News / Copter crash black box to be released
A JUDGE has granted a bid by Scotland’s senior law officer to gain access to black box data from the helicopter which claimed the lives of four offshore workers when it crashed off Shetland two years ago.
The pilots’ union BALPA had opposed the move by Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland QC to seek court authority to make the combined voice and flight data recorder (CVFDR) available to him.
However on Friday Lord Jones ordered the black box to be released to the Crown Office and police with conditions attached, which may lead to a prosecution.
So far no evidence of a technical fault has been identified that could have caused of the Super Puma to crash, though an investigation by the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) has yet to be concluded.
The helicopter, with two crew and 16 passengers on board, crashed on August 23 in 2013 about two miles west of Sumburgh as it was coming in from the Borgsten Dolphin drilling platform, which lay about 240 miles east of Aberdeen.
The four passengers who died were 45 year old Sarah Darnley from Elgin, 56 year old Gary McCrossan from Inverness, 46 year old Duncan Munro from Bishop Auckland and 57 year old George Allison from Winchester.
Lord Jones said: “In my judgment, there is no doubt that the Lord Advocate’s investigation into the circumstances of the death of each of those who perished in this case is both in the public interest and in the interests of justice.”
The judge said releasing the cockpit voice reocrding and the flight data was necessary to help the Civil Aviation Authority’s Safety and Airspace Regulation Group (SARG) give an expert opinion, which would help the Lord Advocate decide “whether and, if so, against whom to launch a prosecution”.
“Accordingly, I hold that those data are strictly necessary for the purposes of the police investigation,” he said.
He added that he was satisfied that disclosure in this case would have no adverse domestic or international impact on the current investigation or on any future safety investigation.
He also added conditionsthat the black box would be handed over to Police Scotland who would retain overall control and responsibility for it until it was retuirned to the AAIB.
The results of the analysis and any expert opinion following on were to be treated as confidential and only disclosed to the Crown Office and police, he ordered.
Lord Jones was told that 78 hours of flight data and two hours of audio recording had been downloaded from the black box by the AAIB during their investigation.
The audio material included communications between the commander and co-pilot, radio transmissions and passenger announcements.
But the judge said such recordings also capture “ambient sounds” which may be important to an investigation, such as a change in engine note.
The AAIB has issued three bulletins over the accident, one of which reported that wreckage examination and recorded data analysis had not shown any evidence of a technical fault that could have caused the accident, although some work remained to be completed.
The Lord Advocate said that in the apparent absence of any technical fault the police had asked SARG to provide an expert opinion on the performance of the flight crew.
A formal request was made to the AAIB to make the CVFDR available for the investigation, but it said a court order would be required.
Aidan O’Neill, QC for the pilots’ union, told the court at an earlier hearing that “a culture of openness” was fostered so that when an incident or accident occurred in the aviation industry complete information could be obtained.
He said there was a culture of sharing information without fear of reprisals.
Lord Jones said accident investigators cannot be required routinely to disclose cockpit voice recordings and such a move can only be ordered in a particular case if the tests laid down in regulations were met.
The judge said his decision in the present case would not create a precedent.
Dave Finlay
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