CHINOOK DISASTER FAMILIES CALL ON PM ANDY BURNHAM FOR JUSTICE

Imagine the heartbreaking, gut-wrenching anguish of suddenly losing someone you love in the most devastating and tragic of circumstances and then spending more than 30 years fighting for answers, for the truth of what happened, for justice for the one you lost. I think it's time that the MOD came out with the truth and finally told us what the circumstances were leading up to that crash and why our loved ones were allowed to fly on that helicopter which was un-airworthy. Imagine being stonewalled at every turn and told records vital to any investigation have been sealed away, wait for it, a hundred years. The crash is being talked about by the MOD as a tragic accident, it was not an accident and we want accountability, we want answers. And then imagine being denied the very opportunity to find out what really happened. I feel completely and utterly let down, I feel that we've been dismissed and horrifyingly deceived by the MOD. It's unimaginable, isn't it? Good evening, an RAF Chinook helicopter with 29 people on board has crashed in the west of Scotland. The Chinook helicopter was flying from Northern Ireland to Scotland in 1994. There were 29 people on board including army and intelligence officers when it crashed on the Mull of Kintyre. All lost their lives. After the crash the pilots were blamed but following a long campaign flight lieutenants Jonathan Tapper and Richard Cook were exonerated. Three decades on the families are calling for a full public inquiry. I was just seven years old when I lost my father, my younger brother and sister were two. I just remember there was a knock on the door, it was a colleague of my father's and they just said is your mummy in? And I remember in that moment I just had this sinking feeling, I just knew something terrible had happened. It was one of the RAF's worst peacetime losses of life. A BBC documentary has highlighted concerns over the Chinook's airworthiness. MOD documents passed to the BBC, one written nine months before the crash, detailed serious concerns about the helicopter's computer software describing it as positively dangerous. Now a former RAF test pilot from Hampshire has claimed that the Chinook helicopter that crashed was on a show flight to prove its safety. Retired squadron leader Robert Burke who was based at RAF Odium at the time of the crash says the newly upgraded helicopter was chosen despite safety concerns being raised about its airworthiness. My main job was flying aircraft after rebuilds or when something was wrong with them which couldn't be analysed in the air by other pilots or on the ground and we were doing the road testing for the Robert Burke says there were concerns that the Mark 2 wasn't ready for duty in Northern Ireland. I had real concerns that the Mark 2 Chinook was not fully developed for service. I had fought against going to Northern Ireland and so did the Chinook flight over there, John Tapper, he asked for a Mark 1 to be kept over there because of his worries about the Mark 2 and particularly about this specific aircraft. Robert Burke claims that the Chinook which was carrying senior intelligence and security personnel was ordered into the air as a show flight to prove that the upgrade was safe. It was a prestige flight by the air force to show the army that the Chinook was ready for service. The Ministry of Defence says the Mull of Kintyre crash was a tragic accident and our thoughts and sympathies remain with the families, friends and colleagues of all those who died. The accident has already been the subject of six inquiries and investigations including an independent judge-led review. But if as the MOD say the Mull of Kintyre crash was a tragic accident, why seal records vital to any investigation away for a hundred years? And as for this, the accident has already been the subject of six inquiries and investigations. As Trevor Burney, the director of the television documentary Chinook Zulu Delta 576 has pointed out. I think that all you have to do is listen to the families and the families reading very clear they don't feel they've got the truth and you know all those inquiries really looked at the pilots and you know the pilots families campaigned for many years to overturn the slur that had been inflicted on them erroneously and they did they managed to do that. In December we sat in a room with three defence ministers. They listened and they promised to give a full review to the evidence that we presented them with. That has not materialised. We continue to be gaslit. We continue to be disrespected as victims. I can't hide my Those that died served their country. They and their families deserve honesty, transparency and justice and here's how you can help. Write to your MP. You'll find some helpful text in the link with this film. Ask them to raise this matter directly with the Prime Minister and urge him to intervene to ensure the Ministry of Defence re-engages properly and respectfully with the families involved. Ask them to support the involvement of the victim's minister to formally represent the family's interests and press for a renewed commitment to transparency and accountability by setting up an independent judge-led review into the circumstances surrounding the disaster. The treatment of these families raises serious concerns about fairness, accountability and the duty owed to those who have lost their lives in the service of this country. Let's stand with them and show them they're not alone.