Clegg announces independent legal review into Chinook disaster

Coalition launches fourth inquiry into the crash

Another inquiry into Chinook disaster

The Lib-Con coalition has ordered an independent legal review to establish whether computer software faults instead of pilot negligence were to blame for the Mull of Kintyre Chinook disaster 16 years ago.

The new inquiry — which may be carried out by a Scottish judge — was announced in the Commons by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, standing in for Prime Minister David Cameron, in response to a demand for clarity from several quarters.

Commons Defence Committee chairman and Tory MP James Arbuthnot raised the subject, and his move follows three inquiries (which followed an initial inquiry saying that the fault was with the pilots), all of which concluded there was actually insufficient evidence that the pilots, Flight Lieutenants Jonathan Tapper and Richard Cook, were guilty of "gross negligence".

Evidence since the initial board of inquiry has instead implicated safety-critical "Fadec" engine control software, with reports that code changes had been requested by the MoD's own IT experts at Boscombe Down. These were understood to have created a flaw in the software controlling the flow of fuel to the engines.

Senior RAF officers, however, insisted that regardless of any defect, it was the way the pilots flew the ill-fated ZD576 - too fast, too low and into fog near the Mull - that was the main cause of the crash, in which all 29 aboard, including senior military intelligence experts, were killed.

Clegg said a "respected lawyer" would lead the inquiry, which is not expected to sit in public. Details are to be announced later.

One of the pilot's fathers, Mike Tapper, said he was "delighted" with the decision, attacking MoD "arrogance" for disregarding the findings of a Scottish Fatal Accident Inquiry, a Commons Public Accounts Committee report and a special Lords Select Committee Inquiry chaired by a former Scottish judge, all challenging the original verdict.