25 Top Intel Officers, and Crew of 4 Were Killed in Helicopter Crash in the Mull of Kintyre.

On June 2, 1994, one of the worst peacetime disasters in British military aviation occurred when a RAF Chinook helicopter (ZA576) crashed into a hillside on the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland, killing all 29 people on board.

Key Details: • Casualties: All 25 senior intelligence officers, many from MI5, MI6, RUC Special Branch, and the British Army, and 4 RAF crew members were killed. • Mission: The group was en route from RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland to a high-level security conference in Inverness. • Crash Site: The aircraft flew into a fog-covered hillside near Chinook Hill on the Mull of Kintyre peninsula.

Significance: • The victims represented the core of British counterterrorism expertise during The Troubles, with some involved in covert operations against the IRA. • It was one of the deadliest aviation incidents involving UK intelligence personnel. • Initially, pilot error was blamed, but that conclusion became controversial and widely criticized.

Aftermath: • A long campaign led to the exoneration of the two pilots, Flight Lieutenants Jonathan Tapper and Richard Cook, after a 2011 review found the verdict of gross negligence was not justified. • The tragedy is often cited as a symbolic and strategic loss during the final years of the conflict in Northern Ireland.