Son of judge who chaired Chinook inquiry says father would be “horrified” MoD is still denying families the truth

Author Jamie Jauncey says evidence concealed from his father’s House of Lords committee would have fundamentally changed its examination of the disaster

The son of the Scottish judge who chaired the House of Lords inquiry into the Mull of Kintyre Chinook disaster says his father would be “horrified” that the Ministry of Defence is still denying bereaved families the truth more than three decades after the crash.

Author Jamie Jauncey’s father, Lord Jauncey of Tullichettle, chaired the House of Lords Select Committee which investigated the crash of Chinook ZD576 on the Mull of Kintyre, and concluded that the RAF had been wrong to find pilots Flight Lieutenants Jonathan Tapper and Rick Cook guilty of gross negligence.

Lord Jauncey died in 2007, four years before the pilots were formally cleared following Lord Phillip’s Review and years before evidence emerged showing the extent of the serious airworthiness concerns surrounding the Chinook Mark 2 at the time of the crash.

Jamie, who lives near Dunkeld, Perthshire, has now spoken publicly for the first time about his father’s work on the inquiry and says information subsequently uncovered about the aircraft would have fundamentally changed the evidence available to the committee.

Jamie Jauncey said: “I remember coming home one day in around 2000 and finding my father sitting at his desk, deeply absorbed in studying a model of a Chinook helicopter engine. He was about 75 at the time, but this was how seriously he took the responsibility placed upon him. He was determined to understand the evidence and conduct the committee’s work scrupulously.

“He was genuinely deeply concerned that the reputations of two dead pilots, who had no opportunity to defend themselves, had been blackened when the evidence simply did not justify the finding against them.

“What he and the committee could not have known was what subsequently emerged about the problems identified at Boscombe Down, including evidence that MoD test personnel had described the system as “positively dangerous” and “not to be relied upon in any way whatsoever”.

“I am quite certain that had the committee had that evidence before it, it would have approached its work in a completely different way.

“And I believe my father, were he alive today, would be horrified that the MOD is continuing, more than thirty years after the event, to deny the families of the crash victims the truth by cynically invoking a statute of limitations.”

The intervention comes as the Chinook Justice Campaign increases pressure on Prime Minister Andy Burnham to meet the bereaved families within his first 100 days in Downing Street and order a fresh review of the circumstances surrounding the crash. He has 65 days left until that challenge runs out.

The families – and former Defence Secretary Sir Liam Fox who has written to the Prime Minister – want any review to be completely independent of the Ministry of Defence, with those conducting it given access to all relevant documents held across government.

They argue that the MoD cannot credibly remain both the institution whose conduct and decision-making are being questioned and the body which decides whether those questions merit further investigation.

Mr Burnham has now been Prime Minister for 29 days, leaving 71 days of the first 100 days in which the families have challenged him to meet them.

Chris Cook, whose brother Rick was one of the two pilots wrongly blamed for the crash, welcomed Jamie Jauncey’s intervention.

He said: “Jamie speaking about his father’s work is enormously significant to our families. Lord Jauncey and his committee looked extremely closely at the evidence they were actually given and concluded that Rick and Jon should never have been blamed.

“We now know there was important evidence about airworthiness which they did not have before them. They didn’t know, for instance, the MoD’s most elite test pilots and test engineers were so worried about the aircraft’s airworthiness that they refused to fly it and described it as ‘positively dangerous.’

“It is difficult to imagine anything demonstrating more clearly why this case needs to be looked at again.

“We hope Jamie’s intervention will encourage other MPs, peers and those who have been involved with this case over the years to look again at what has emerged and lend their voices to our call for a fresh independent review.

“And once again, we appeal directly to Andy Burnham. He knows better than most what happens when institutions are allowed to defend their own actions for decades. We are not asking him to take our word for anything. We are asking him to meet us, look at the evidence and understand for himself why the Ministry of Defence cannot continue to be the decision-maker on whether its own actions should be investigated.

“The clock is now ticking on the first 100 days of his premiership. We hope he will find the time to meet families who have already waited more than 32 years.”

The House of Lords committee examined evidence relating to technical problems with the Chinook Mark 2, including FADEC, and heard directly from former RAF test pilot Robert Burke about concerns among pilots at Boscombe Down and RAF Odiham.

Dozens of files uncovered since the crash, which show that the helicopter was not airworthy at the time, were never available to Lord Jauncey’s committee or other previous investigations.

The families are calling for an independent review to examine that evidence and establish why ZD576 was permitted to fly on 2 June 1994, killing all 29 people on board.