Keir Starmer agreement to meet is ‘significant’, say Mull of Kintyre Chinook crash families
Families of the 29 people killed in the 1994 Mull of Kintyre Chinook crash have welcomed the Prime Minister's agreement to meet with them as a "significant" step in their quest for "truth, transparency and accountability".
Sir Keir Starmer made the commitment during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, in response to a question from Liberal Democrat MP Tessa Munt .
The Wells and Mendip Hills MP said more than 30 years on from the crash, bereaved families still want to know "the reason why their loved ones were placed on board an aircraft which, according to the MoD's own test pilots, was described as 'positively dangerous'".
She asked Sir Keir whether he would "agree to meet the families, to rebuild trust and to offer the promised dialogue that the Ministry of Defence clearly finds so difficult to achieve".
In response, the Prime Minister thanked her for raising the case, and said: "I will make sure that is looked at again in the light of what she has said, and that the families get the relevant meeting."
The Chinook Justice Campaign - set up by the bereaved families - said it marks the first time in more than 30 years they have been offered the opportunity to put their case directly to the Prime Minister.
Jenni Balmer-Hornby , whose father died in the crash, said: "We are grateful to Tessa Munt MP for raising the Chinook case so powerfully in Prime Minister's Questions today and ensuring the voices of the families were heard directly by the Prime Minister.
"After more than three decades of unanswered questions, the Prime Minister's agreement to meet is a significant and welcome step.
"We hope that meeting takes place as quickly as possible, and marks the beginning of a meaningful process to finally deliver truth, transparency and accountability for the families."
RAF Chinook ZD576 crashed in foggy weather while flying from RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland to Fort George near Inverness on June 2, 1994 .
For years, the pilots were wrongly blamed for the disaster before being formally cleared in 2011.
Families have continued to campaign for full disclosure of all documents relating to the crash and for a judge-led public inquiry, arguing key questions about the circumstances of the disaster remain unanswered.
The campaign said it now hopes the Prime Minister's intervention will break the long-standing impasse, and lead to a clear timetable for the release of information and consideration of a full independent inquiry.
The MoD has been approached for comment.
The quality and seniority of those on board made it a major security disaster, coming on the eve of the IRA's penultimate ceasefire, in 1994.
Those killed were ten senior RUC Special Branch Officers, nine army intelligence officers and six MI5 officers, as well as four RAF crew.
Academic Sydney Elliott later wrote in the Northern Ireland Political Directory that the security disaster probably ensured the peace process went ahead.
He said: "The loss of such senior intelligence personalities probably ensured the political case for a peace process to go ahead despite the recent successes of covert operations against PIRA and loyalist paramilitaries."
The incident was initially blamed on pilot error before this was overturned in 2011. It was later found test engineers at RAF Boscombe Down found the aircraft was “not to be relied upon in any way whatsoever”.