MPs 'misled' over cause of Sea King collision

Defence ministers have been accused of misleading MPs about the cause of a collision between two Sea King helicopters that killed seven aircrew during the Gulf War in March last year.

Last week, the armed forces minister Adam Ingram implied in a written statement to the Commons that the aircrew were to blame for the crash - provoking an angry response from opposition MPs Paul Tyler and Andrew George.

Mr Ingram told MPs that the board of inquiry report into the crash had concluded: "Both aircraft had lost visual contact with each other, but apparently lost situational awareness and collided. The aircraft were responsible for their own safety at the time of the collision."

The Liberal Democrat MPs will tomorrow demand an urgent meeting with Mr Ingram. They argue that the board of inquiry actually concluded that the cause of the crash, about four miles off HMS Ark Royal early on 22 March last year, was "indeterminable".

The MPs have taken up the case after The Independent on Sunday revealed last month that the report had highlighted a series of critical problems with the equipment and radar back-up given to the two Sea Kings.

It revealed that neither aircraft was equipped with night vision goggles, that the Sea Kings' main warning light was turned off as it was "unfit for purpose", that flying conditions were poor, and suggests that the Navy's flying rules and radar procedures were not safe enough.

The report stated that under the wartime rules in force, both pilots were technically responsible for their safety but that these problems made it far more difficult for the aircrew to fly safely. It concluded that since "no absolute evidence" exists to explain why they collided "the cause of the accident is therefore indeterminable".

It also revealed that aircrew had warned Royal Navy commanders they found had "significant difficulty" in recognising their own ships at night without night vision goggles.

Mr Tyler, the MP for North Cornwall, said he was angry that Mr Ingram's answer suggested the inquiry report was finished in November last year, and that the victims' families were told about the "outcome" of the inquiry.

Three of the families insist that this is not true. They say they had been given the inquiry report last year, but have not yet been told which of its recommendations had been accepted.

"Mr Ingram's parliamentary answer implies there is a high degree of certainty about the cause of the crash, but that is a totally inaccurate summary of the inquiry report," he said. "It is what he excluded from his answer that I find suspicious. It is unworthy of a minister who is reporting to Parliament."