Yakking for Argyll

The Ministry of Defence ordered eight Chinook military helicopters in 1995, took delivery of them in 2001 and have yet - in 2008 - to get a single one into service. Why? The reason given today is that ‘the wrong software was fitted’. Would it be misguided to wonder about the specifics of this ‘wrong’ software?

Everyone in Argyll remembers the RAF Chinook that crashed on the hill above Machrihanish on the Mull of Kintyre in June 1994. All on board were killed. Passengers were the highest ranking security and inteligence officers in Northern Ireland at the time. An internal enquiry by the MOD unusually laid the blame unequivocally on the two pilots, Tapper and Cook, accusing them of ‘gross negligence’. It was common knowledge that this breed of Chinook had navigational software - Fadec, widely felt to be unreliable and the cause of anxiety among pilots. At least one of the pilots on duty on the fight was reputed to have been unhappy about having to fly it that day. Their families are still campaigning to force the MOD to hold a public enquiry to clear their sons’ names.

Look at the dates. Chinook with allegedly dodgy navigational software crashes in 1994. MOD order eight more Chinooks in 1995. Is the ‘wrong’ software the infamous Fadec? As Private Eye says, ‘We should be told’. And I’m asking.