Jason McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jason McCartney on 2016-02-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make representations to the Egyptian government on the possibility of submitting human remains found in the Western Desert in 2012 if still in existence to new DNA tests to compare them with DNA samples provided by the family of Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping whose aeroplane crashed in the Sahara on 28 June 1942.

Mark Lancaster

Rigorous DNA tests undertaken by the Egyptian authorities at our behest some three years ago were unable to provide viable DNA samples due to the age and degradation of the human remains found. There are no plans to undertake new DNA tests.