Chinook inquiry that cleared pilots is rejected

The Government has rejected the findings of a parliamentary inquiry that cleared the two pilots involved in the Mull of Kintyre helicopter crash eight years ago.

A House of Lords committee concluded in February that the RAF should not have condemned as negligent the pilots of a Chinook helicopter that crashed killing all 29 people on board. But in a Commons statement yesterday, Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, said the Ministry of Defence "notes the report, but does not accept its conclusion".

The statement angered relatives of the crew, who alleged a "cover-up."

The pilots ­ Jonathan Tapper, 30, from Norfolk, and Richard Crook, 28, from Hampshire ­ and two other crew members were flying some of the country's most senior intelligence experts to a conference on Northern Ireland at Inverness. The aircraft, which campaigners say had flaws in its engine software, crashed into a hillside in fog.

An initial internal inquiry by the RAF ruled that it was impossible to establish the cause of the crash but said there were no "human failings".

That was overturned by Air Vice-Marshal Sir John Day and Air Chief Marshal Sir William Wratten, who found the two pilots guilty of negligence ­ flying too fast and too low for the conditions ­ even though guidelines said such a verdict should only be returned when there was "absolutely no doubt".

The families of the pilots launched a campaign to clear their names, and a fatal accident inquiry held at Paisley, near Glasgow, found flaws in the way the finding of negligence was reached.

Mike Tapper, the father of Jonathan, said it was evident to him that there was "a massive cover-up". He said: "The only two people who came out with the version that the MoD now accepts are the two air marshals. The board of inquiry came out with the verdict that they really did not know what caused the crash.

"They thought the probable cause may have been the incorrect rate of climb, but this was thrown out immediately by the fatal accident inquiry. I would say that 98 per cent of the world does not believe what is going on. The campaign goes on and we will win".

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who was Tory defence secretary at the time of the crash but has since come to the conclusion that the negligence finding was wrong, described the Government's response as "miserable and pathetic".