MSP Lochhead and ex-RAF officer Jones meet with Crown Office over RAF tornado plane crash disaster
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A RETIRED RAF officer has provided new evidence for an investigation into the 2012 Tornado crash off the coast of Caithness.
Jimmy Jones and MSP Richard Lochhead met the head of the head of the Scottish Fatalities Investigation Unit at the Crown Office in Edinburgh to discuss the case for a fatal accident inquiry (FAI).
Two RAF Lossiemouth-based Tornado aircraft collided 25 miles south of Wick with the loss of three lives in July 2012.
In March 2015, the Crown counsel concluded that all relevant issues had been comprehensively examined in the course of a Military Aviation Authority report and could not have been better considered in a FAI.
Mr Lochhead, MSP for Moray, said: “I certainly felt that my constituent Jimmy Jones and myself had a very good hearing at our two-hour meeting at the Crown Office to make the case for a fatal accident inquiry into the tragic accident. There’s a very strong moral case for an FAI – thanks to Jimmy’s very powerful campaign that persuaded the Scottish Parliament to change the law in 2016 an FAI would now be mandatory if such an accident occurred today with military deaths being given the same status as other occupations.
“So we should still have that kind of inquiry because the military inquiry that was carried out a few years ago was very valuable as far as it went but it wasn’t an open, transparent inquiry in a Scottish courtroom with a judge and witnesses being cross-examined.
“It is also worth noting that similar accidents in England would not only be the subject of an internal military inquiry but also a coroner’s inquest.
“We are very much aware that the initial response from the Lord Advocate was to reject the plea for an FAI as he felt the Military Aviation Authority’s own inquiry covered all the issues.
“However, Jimmy brought forward new evidence for the Crown Office to consider relating to the safety and risk assessments of the aircraft and the Crown Office listened very intently as that evidence was presented.
“So I hope both the moral case, in that if this kind of accident happened today there would automatically be an FAI, plus the new evidence that Jimmy brought forward will convince the Crown Office to now give the green light to a fatal accident inquiry into this terrible tragedy.
“We must learn all the lessons that can be learnt because in the north of Scotland we have military aircraft and civilian aircraft in our skies and we absolutely want to minimise the chances of any other collisions.
“Jimmy deserves enormous credit for his campaign and his forensic and tenacious approach. He is rightly determined that there should be an FAI because it is in the public interest.”
The Crown Office is expected to return with a decision in the coming weeks.
