Overview
- Dame Anne Owers concludes the Foreign Office treated the 2019 death as routine and missed chances to influence the US after diplomatic immunity was asserted.
- Departmental records show officials told Washington it should "feel able" to fly Anne Sacoolas home, which Owers characterizes as reluctant recognition rather than agreement.
- The review identifies a loophole in the RAF Croughton arrangement that granted greater protections to dependants and was grasped sooner by US officials than by UK counterparts.
- Owers urges mandatory early escalation to ministers, an emergency protocol, and an immediate surge of resources for deaths involving exceptional circumstances such as immunity claims.
- The findings are being laid before Parliament today, with Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper saying she aims to accept all recommendations, as Harry Dunn’s family say the report validates their long-held concerns.