Coroner condemns RAF over 'shoddy' records on 10 Hercules deaths

THE coroner in the inquest of 10 servicemen killed when their Hercules plane was shot down in Iraq launched a bitter attack on the RAF today.

Wiltshire Coroner David Masters said his two-month inquiry had been hampered by the RAF's shoddy record-keeping. He also described the military policy of shredding documents as "difficult to come to terms with".

Mr Masters was angered by the unrecorded decision by RAF commanders not to fit a key safety feature on Hercules aircraft. They had rejected advice contained in a military research document in 2002, three years before the tragedy, to fit explosive suppressant foam to the aircraft's fuel tanks.

The inquest has heard that the crew might still be alive today had the foam been fitted to Hercules XV179.

But crews on the aircraft were kept unaware of the danger they were in, which would at least have enabled them to alter their flying tactics. A legal source said this was an example of the "'need to know' basis becoming deadly against oneself".

The 2002 document only came to light after a document trawl while the inquest was adjourned over the summer, the coroner said.

Starting his summing up at Trowbridge Town Hall today, Mr Masters said: "I believe that the ability to retrieve and view documents that record key decisions is not just important, but essential equally important is the rationale behind them.

"This inquest has been plagued by an inability to retrieve documents."

The servicemen were killed when their Hercules C130k aircraft, 47 Squadron Special Forces flight XV179, was flying at low-level about 150 feet.

They were en route in daylight from Baghdad to Balad when the plane was shot down by insurgents. A medium-calibre round hit a fuel tank in the right wing causing the ullage a highly-inflammable mixture of fuel vapour and air created as the tank empties to explode and blow off the wing.

All 10 men on board died in the crash in January 2005.

Had the aircraft's wing tanks been fitted with the explosive suppressant foam, which stops ullage explosions, there is a chance the men may have survived, the inquest was told. American Hercules have had ESF since the Sixties.

Despite in-flight ullage explosions having troubled British commanders since the Second World War, it was not until after this tragedy that a decision was made to fit Hercules with ESF.

The victims based at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire were: Flt-Lt David Stead, 35; Flt-Lt Andrew Smith, 25; Master Engineer Gary Nicholson, 42; Flt-Sgt Mark Gibson, 34; Flt-Lt Paul Pardoel, 35; Chief Technician Richard Brown, 40; Sergeant Robert O'Connor, 38 and Corporal David Williams, 37. Acting L-Cpl Steven Jones, 25, and Sqn Ldr Patrick Marshall, 39, were also killed. The hearing continues.

Shot down: from top left to right, Sqn Ldr Patrick Marshall, 39, Flt-Lt David Stead, 35, Flt-Lt Andrew Smith, 25, Flt-Lt Paul Pardoel, 35, Master Engineer Gary Nicholson, 42; bottom, left to right, Chief Technician Richard Brown, 40, Flt Sgt Mark Gibson, 34, Sergeant Robert O'Connor, 38, Corporal David Williams, 37, and Acting L- Cpl Steven Jones, 25