It was the worst peacetime disaster in Royal Air Force history: the crash of a Chinook helicopter on the Mull of Kintyre 25 years ago.
And now a Church of Scotland minister has expressed “grave concern” that official records relating to the 1994 incident, which killed 29 men, could be destroyed.
The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that records closed in 1995 and 1996 “will be reviewed for release or alternative disposal this year”.
Rev Roddy McNidder, who led Southend Church on the Mull of Kintyre from 1987-1997, said yesterday he feared the move would mean the true cause of the tragedy may never be known.
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He led the memorial service for the victims of the crash and described the timing of the MoD’s announcement as “insensitive” and “intrusive” to the families of the 29 people who died.
The retired minister also called for all records relating to the tragedy to be made public.
The crash claimed the lives of almost all the United Kingdom’s senior Northern Ireland intelligence experts.
Their aircraft was on its way from RAF Aldergrove near Belfast to Inverness on June 2, 1994 when it crashed in a ball of flames on the Mull of Kintyre.
Its pilots, Flt Lts Jonathan Tapper and Richard Cook – who were among the dead – were initially accused of gross negligence, but subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing.
In 2003, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland called on the Ministry of Defence to order a fresh review into the accident. Mr Tapper’s father, Michael, watched the debate from the public gallery.
A review was eventually sanctioned and, in 2011, it found that the pilots should not have been blamed and the earlier ruling was set aside.
Speaking in a personal capacity, Mr McNidder said: “The news that the MoD may consider the destruction of the records pertaining to the crash of RAF Chinook ZD576 on the Mull of Kintyre as the 25th anniversary of that heart-breaking trauma approaches, is of grave concern.
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“These records are, and will continue to be, of great significance and ought to be retained as an important legacy resource and released to the public.
“The timing of this review is very insensitive, and indeed intrusive to families and colleagues of those who died, and one must ask why the need to destroy such a valuable historical record is even being considered
An MOD spokesperson said: “MOD records that were closed in 1995 and 1996 will be reviewed for release or alternative disposal this year.
“These reviews have not yet been completed and a decision will be made in due course.”
