MPs 'misled' over cause of Sea King collision (7 aircrew killed in Iraq)

[IndianaGreen]

MPs 'misled' over cause of Sea King collision
By Severin Carrell
01 February 2004

Defence ministers have been accused of misleading MPs about the cause of a collision between two Sea King helicopters that killed seven aircrew during the Gulf War in March last year.

Last week, the armed forces minister Adam Ingram implied in a written statement to the Commons that the aircrew were to blame for the crash - provoking an angry response from opposition MPs Paul Tyler and Andrew George.

Mr Ingram told MPs that the board of inquiry report into the crash had concluded: "Both aircraft had lost visual contact with each other, but apparently lost situational awareness and collided. The aircraft were responsible for their own safety at the time of the collision."

The Liberal Democrat MPs will tomorrow demand an urgent meeting with Mr Ingram. They argue that the board of inquiry actually concluded that the cause of the crash, about four miles off HMS Ark Royal early on 22 March last year, was "indeterminable".

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=486664