§ Viscount Allenby of Megiddoasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have yet received the results of the United States board of inquiry into the shooting down of two Black Hawk helicopters over northern Iraq on 14 April and whether the bereaved families have been informed.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Viscount Cranborne)The United States Government have today announced the results of their board of inquiry. I have placed a copy of the executive summary, summary of facts and US news release in the Library of the House. The board of inquiry concluded that a combination of human error and organisational failures led to a tragic sequence of events resulting in the shooting down of the two Black Hawk helicopters. The bereaved families visited the adjutant general and my honourable friend the Minister of State for the Armed Forces at the Ministry of Defence this afternoon, before receiving a briefing at the United States embassy from the ambassador and a representative of the United States Air Force in Europe.