Families Say They Are Disappointed With News That No Fatal Accident Inquiry Will Be Held

Expert lawyers representing the families of people who died when two RAF Tornado aircraft crashed in mid-air in 2012 say they are disappointed by the announcement from the Crown Office that a Fatal Accident Inquiry will not be held.

Irwin Mitchell Scotland represents the families of victims who died when two Tornado GR4s jets crashed off the coast of Scotland in 2012 killing three people.

Lawyers at the firm have repeatedly called for a Public Inquiry to determine exactly what happened and how, so that lessons can be learnt to improve the safety of the aircraft and possibly others in future.

Today the Crown Office announced it believed the Military Aviation Authorities investigation was enough and said that it would not be holding a Fatal Accident Inquiry.

The accident report by the Military Aviation Authority made public last June concluded that there were opportunities to prevent the incident and warned of failures to act on previous recommendations for collision warning systems to be installed in such aircraft.

Expert Opinion

We are disappointed about the decision not to hold a Fatal Accident Inquiry and that whilst we accept that the Service Inquiry Report does identify the immediate causes of the accident, there are many questions about how and why many of those causes arose, which need to be answered.

"If a Fatal Accident Inquiry is not to be held, those broader questions should be addressed by a public inquiry.

"The families of victims of the crash need answers as to how this crash occurred and want reassurances that any wider issues will be identified and resolved to prevent the risk of other similar accidents in future - without the appropriate inquiry, it is difficult to see how lessons will be learned." David Bell - Senior Associate Solicitor