A legal challenge has been launched by The British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) to delay the release of the black boxes from the August 2013 Super Puma crash off Shetland in which four passengers were killed.

A judge has ruled that Air Accident Investigators should hand over the black boxes, however the pilots' union has said disclosure would “jeopardise the culture of honest reporting” which they said led to an improved safety culture.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has the right to initial access to the cockpit voice recorder but has no obligation to give the materials over to other bodies, like the Crown prosecutors, unless they are directed to do so by a court.

Prosecutors have been trying to establish whether anybody could be held criminally responsible for the crash.

A judge found it was in the public interest and the interests of justice to make the cockpit voice recorder recovered by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch, available to prosecutors in June earlier this year

The case is to be heard on the 1st of December 2015.

18 people were on board the Super Puma Helicopter when it crashed on its approach to Sumburgh airport in August 2013.

4 of Helicopters passengers Sarah Darnley, Gary McCrossan, Duncan Munro, and George Allison, tragically lost their lives in the incident.

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