Legal challenge over fatal 1994 RAF Chinook crash thrown out by High Court judge

The bereaved families of the 1994 RAF Chinook helicopter crash cannot bring a legal claim against the Ministry of Defence over the incident, a High Court judge has ruled.

Twenty-five intelligence experts and four special forces crew were killed when the chopper crashed on the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland, en route from RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland to Fort George near Inverness, on 2 June that year.

While the 2011 Mull of Kintyre inquiry overturned an initial decision to blame the pilots, it did not determine the cause of the tragedy.

The Chinook Justice Campaign (CJC), which is made up of more than 55 family members of 25 of the victims, sought to challenge the Ministry of Defence (MoD) over what it said was an "ongoing failure" to set up an "independent and effective investigation" into the crash.

Lawyers for the group told a high court hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Tuesday that information regarding the Chinook's airworthiness "raises a more than arguable claim that... those individuals who died in the crash were placed on an aircraft known to be unsafe".

The MoD opposed the challenge on the grounds that it had been brought too late, and that a new investigation would not serve a "practical purpose".

Mr Justice Butcher refused to allow the claim to proceed, ruling that it had been brought too late.

He said: "It is right to say at the outset that the crash of the Chinook with the loss of 29 lives was a tragedy of a dimension which it is difficult to describe.

"The pain of bereavement and the agony of loss of the families and friends of those who perished remains, I have no doubt, enduring and bitter.

"My task today, however, is to apply the recognised legal tests to the particular type of claim that the claimant seeks to make."

The judge said that the CJC could have known that there was a breach of the MoD's obligations to adequately investigate the crash from the conclusion of the Mull of Kintyre review.

He said "cogent grounds" would be needed to justify the claim being allowed to proceed more than 14 years after the review's conclusion, but added: "No such grounds have been shown."

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Relatives of those who died, several of whom attended court, shook their heads as the judge handed down his ruling.

Andy Tobias, whose father was killed in the crash, said after the hearing: "We are extremely disappointed by the decision, deeply upset at being refused on a technicality but firmly united in continuing to seek the truth."

Jenni Balmer-Hornby, whose father Anthony was killed, added: "All we are asking for is the truth.

"The MoD still need to answer the question about why my dad and 28 others were placed on a helicopter which was known to be unairworthy and which was described as positively dangerous by its own test engineers and test pilots."

The families are urging Andy Burnham, who is on track to become the UK's next prime minister, to order a fresh review.

Mark Stephens, solicitor for the families, said: "Justice delayed should not become justice denied.

"The state holds the records, the families live with the consequences, yet the court has ruled that the door to judicial review is now closed because too much time has passed.

"He obviously felt constrained by the law, and the prime minister can rectify that with a swift decision.

"If our laws are unable to provide an effective remedy, the families - just like the Hillsborough families - will not give up and we will take their case to the European Court of Human Rights.

"The quest for justice and accountability does not end with today's decision."

(c) Sky News 2026: Legal challenge over fatal 1994 RAF Chinook crash thrown out by High Court judge