THE families of the 29 victims of the Chinook helicopter crash have said they are "extremely disappointed" that after a long and very stressful inquiry there is no official explanation of the disaster.
The crash of the Chinook on the Mull of Kintyre wiped out 25 senior intelligence officers of MI5, the British army and the RUC involved in the covert war against the IRA and loyalist paramilitaries.
It is believed they had been on their way to a security conference.
The Scottish Sheriff, Sir Stephen Young, who headed the inquiry, is understood to have found that there is no evidence to conclude that the crash in June 1994 was a result of pilot error.
His report, due to be published officially today, is expected to state that it is unlikely that the cause of the crash will ever be ascertained, and that it will always remain a mystery.
Many Northern Ireland relatives of the victims expressed annoyance at the result when they addressed a press conference in Belfast yesterday.
One of them, Mrs Kathleen Rickard, whose husband Stephen was a senior intelligence officer, said she was angered by the findings.
She had expected that the Sheriff would have blamed pilot error, in accordance with the finding of a previous RAF inquiry.
Mr Aidan Canavan, solicitor for the families, said the widows also found it difficult to understand the RAF's policy of allowing training considerations to influence the planning of flights.
It has been reported that the ill fated Chinook was on a low level flight at the time in accordance with training procedures. The Sheriff reported, according to Mr Canavan, that if it had been on a medium level course, "the accident would not have happened."
He complained: "It is difficult for the families to understand that having made that statement, he goes on to say that the decision in relation to low level training flights was probably not a causative factor in the accident."
Flight Lieutenants Jonathan, Tapper and Richard Cook were, in charge of the flight from RAF Aldergrove, Co Antrim, to Fort George, near Inverness, when the helicopter crashed in thick fog as it climbed above the Mull after crossing the Irish Sea.
Families of the two men claimed the RAF made them scapegoats for the disaster.
Both pilots and two other crew members also died. The accident, in June 1994, was the RAF's worst ever peacetime helicopter crash.
Mr Canavan said yesterday that he was not yet prepared to comment on the 126 page report and its findings. It followed an 18 day inquiry in Paisley, near Glasgow, last year.
Mr Canavan told PA News: "Obviously this is a difficult day for the families of the people who died in the crash. The publication of the report is another milestone in their recovery process."
