Summary
- No 30th-anniversary memorial despite calls from victims’ families.
- Cause of RAF Chinook crash still unknown, pilots initially blamed.
- Families campaigned for 17 years, RAF exonerated in 2011 after crash from 1994.
The 1994 RAF Chinook (serial number ZD576) crash in Scotland is said to be the fourth-worst or even the worst Royal Air Force (RAF) disaster (although it took place in the context of the Irish Troubles). Four crew and 25 passengers perished when the helicopter crashed in foggy conditions in 1994. 30 years later, the families of the victims are saying the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) is letting them down by not providing a memorial.
No 30th-anniversary memorial
A small memorial marks the location on the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland where the RAF Chinook crashed, but campaigners believe there should be a larger memorial to mark the exceptionally large loss of life for a peace-time incident. The MoD, for its part, stated that while it was a tragic accident, it doesn’t routinely commission or fund new memorials.
Photo: Karl Weller l Shutterstock
The BBC states: “Families of people killed in the RAF Chinook crash on the Mull of Kintyre say they have been “failed” by the Ministry of Defence who have not organsised a 30th anniversary memorial.” Dr. Susan Phoenix, the wife of one of the men (now aged 75), says the victims’ families have been left in limbo by the MoD’s perceived lack of acknowledgment. Dr. Phoenix stated that there will be no official memorial service, calling it ‘low key’ on behalf of the service.
“Surely at 30 years it would have been a good time to do a really nice memorial, a service on the Mull of Kintyre or somewhere suitable to do that.” Dr. Susan Phoenix
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The cause is still unknown
After an investigation, the pilots (Flt Lts Jonathan Tapper and Richard Cook) were blamed for “negligence to a gross degree,” saying they were flying too fast and too low in thick fog. Dr Phoenix labeled this as “the equivalent to corporate manslaughter.” She also asserts that there “is a good chance there was something wrong with the Boeing Chinook at the time.”
The report blaming the pilots led to heavy criticism of the RAF. However, the pilots were exonerated in 2011 – but only after a two-decade-long campaign led by their families. The Scottish fatal accident inquiry determined it was impossible to establish the exact cause of the crash.
Photo: RAF
The RAF Chinook was carrying some of the leading security personnel from the Royal Ulster Constabulary, Army, and MI5 from Northern Ireland to Inverness in the Scottish Highlands for a conference when it crashed. The Troubles were a period of conflict in Northern Ireland between nationalist Catholics and unionist Protestants. The conflict lasted from the late 1960s, ending with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The crash occurred only two months before the 1994 IRA ceasefire in Northern Ireland.