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LatestNewsDefence Secretary PublishesMull of Kintyre Review
13 July 2011
The Secretaryof State for
Defence, Dr Liam Fox, published
The Mull of KintyreReview
Reporton 13th July 2011.
Statement by Liam Fox15 December2010
Dr Liam Fox
confirmedan
independent
review of the
evidence
relatingto the tragic accidenton
2 June 1994when a Chinook
helicoptercrashedat the Mull of
Kintyre, killing all 29 people on
board.
Review ReportThe Mull of Kintyre Review was published on 13th
July 2011. The
Review panels report can be read here: Mull of Kintyre
ReviewReport
The Mull of Kintyre Review: An Independent Review to examine
allavailable evidence relating to the findings of the Board of
Inquiryinto the fatal accident at the Mull of Kintyre on 2 June
1994.
Lord Philip said:
Last September I was asked, along with my fellow Privy
Councillors,
Lord Forsyth, Baroness Liddell and Malcolm Bruce MP, to conduct
anindependent review of the findings of the Board of Inquiry into
the RAFhelicopter ZD576 accident on the Mull of Kintyre in
1994.
The relevant Regulations at the time required Boards of Inquiry
to
consider whether aircrew who had died in an aircraft accident
had beennegligent. We examined the Regulations and concluded that
theprocedure they laid down was unfair to deceased aircrew. In
Board
proceedings, aircrew who survived an accident had all the rights
andprotections associated with a fair trial. Aircrew who had died,
on theother hand, had no such rights, and there was no appeal
againstfindings of negligence against them.
In order to offset this unfairness to some extent, the RAF
introduced avery high standard of proof. Deceased aircrew could
only be foundnegligent in cases where there was absolutely no doubt
whatsoever.Our investigations indicate, however, that the RAF and
the Ministry of
Defence failed fully to understand the effect of this high
standard ofproof and the severe limitations it placed on the power
of Boards andReviewing Officers to make findings of negligence
against deceasedaircrew. This lack of understanding was reflected
in the inadequate legal
advice provided to the senior officers who reviewed the
Boardsdecision. The result was that the Reviewing Officers failed
to apply thestandard of proof correctly.
Because of the limited amount of evidence available, the
investigating
Board were unable to determine the cause of the accident, and
soconcluded that it was impossible to find that the pilots had
beennegligent to any degree. The Reviewing Officers, on the other
hand,concluded on the same evidence that both pilots had been
negligent to
a gross degree.
We have unanimously concluded that the high standard of proof
did notallow the Reviewing Officers to make that finding on the
basis of theavailable evidence. Significant gaps in evidence mean
that, on an
objective assessment, it cannot be said in this case that there
isabsolutely no doubt whatsoever that the pilots were
negligent.
Since 1995 the Department have rebuffed all public and
privaterepresentations that the finding should be reconsidered. We
find itregrettable that the Department should have taken such an
intransigent
stance on the basis of an inadequate understanding of the RAFs
own
Regulations in a matter which involved the reputation of men who
diedon active service.
We have recommended to the Secretary of State that the finding
that
the pilots were negligent to a gross degree should be set aside.
We
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