A High Court judge has refused to allow a legal challenge against the Ministry of Defence (MoD) over the 1994 Chinook helicopter crash that killed 29 people, ruling that the claim was brought too late.
Background of the Crash
Twenty-nine serving military personnel died when the Chinook HC-2 helicopter crashed into the Mull of Kintyre in south-west Scotland on June 2, 1994. The helicopter was transporting 25 intelligence experts and four special forces crew from RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland to Fort George near Inverness when it crashed in foggy weather.
While the 2011 Mull of Kintyre inquiry overturned an initial decision to blame the pilots, it did not determine the cause of the crash.
The Legal Challenge
The Chinook Justice Campaign (CJC), comprising more than 55 family members of 25 of the victims, sought to challenge the MoD over what it described as an “ongoing failure” to establish an “independent and effective investigation” into the crash.
Lawyers for the group told the High Court on Tuesday that information regarding the Chinook’s airworthiness “raises a more than arguable claim that… those individuals who died in the crash were placed on an aircraft known to be unsafe”.
MoD's Opposition
The MoD opposed the challenge on the grounds that it had been brought too late and that a new investigation would not serve a “practical purpose”.
Judge's Ruling
In a ruling, Mr Justice Butcher refused to allow the claim to proceed, finding that it had been brought too late. He said: “It is right to say at the outset that the crash of the Chinook with the loss of 29 lives was a tragedy of a dimension which it is difficult to describe. The pain of bereavement and the agony of loss of the families and friends of those who perished remains, I have no doubt, enduring and bitter. My task today, however, is to apply the recognised legal tests to the particular type of claim that the claimant seeks to make.”
The judge said that the CJC could have known that there was a breach of the MoD’s obligations to adequately investigate the incident from the conclusion of the Mull of Kintyre review. He continued that “cogent grounds” would be needed to justify the claim being allowed to proceed more than 14 years after the review’s conclusion, but said: “No such grounds have been shown.”
Reaction in Court
Relatives of those who died, several of whom attended court, shook their heads as the judge handed down his ruling.
