Downing Street Says

Asked if we had any further information on the Hercules crash, the PMOS said that there was a British crash investigator out there, obviously assisted by others. As he had said this morning,g after any air crash, be it commercial or military, it always took some time to establish the facts. The problem of doing so was exacerbated by the fact that crash took place out of our area of control and also in a hostile environment. Therefore the difficulties should not be under-estimated. People should not expect instant results on this, but the speed of the investigation was a matter for the crash investigator. That was the best guidance he could give.

Put to him that we had a video of the crash, the PMO said that there was proper caution about speculating about the origin and credibility of this video. What was more important was what was happening on the ground and the analysis going on there. That would be difficult given the circumstances but that was the better way to make judgments.

Asked if the Prime Minister would say any further words after the announcement of the names of those who had died in the crash, the PMOS said that clearly it was a very sad and painful time for RAF Lyneham, a very sad and even more painful time for the families concerned. The Prime Minister’s thoughts were with those families. As he had said on Sunday, we all stood back in admiration at the role that the security forces as a whole had played in Iraq, in helping the people of Iraq to be able to hold a vote. That involved sacrifice and we stood back in honour of those who had made that sacrifice.

Asked if the Prime Minister was kept up to date with developments, the PMOS said that he was being kept up to date with the progress of the investigation such as it was. However the Prime Minister appreciated the real difficulties that investigators were having on the ground. Like all of us he wanted to know the circumstances as quickly as possible. But the emphasis was very much on ‘as quickly as possible’. We were aware, to be frank about it, that the danger was that people indulged in conspiracy theories and so on. This had been a routine mission, it was simply the circumstances in which the crash occurred which made it even more difficult to establish the cause with the speed other might wish.

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» Tuesday, February 1, 2005

Hercules

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