BRITAIN: New report on chopper crash.

DEFENCE Secretary Des Browne has agreed to look at a new report into the crash of an RAF Chinook helicopter on the Mull of Kintyre 13 years ago, the Ministry of Defence said today.

A spokesman said that Mr Browne would also meet Labour peer Lord O'Neill of Clackmannan, a member of the Mull of Kintyre group, and to consider the report it has drawn up.

All 29 people on board the helicopter, including 25 senior figures involved in Northern Ireland security, died when the helicopter crashed into the island in bad weather.

The Ministry of Defence has always insisted that the cause of the crash was pilot error - a finding never accepted by the families of the crew.

An MoD spokesman said: "The Secretary of Defence has agreed to meet Lord O'Neill to receive the new report that the Mull of Kintyre group has compiled into the tragic loss of Chinook XD576 and to consider its contents."

He said that the report that the group had drawn up was based on new information which they had obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

"We now have, we think, a number of points relating to the airworthiness of the helicopter which we think haven't been considered by the MoD," he said.