Mull of Kintyre Chinook crash 1994: Families of RUC Special Branch, MI5 and Army Intelligence slams Defence Minister Al Carns for promising full disclosure to Troubles veterans - while sealing their files for 100 years
Families of the top tier of Northern Ireland's intelligence officers who died in the 1994 Mull of Kintyre Chinook crash have accused the Defence Minister of "jaw dropping hypocrisy" for promising full disclosure to Troubles veterans - while sealing their crash files for 100 years.
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 that test engineers at RAF Boscombe Down found the aircraft was “not to be relied upon in any way whatsoever”.
In June the Chinook families launched a legal action against the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for not ordering a public inquiry into the crash, saying they have new information not included in previous investigations.
However some of the families of those killed were furious after Armed Forces Minister Al Carns this week promised the families of British veterans who were killed in the Troubles a "fair deal" in finding out the truth about their deaths.
He said hundreds of Troubles service families who lost loved ones "have been searching for the truth" and that as legacy reforms are pushed through on NI "we must ensure that our service families can get to the truth".
But Niven Phoenix, whose father Ian – an RUC detective superintendent – was one of those killed in the Chinook, was angered by the minister's promises.
“Al Carns is living in an altered reality if he can honestly write about truth and disclosure for those killed in the Troubles, whilst simultaneously forcing 47 children from the Chinook crash to take the Ministry of Defence to court for offering the exact opposite," he said. It is jaw dropping hypocrisy."
Andy Tobias lost his father Lt Col John Tobias, in the crash. He said: “I honestly couldn’t believe my eyes when I read Al Carn’s words.
“We’ve spent decades being ignored, misled, and stonewalled by the Ministry of Defence, while they throw lawyers at us, hide behind red tape, and hope we’ll give up or die while they seal key documents for a century."
An MOD spokesperson responded: “ “We have now received the Chinook Justice Campaign’s formal claim for a Judicial Review of our decision to reject the demand for a judge-led inquiry into the circumstances of the crash.
"Our focus is on responding to that claim and to the allegations contained within it and we are unable to comment further at this time. The accident has already been the subject of six inquiries and investigations, including an independent judge-led review.”
The government says it is withholding the files for 100 years because releasing them would "would breach data protection rights as they contain personal information relating to third party individuals".