Hercules Deaths Result Of Serious Systemic Failures

Yet again we have a report of serious systemic failures causing the deaths of servicemen. The Herald reports

The deaths of 10 British servicemen killed when their RAF Hercules was shot downin Iraq was the result of "serious systemic failures", a coroner said today. The fact that the Ministry of Defence and RAF had not fitted the Hercules fleet with ESF (explosion-suppressant foam) was a factor in the tragedy, coroner David Masters said.

He continues

"The failure to fit ESF was on the facts found a serious systemic failure and a contributory factor in the loss of the aircraft."There was a loss of opportunity for the survival of the crew by that failure."The Hercules C130k aircraft, 47 Squadron Special Forces flight XV179, was flying at low-level (about 150ft) in daylight from Baghdad to Balad to await further tasking orders when it was downed by insurgents. The coroner, ruling that the 10 men were unlawfully killed, highlighted the way intelligence was not passed on about a previous attack by insurgents on the US Blackhawks on the same day in the same sector. He described this as another "failure." But he said XV179's decision to fly at low level was not a failure because the Hercules flying community at the time had no idea of their vulnerability to small arms fire, which they were in range of at 150ft.

More information on the Hercules case here.

Hercules Inquest Deaths Result Of Serious Systemic Failures

Nimrod families want safety talks

The BBC reports that the families of 14 Servicemen killed in and RAF Nimrod crash in Afghanistan in 2006 want to have safety talks with the Armed Forces minister. They are upset about how the minister was able to make immediate comment about the airworthiness of the Nimrod without reading the coroners report. Robert Dicketts, father of L/Cpl Oliver Dicketts, 27 - who was killed in the explosion - has written to Mr Ainsworth on behalf of all the families of those killed as follows

First of all we were all very upset that you felt able to make an immediate comment about the airworthiness of the Nimrod fleet before you even had the chance to read the coroner's verdict.

Bearing in mind the seriousness of the matter we would have thought that you should have first read it, and then called in your experts to advise you before making any comments.

It is clear to us that your experts have completely different information to that which we heard in the coroner's court.

In view of this we would ask that we have a meeting to both review your experts' evidence and that which we heard.

He also added that the minister would be aware several experts had

Stated quite clearly the fleet was still not airworthy and continued that in cases where the experts thought the plane was still airworthy they had, in some cases, had their evidence "discredited".

Speaking after the inquest coroner Andrew Walker said the fleet had "never been airworthy" as he recorded narrative verdicts.

Des Browne reacted by saying changes made to the Nimrod meant it was now safe for crews.

All in all this is most unsatisfactory. We have a government insisting something is OK and a Coroner saying it isn't. Who are we to believe, we know now that the initial design of the Nimrod was unsafe so even with the modifications it still has the design problems. The Nimrod is still essential to the RAF's role in Afghanistan let us also hope it is also up to the job of keeping its crews safe.

More posts about the Nimrod here.

BBC NEWS UK Nimrod families want safety talks

Military Inquests- More delays

Because of our archaic laws and Government and MOD inertia inquests for Service Personnel killed overseas will be even more delayed as a result of a change in location of the Inquests. The reason for this change is that Brize Norton, in Oxfordshire, where all flights used to end is being redeveloped and so the Military Transport aircraft will now have to land a RAF Lyneham which is in Wiltshire. This means the Wiltshire Coroner now has to lead all proceedings.

Geraldine McCool, the solicitor who represented the family of Matty Hull, who was killed near Basra in March 2003 when a US pilot fired on his tank convoy, said she was "appalled" to learn of the decision.

"We have at least got now established in Oxford a centre of excellence for army deaths - and to hear that that is going to change for no good reason whatsoever is very disturbing," she told the BBC.

She added that spreading the workload around the country looked "initially quite attractive" but was actually "foolhardy".

Coroner Andrew Walker and two others were brought into Oxfordshire last May to clear a backlog of 85 cases of dead service personnel awaiting hearings.

Shadow Defence Minister Liam Fox said:

"There's a lot of hardship and a lot of heartache that's being endured by service families here, and the government needs to address this a little more thoroughly than they've been willing to do up 'til now."

The Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) said that no new resources had been allocated to Wiltshire, but this was under review.

A spokesman said Oxfordshire had done a "fantastic" job, but that relatives of service personnel had found travelling long distances difficult.

He added:

"We are confident that any coroner can build up the same level of expertise on military inquests as Mr Walker and his colleagues did."

Considering it took over 3 years to "build up" that expertise in Oxfordshire, it will take a while before this will happen.

BBC NEWS | UK | Military inquest venue to change