A senior police officer’s wife, who was murdered in a Chinook helicopter crash in 1994, has expressed that she is still “angry” over the government’s response to the tragedy. The crash occurred in the United Kingdom.
Ian Phoenix, the husband of Dr. Susan Phoenix, was one of the main security professionals who lost their lives when the helicopter crashed in fog over the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland.
Family members of the 29 victims who were killed have said that they intend to take legal action against the Ministry of Defense (MoD) for failing to order a public investigation into the incident. A “tragic accident” was described as the cause of the collision by the authorities.
A “obscenity of justice” was what Dr. Phoenix, who is now 77 years old and lives in Portland, Dorset, described the case as being regarding.
A meeting was held at Fort George, which is located close to Inverness, on June 2, 1994. The helicopter was transporting a total of 25 people, including members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), the Army, and members of MI5. Additionally, there were four crew members from RAF Aldergrove, which is located in Northern Ireland.
After the crash, pilots Flt Lt Jonathan Tapper, from Norfolk, and Flt Lt Richard Cook, from Hampshire, were accused of gross negligence; however, the verdict was overturned by the government of the United Kingdom seventeen years later.
Those who worked on the Chinooks voiced “numerous concerns” in a subsequent study that was conducted by Lord Philip which detailed the concerns.
Prior to the crash, the Chinook Mk2 helicopters were deemed “unairworthy” by the Ministry of Defense’s testing center located in Boscombe Down, which is located in Wiltshire.
A “judge-led objective inquiry” is something that Dr. Phoenix, whose husband Ian served as a detective superintendent in the RUC, has joined forces with other families to advocate for.
In all honesty, it is quite upsetting. We remained steadfast and fought for the pilots, who were the most talented members of the air force and were attempting to make do with a piece of equipment that was malfunctioning,” she recalled.
It is now common knowledge that the aircraft was not airworthy; nonetheless, the government continues to insist that the incident was nothing more than a tragic accident.
“Whatever happened on that night we may never know that, but we certainly know they should not have been flying it and they did not want to fly it.”
The relatives of the victims are requesting that a judge from the High Court examine information that, according to them, was not included in the investigations that were conducted previously and that could provide fresh information regarding the airworthiness of the helicopter.
When asked about the tragedy, Dr. Phoenix stated that it had been “locked up in cover up” for the past 31 years after the crash.
During that time, I was not even furious at all. As she put it, “I was completely overcome with a heartbreaking grief.”
“As I sit here and listen to the young families paying respect to their fathers, I find myself becoming increasingly agitated.
Let’s restore these young people’s sense of pride; they were aware that their fathers were performing exceptionally well in their work.
“We though our men would be protected by the government – they weren’t.”
There is personal information contained within the records that are stored in the National Archives, according to the Ministry of Defense, and the early release of those documents would be a violation of their data protection rights.
A representative for the Department of Defense stated: “The Mull of Kintyre crash was a tragic accident and our thoughts and sympathies remain with the families, friends and colleagues of all those who died.”
