§ Mr. Dalyellasked the Secretary of State for Defence why his Department refused successive requests from Mrs. Winifred Cockton for a statement as to the cause of the fatal crash of a helicopter carrying her son, Lance Corporal Simon Cockton, on 6 June 1982; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. StanleyI shall write to the hon. Member.
§ Mr. Dalyellasked the Secretary of State for Defence what evidence has now led his Department to conclude that the helicopter carrying Lance Corporal Simon Cockton was shot down by a missile fired from the destroyer HMS Cardiff during the Falklands war; to what extent and in what specific respects this evidence was available to the Army coroner in November 1982; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Stanley[pursuant to his reply, 9 June 1986, c. 57]: The evidence concerned the result of a review carried out by RAE Farnborough in the latter part of the last year of the findings of an analysis of missile fragments found in the wreckage of the helicopter which had been undertaken by RAE in 1982. The 1985 review concluded that there could be no definitive conclusion as to the exact source of the missile fragments recovered from the crash site. This led the Department to conclude in the light of all the available evidence that the Seadart missile fired by HMS Cardiff must be adjudged the probable cause of the loss of the helicopter. The evidence of the 1985 review was of course not available to Her Majesty's coroner for Hampshire (Southampton and New Forest District) in 1982.