§ Mr. Hastingsasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will investigate the reasons for the two-year delay in issuing the accident report of the Middle East Airlines crash of a Boeing 720B in January 1976 to Mrs. M. Holyoake of 2, Maltings Way, Great Barford; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Mr. JuddWe are concerned about this tragic event but under Annex 13 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation the State conducting the investigation, in this case Saudi Arabia, is only obliged to disseminate information follow-248W ing the investigation to States specified in the Annex. In this case the United Kingdom is not among those States. There is no legal obligation to publish a report; nevertheless, at Mrs. Holyoake's request we asked the Saudi Arabian authorities for a copy of their report of the accident investigation which we in turn passed to her on 21st March.