Defence Secretary Liam Fox has announced that Lord Philip will be joined on the independent panel by three other privy counsellors – Baroness Liddell, the former Labour Secretary of State for Scotland; Lord Forsyth, the former Conservative Scottish Secretary; and Malcolm Bruce, the Liberal Democrat MP, who chairs the Commons International Development Committee.
The review has raised the hopes of the families of the two pilots, Flight Lieutenants Jonathan Tapper, 30, and Richard Cook, 28, that their names will be cleared. They were found guilty of gross negligence for flying too low and too fast in thick fog by an initial RAF inquiry.
Politicians, relatives and friends of the pilots insist they should not be held responsible for the tragedy given serious doubts about the aircraft’s computer.
The pilots were flying the cream of British intelligence, some 25 experts from MI5, the Army and the RUC from RAF Aldergrove, near Belfast, to a conference near Inverness.
The twin-engined Chinook crashed into a remote hillside in dense fog.
In 1995, a fresh RAF board of inquiry found no conclusive evidence to determine the cause of the crash, but two air marshals reviewing the case found the pilots guilty of gross negligence.
This ruling proved deeply controversial, with a subsequent Fatal Accident Inquiry and two Commons committee probes either leaving open the question of blame or challenging the original conclusion.
Lord Philip, 68, who has retired from the bench but still sits on an occasional basis, said the panel members were “honoured to undertake this sensitive but important review”.
