THE ROYAL Air Force brought a helicopter into service in 1994 which crashed months later, killing 25 senior MI5 and RUC intelligence experts, even though it had been warned that its computer systems were “positively dangerous”, according to newly uncovered documents.
The Chinook helicopter crashed on the Mull of Kintyre in heavy fog on June 2nd, 1994, killing all on board, including pilots Rick Cook and Jonathan Tapper, who were accused posthumously of “gross negligence”.
Official RAF documents obtained by the BBC now show, however, that military computer experts had warned that the software controlling the helicopter’s fuel lines was faulty and that it sometimes cut off supply to the two jet engines.
The ministry of defence, which is refusing to hold another inquiry into the disaster, insisted that the document, from experts based in Boscombe Down, Salisbury, had been seen by an official inquiry.
Saying that it was “a question of honour” that his son’s name should be cleared, Flight Lt Tapper’s father, Mike, yesterday said he believed that he would “have to wait for a change of government” before a new inquiry would be ordered.
The Conservatives have promised to let a high court judge review all of the evidence. Former Cabinet member Malcolm Rifkind blamed “bureaucratic stubbornness” in the RAF.
The Boscombe Down team had been ordered to check the Chinook Mark 2’s software from mid- 1993 as part of tests to decide if the aircraft was ready to be introduced from early 1994 onwards.
However, they decided that the Fadec software “falls significantly short” of the standard required, and, in particular, they warned that the pilot would lose control over the fuel systems if the software malfunctioned.
Demanding that the software be rewritten, Boscombe Down refused to recommend the Chinook’s introduction into service, though the RAF subsequently over-ruled their own experts.
In the months before the crash on the Mull of Kintyre – which was initially thought to have been an attack by the IRA – Chinook Mark 2 pilots reported a series of problems, including engine failure that were later traced back to the Fadec software.
An RAF board of inquiry said it was impossible to establish the reason for the crash and exonerated Flight Lt Tapper and Flight Lt Cook. However, this verdict was subsequently overruled by two senior officers.