Military News Articles
Safety warnings on Chinook were ignored
BY FRAN ABRAMS
Independent, 11.02.2000
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DEFENCE officials were warned that newly refitted Chinook helicopters were unsafe a year before 29 people were killed in the Mull of Kintyre crash, a government watchdog revealed yesterday. 

Ministers faced renewed calls last night for a judical inquiry into the 1994 disaster in which senior intelligence officers were killed. An RAF board of incquiry said the crash was due to "gross negligence" by the pilots, Fit Lt Jonathan Tapper and Fit Lt Rick Cook

Ministers ruled out a new inquiry last year after it emerged there were faults in an electric system that balanced the fuel flow to the helicopter's engines.

Last night the Lib Dem defence spokesman, Menzies Campbell, said: "There is.not a jury in the country that would have found the two pilots negligent on the available evidence."
 

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