Pilots cleared over Mull of Kintyre crash

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The defence secretary has apologised to the families of two RAF pilots blamed for a crash that killed 29 people.

A Chinook helicopter, piloted by Jonathan Tapper and Richard Cook, crashed into the Mull of Kintyre on 2 June 1994.

The official conclusion was that the accident was caused by the negligence to a gross degree of the pilots on duty.

Liam Fox ordered a review of the board of inquiry, "because I had worries that an injustice might have been done".

Today he came to the Commons to report on the conclusions of the inquiry.

"As is well known, the passengers were members of the Northern Ireland security and intelligence community who were travelling to a meeting in Inverness, and their deaths were a huge blow to the security of this country," Fox told MPs.

"They were also a human tragedy for each of the 29 families who were devastated by the loss of their loved ones."

Fox said the inquiry under Lord Philip concluded that the finding that the pilots were negligent should be set aside and that the MoD should consider offering an apology to their families.

"I can tell the House today that I have accepted these recommendations.

"At a specially convened meeting of the Defence Council on Monday it was decided that, to quote our decision, 'the Reviewing Officers conclusions that Flight Lieutenants Tapper and Cook were negligent to a gross degree are no longer sustainable and must therefore be set aside.'

"I have written to the widows of the two pilots, to the father of Jonathan Tapper and to the brother of Richard Cook to express the Ministry of Defence's apology for the distress which was caused to them by the findings of negligence.

"I wish also to express that apology publicly in this House today."

Lord Philip said there was "scope for doubt in anyone’s mind" about the board of inquiry's ruling.

"In this case, other, competent, persons did have doubts," Fox told the House.

"That is sufficient to warrant the conclusion that the findings should not stand."

The defence secretary said the exact cause of the crash will never be established, but Chinook fleet "has been a mainstay for our operations in successive theatres of war and it has the full confidence of those who fly it".

Shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said successive defence secretaries were "kept in the dark on differences between the board and the reviewing officers and that ministers were deprived of the ability to reach a properly informed view".

Former Lib Dem leader Ming Campbell welcomed Fox's statement and apologies to the families.

He said there was dismay that the original decision that blamed the pilots "turned on legal advice which was palpably wrong and self-evidently so".