A CORONER at the inquest into the deaths of ten servicemen in a Hercules air crash has attacked the RAF for failing to fit a crucial safety feature that could have saved the crew.
Wiltshire coroner David Masters said the fact that the Ministry of Defence and RAF had not equipped the aircraft with ESF – explosion-suppressant foam – was a factor in the tragedy.
Had the aircraft's wing tanks been fitted with ESF, the men may w
ell be alive today, the inquest was told.
Last night, the victims' families accused the RAF of failing to protect men serving their country.
"The failure to fit ESF was, on the facts found, a serious systemic failure and a contributory factor in the loss of the aircraft," said Mr Masters. "There was a loss of opportunity for the survival of the crew by that failure."
Ruling that the men were unlawfully killed, the coroner highlighted the fact that intelligence was not passed on about a previous attack by insurgents on US Blackhawk helicopters on the same day in the same area.
Nine RAF personnel and one soldier died when the aircraft was shot down by enemy fire in Iraq in January 2005 – the largest loss of life to the RAF in a hostile act since the Second World War.
Among the coroner's recommendations was for all RAF combat aircraft to be fitted with fuel tank "inerting" systems – which do the same job as ESF.
Summing up at Trowbridge town hall, the coroner said the two-month hearing was hampered by a lack of data recording important decisions before the incident.
The criticism referred to an apparently unrecorded decision taken by RAF commanders not to fit the vital safety feature on Hercules aircraft, after they were advised to do so in a military research document in 2002.
The data only came to light after a document trawl while the inquest was adjourned over the summer.
The Hercules C-130K, flight XV179, from RAF Lyneham's 47 Squadron, was hit by insurgents after flying a special forces mission. Enemy fire pierced a fuel tank in the right wing, causing an explosion.
The plane crashed into the desert 25 miles north west of Baghdad. Witnesses told the inquest the crew was flying low, at about 150ft, to avoid the threat of surface-to-air missiles.
The 2002 report, sent to senior RAF figures, said Hercules wing tanks were the most vulnerable parts of the planes, liable to explode if hit by small-arms fire. And the report said a way to reduce the risk was to "retro-fit" the aircraft with "dynamic foam" for the wing fuel tanks – something that was not acted on until after the plane was shot down.
American Hercules have had ESF since the 1960s.
A major issue at the heart of the inquest was the failure to pass on intelligence warnings about the two US helicopters being shot at.
The inquest heard an e-mailed incident report was left unopened by an unnamed British intelligence officer.
Mr Masters said: "The system in place failed the captain and crew of that aircraft and this should never be allowed to happen again."
Concluding the inquest, Mr Masters told the families: "These men will never be forgotten. They were so brave, but so unlucky to die."
'They didn't protect our boys'THE families of the Hercules crash victims said yesterday they felt their loved ones had been let down by the RAF.
Many sat in tears as the coroner, David Masters, made a series of recommendations after highlighting serious failures that contributed to the loss of the aircraft.
In emotional scenes after the case, the families said the "world will be watching" to see that the recommendations are followed.
Pauline Stead, the mother of David Stead, the Hercules captain, said: "We are truly disappointed that the RAF failed to protect our boys, who were all highly skilled and professional members of this crew and who were doing a very difficult job in a hostile terrain in the service of their country."
She said warnings about the aircraft's vulnerability went unheeded by many people for many years. However, she was comforted by the fact that all the Hercules fleet have now been fitted with ESF – explosion-suppressant foam.
"As a result of this, all aircrew and their passengers travelling in these aircraft now have the protection that David and his crew were denied.
"It is very sad that it took this tragedy to happen before anything was done."
Pilot: Failure to fit safety feature in aircraft 'criminal'A FORMER Special Forces pilot yesterday branded "criminal" a failure by the Ministry of Defence and the RAF to fit a standard safety measure to the Hercules aircraft shot down in Iraq.
Nigel Gilbert, who used to fly Hercules and knew many of the crew, said after the inquest: "I'm lost for words. Anger just doesn't describe it."
The key safety modification that 47 Squadron's plane lacked was ESF, explosion-suppressant foam, which stops fuel tanks exploding if hit by enemy fire.
Evidence presented at the inquest showed senior British military figures were told about this vulnerability in 2002. But there was a failure to order ESF, or even tell the men on the front-line of the danger they were in. Mr Gilbert said: "This is not just incompetence; I think it was a deliberate decision not to provide that essential protection, a dereliction of duty."
He said he flew RAF Hercules in Afghanistan in 2002, unaware of its vulnerability to projectiles, or that "a single bullet could have brought it down".
He began campaigning for all UK Hercules to be fitted with ESF in January 2006, after being told that only five of the RAF's fleet of more than 45 were to be fitted.
The full article contains 979 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
