§ Lord Jacobsasked Her Majesty's Government:
In relation to the Chinook ZD576 crash: (a) on what date the Ministry of Defence commissioned new simulation tests; (b) on what date the results of the tests have been or are to be submitted to the Ministry of Defence; (c) what the simulation tests are designed to prove; and (d) whether the results of the tests can assist Boeing Corporation, the manufacturer of Chinook, in its view that there were no faults in the helicopter that could have caused the crash. [HL4878]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach)As part of the investigations into the crash of Chinook ZD576, Boeing, the aircraft manufacturer, was asked to conduct simulations to model the likely flightpath during the final seconds prior to impact. The House of Lords Select Committee was critical of certain aspects of these simulations, which did not include full FADEC parameters, although the engineers who conducted the original simulation factored in known FADEC performance criteria.
Boeing was commissioned in early March 2002 to revisit its original analysis to include full FADEC performance parameters. Boeing is the sole manufacturer and design authority of the Chinook. Only Boeing possesses the necessary detail about the design and material and its capabilities.
This work has just been received and is being reviewed. We intend to make the results of Boeing's work available as part of the Government's response 54WA to the Select Committee report, although there may be matters of commercial sensitivity which would preclude the publication of some elements. It remains our intention to produce our response before the Summer Recess.