This biased conclusion was controversial and a Royal Commission was established presided over by Justice Peter Mahon QC.

Chippindale's investigation techniques were revealed as lacking in rigour, which allowed errors and avoidable gaps in knowledge to appear in reports.

He was a member of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) teams, which investigated the Mozambican Tupolev Tu-134 air disaster in South Africa in which the President of Mozambique lost his life, and the shooting down of three civil aircraft: Korean Air Lines Flight 007 over Russia and two United Nations (UN) Lockheed L-100 Hercules aircraft in Angola.

On 12 February 2008, while out on an early morning walk near his home in Porirua, 20 km north of Wellington, Chippindale was hit by an out-of-control car and was killed instantly.

[3] At the time of his death, Chippindale was an adjunct lecturer teaching "Aircraft Safety Investigations" in a three-paper series extramurally (by correspondence) at Massey University School of Aviation.