about transparency but he's just slammed the door in our face. "He says the government is committed to transparency and accountability, but on the other hand - we'll just seal away the files for a century and tell us bereaved families there's nothing to see here. "The PM should stand full square behind his professed duty of candour on public bodies - instead he's hiding behind the deceitful MOD. "I'm sickened and so are all the other families fighting for truth and transparency - there is everything to be concerned about the run up to this crash." When requested to comment, the Prime Minister's office said the letter and the MoD's statement illustrate the government's position. And when Jenni tried to get in touch with veterans minister, Alastair Carns after connecting with him on LinkedIn, she was ignored. She said she sent the MP a "very emotional, personal message" which he read and never responded. "It was quite personal - I described the emotional toll, the grief as like a chronic disease," Jenni said. "He didn't even bother responding with a fob off or platitudes like he's been giving everyone else - it's so dishonourable. "He's a veteran for Christ's sake - it's supposed to be a brotherhood and he just doesn't care. "It's all about the MoD party line and saving face for them and this is our lives." The Sun has reached out to Alastair Carns for comment. Conservative MP, Sir David Davis, who chaired a parliamentary inquiry into the crash, came out in support of a new inquiry last month. "I followed and campaigned on this for a decade afterwards and we were never given the truth about the technical status of the aircraft," he said in an interview with Sky News. "It needs to be put in the public domain these documents and to put them under seal for a century is extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary. "As somebody said, it does indicate that they're trying to cover something up." The Conservative MP, Sir Liam Fox, recently said on the Political Currency podcast, hosted by former chancellor George Osborne, that he now had 'doubts' that the airworthiness issue had been properly investigated previously. Asked what it would mean for the Chinook campaign to succeed, all three of Jenni, Lucy and Andy agreed it would provide "closure". Lucy said: "I think it's, it's, it's really about closure for the families, when there has been this sense of unknowing for that time but it's also about justice, it's about justice for our dads, and it's about accountability from the Ministry of Defence." "It would really mean the world to all of us, it would mean peace - you know, this has been 31 years," added a tearful Jenni. "I can't wait another 31 years, I'm so certain that something is amiss here - but it's not like it's going to be a happy outcome. "I'm sure that it's a cover-up, so when we finally get that proved, I'm going to be very angry." "It would mean for me and for other families that we can hopefully get some closure," Andy said. "Not that you ever really get closure after you lose a loved one, but at least it gives us the opportunity to know more around the circumstances of that crash and why all those men and women boarded that flight. "We'll keep pushing very, very hard until we get the truth." The Chinook Justice Campaign has launched an online petition that has already seen more than 25,000 signatures.
Euronews
01-08-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
FBI opens first office in New Zealand, sparking backlash in China
FBI Director Kash Patel sparked diplomatic discomfort in New Zealand by suggesting the opening of a new office in the Oceanian nation aims to counter China's influence, drawing polite dismissals from Wellington and anger from Beijing. Patel was in Wellington on Thursday to open the FBI's first standalone office in New Zealand and to meet senior officials. The arrangement aligns New Zealand with FBI missions in other Five Eyes intelligence-sharing nations, which also include the UK, the US, Canada and Australia. The Wellington office will provide a local mission for FBI staff who have operated with oversight from Australia since 2017. In remarks made in a video published on Thursday by the US embassy, Patel said the office would help counter Chinese Communist Party influence in the contested South Pacific Ocean. New Zealand ministers who met Patel, the highest-ranking Trump administration official to visit New Zealand, quietly dismissed his claims. A government statement on Thursday emphasised joint efforts against crimes such as online child exploitation and drug smuggling, with no mention of China. "When we were talking, we never raised that issue," Foreign Minister Winston said Thursday. Minister for the Security Services Judith Collins said the focus would be on transnational crime. "I don't respond to other people's press releases," she said when reporters noted Patel had mentioned China, Radio New Zealand reported. Trade Minister Todd McClay rejected a reporter's suggestion Friday that Wellington had "celebrated" the office opening. "Well, I don't think it was celebrated yesterday," he said. "I think there was an announcement and it was discussed." Beijing slams Patel's comments At a briefing on Friday, Beijing's foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun denounced Patel's remarks "China believes that cooperation between countries should not target any third party," he said. "Seeking so-called absolute security through forming small groupings under the banner of countering China does not help keep the Asia Pacific and the world at large peaceful and stable." New Zealand, the smallest partner in the Five Eyes alliance, has faced pressure to align with the US position on China, its largest trading partner, while carefully balancing relations with Beijing. Analysts said the FBI chief's comments could upset those efforts, although New Zealand has faced such challenges before. "It's in New Zealand's interest to have more law enforcement activities to deal with our shared problems," said Jason Young, associate professor of international relations at Victoria University of Wellington. "It's perhaps not in New Zealand's interest to say we're doing this to compete with China." Anger among New Zealanders Not everyone in New Zealand welcomed the expanded FBI presence. Online, the new office drew rancour from New Zealanders who posted thousands of overwhelmingly negative comments about the announcement on social media sites. A weekend protest against the opening was planned. Young said it was unlikely people posting in anger took issue with cross-border law enforcement efforts in general. "I think it would be more a reflection of some of the deep unease that many people in New Zealand see with some of the political choices that are being made in America at the moment," he said. FBI expansion comes during fresh Pacific focus Patel's visit came as the Trump administration has sought to raise global alarm about Beijing's designs. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said in June that China posed an imminent threat and urged Indo-Pacific countries to increase military spending to 5% of GDP. New Zealand has traditionally avoided singling out individual countries when discussing regional tensions, Young said. "I'm sure the US would like New Zealand to speak more forthrightly and characterise the China challenge in a similar way to the United States," Young added. New Zealand is a remote country of 5 million people that was once assumed by larger powers to be of little strategic importance. But its location and influence in the contested South Pacific Ocean, where Beijing has sought to woo smaller island nations over the past decade, has increased its appeal to countries like the US.
Daily Record
24-06-2025
- Daily Record
Jill Dando murder major update after bombshell tips as police slammed
Sister of man wrongly jailed for Jill Dando's murder calls for the investigation to be reviewed by another force after Sir Mark Rowley dismissed evidence implicating the Serbian Security Services. The sister of the man wrongly convicted of the murder of Jill Dando has said the case should be handed to an outside police force. Michelle Bates was speaking after the Metropolitan Police dismissed a Mirror investigation indicating that Jill was the victim of a Serbian state-sponsored attack. On Tuesday, Met chief Sir Mark Rowley said that he didn't know the detail of our reporting but implied it did not offer any new leads. It comes after Rowley last year dismissed the long-running probe as "entertaining news copy" and "good media headlines". The Met has repeatedly refused to follow up evidence that Jill was shot dead on April 26 1999, because of an appeal she had fronted for Kosovo. Nearly a year later, detectives homed in on Barry George, a local man with severe learning difficulties. George, now 65, spent eight years in jail for murder but was cleared in 2008 after a retrial. His sister Michelle, 69, said on Tuesday: 'I think we always, as a family, felt the Met would not reopen it because it suits them if Barry still doesn't look quite innocent enough. 'An outside force should review this case and take the lens away from Barry and look at what's left - and there is clearly plenty left to look at. We have been calling for this case to be reopened since the very day Barry was released in 2008, I even said it outside the Old Bailey at the time, to find out who actually killed Jill. "It's incredibly frustrating that the Met is not following up on potential new leads. Whenever we have spoken of seeking justice for Barry we have always said, and still do say, that we also want it for Jill and her family.' Asked if his officers would look at the Mirror's findings, Rowley told Nick Ferrari on LBC radio on Tuesday: "If there was genuinely new evidence that made a case solvable on any historic murder we will look into it." Jill's case was moved to inactive status in 2014 and has not been subject to a major review since. Detectives had previously dismissed the possibility of her being the victim of the Serbian Security Services. Officers have never visited the country to investigate. Jill, 37, was ambushed from behind as she was about to open her front door, forced to the ground and killed with one bullet to the back of her skull fired at close range. Within hours of her murder in Fulham, west London, the BBC took a call claiming it was in response to the Nato bombing of Yugoslavia. Last year we named Serbian assassin Milorad Ulemek publicly for the first time in connection with Jill's murder after a facial comparison expert said he was identical to a CCTV image of a man who is still wanted. And a key witness told us that she was certain she had seen the killer near to the murder scene on the morning of April 26, 1999. Ulemek, now 57 and serving 40 years in a Serbian jail, led a unit of hitmen and plotted assassinations for late Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic. In a major update last April, the Mirror revealed a second key witness said Ulemek looked like a man he saw sprinting near Jill's home. We also told how Ulemek's spy boss has admitted one of his team carried out an attack in Europe at around the time of the murder. Dragan Filipovic was a major in the Serbian security services when he admitted masterminding a "secret reprisal action" in the spring of 1999 that caused "great confusion in Europe". In a Disasters Emergency Committee appeal on April 6, Jill called Kosovo a "former Yugoslavian region", which would have enraged ultra-nationalist Filipovic. In his 2008 book Anatomy of the Globalist Stink, he rails against non-governmental organisations which he says were part of a "special war" to promote the interests of the West. Jill's BBC appeal, on behalf of large UK NGOs, potentially made her a legitimate target in Filipovic's warped view. Filipovic said the secret operations were halted when the bombing ended in June 1999, adding: "In the meantime, one of the previously initiated actions... was successfully implemented, which caused "great confusion in Europe". " It is implied the "radical action" was a state-sponsored assassination. In the light of our investigation, MPs have called for the case to be reopened and the top barrister who prosecuted Milosevic for war crimes says Ulemek should be investigated. A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: 'We are aware of recent reporting, which has been reviewed but has not identified any fresh lines of enquiry, and which, therefore, requires no further police action. No unsolved murder case is ever closed, and realistic lines of enquiry will be assessed as they are brought to light."
Al Arabiya
21-06-2025
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Israel says Iran attempted to attack Israeli citizens in Cyprus
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Saturday of trying to attack Israeli citizens in Cyprus. In a post on X, Saar said the attack was thwarted, 'thanks to the activity of the Cypriot security authorities, in cooperation with Israeli security services.' Saar gave no details about the nature of the attack. There was no immediate comment from Iran.
Russia Today
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
EU state asks citizens not to celebrate WWII Victory Day
Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas has urged the people of his country not to celebrate the 80th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany on May 9. Along with other Baltic states, Lithuania has ramped up its decades-long efforts to erase its Soviet past amid the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Last year, the EU country prohibited 'certain public events' which are traditionally held on May 9. The government in Vilnius has also banned the display of St. George ribbons and other Soviet symbols, with fines of up to €700 ($787) for violations. Paluckas told journalists on Thursday that the Lithuanian security services had warned the government 'there is a possibility that certain small groups of people could try to stage provocations or behave inappropriately' on May 9. He went on to express hope that the law enforcement agencies will help prevent any 'serious problems.' 'My recommendation is to simply not celebrate tomorrow and follow our European tradition of what and how to celebrate,' the prime minister said. Lithuania, along with the rest of the EU, marks the allied victory over Nazi Germany on May 8. The country celebrates Europe Day on May 9. The Lithuanian police said they intensified efforts to monitor the dissemination of forbidden Soviet symbols online ahead of Victory Day, adding that the presence of officers in public places will be increased on Friday. Russia has accused Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia of discriminating against their Russian-speaking populations by restricting Victory Day celebrations. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said the behavior of the Baltic nations has 'long gone beyond the legal framework' and 'firmly established itself beyond the boundaries of common sense and humanity.'
