Scotland's senior law officer has denied he contests the British Ministry of Defence's findings that the 1994 Chinook helicopter crash in which 29 people died was caused by pilot error.
The aircraft crashed on the Mull of Kintyre. On board were intelligence officers from the RUC and the British army flying from Northern Ireland to Scotland for a strategy meeting.
The Lord Advocate, Mr Colin Boyd, had been asked by a Nationalist member of the Scottish parliament, Mr Kenny Macaskill, to reopen the accident inquiry. He was responding to the widely held view that the pilots were unjustly blamed for the accident.
The magazine Computer Weekly has persistently reported it has new evidence pointing to faulty computer software, known as Fadec, on the helicopter.
Mr Boyd rejected the call to reopen the inquiry. However his letter of reply to Mr Macaskill suggests he may not entirely agree with the findings of the MoD's board of inquiry. In his letter, Mr Boyd says: "Having regard to the findings of the sheriff, Crown counsel considered that even if the new information could be substantiated in an inquiry process, it is highly unlikely that the findings of the sheriff would be different.
"Indeed, insofar as the new information about Fadec invites speculation as to another possible cause for the crash, it may be thought to reinforce the sheriff's inconclusive determination as to the cause of the accident."
In a statement, Mr Boyd stressed his letter did not imply any comment on the MoD finding of pilot error.
It made plain that the determination by the RAF was a matter for the Ministry of Defence, not for him.
His sole purpose in writing the letter was to rule out a further inquiry.