A British peer has said that only a public inquiry or parliamentary investigation into the 1994 Chinook helicopter crash would dispel concerns that "something fishy" is behind official refusal to re-examine the incident.
Lord Chalfont, a cross-bench peer, said yesterday that civil servants and the RAF rather than the British government or the previous Conservative administration were "holding out" against an independent inquiry.
In a robust attack on the Ministry of Defence, which has ruled out an inquiry unless new evidence emerges, Lord Chalfont said: "It is dishonest of the Ministry of Defence to keep saying they won't open an inquiry unless there is new evidence, because they know perfectly well that there will never be any new evidence. You can only look at the evidence which is available at the time, perhaps in the light of various things that have been discussed."
Doubts have been raised about the performance of the Chinook's on-board computer system, and the peer intends to make a new call for an inquiry in the Lords later this month.
He wants peers to agree to establish a Select Committee to look at the circumstances of the disaster in which four RAF officers and 25 army personnel and RUC intelligence officers were killed when the Chinook crashed into rocks on the Mull of Kintyre. If peers do not agree, Lord Chalfont said, he will call on ministers to set up an independent inquiry.
An RAF board of inquiry concluded that the pilots, flight lieutenants Richard Cook and Jonathan Tapper, were guilty of gross negligence. Their families and several politicians have consistently called for an independent inquiry.