In the immediate aftermath of the accident, one commentator stated that the loss of so many top level Northern Ireland intelligence officers in one stroke was a huge blow to the John Major government, "temporarily confounding" its campaign against the IRA. That the crash killed so many British intelligence experts, without any witnesses in the foggy conditions, led to considerable speculation and conspiracy theories being devised on the issue on the potential of a cover-up having been performed. Among these were accusations that wake turbulence from a top-secret hypersonic US aircraft had been responsible for the crash, while another postulated that it was a deliberate assassination of the intelligence operatives on board in connection with the then on-going Northern Ireland peace process.