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Article: Hercules 'not fitted with safety feature'.
- Article from:
- The Star (Sheffield) (Sheffield, England)
- Article date:
- April 3, 2008
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A safety modification to RAF Hercules planes which may have prevented the deaths of 10 servicemen in Iraq, including three from the Yorkshire and Humber region, was not deemed important enough to install, an inquest heard today.
Nine RAF servicemen and a soldier died when a Hercules aircraft was shot down near Baghdad on January 30 2005 after enemy fire pierced a fuel tank causing it to explode and blow off a wing.
Among those killed in the crash were RAF 47 Squadron's Flt Lt David Stead, 35, the pilot, from Burley-in-Wharefdale; Flt Lt Andrew Smith, 25, the co-pilot from Cleethorpes; and Master Engineer Gary Nicholson, 42, from Hull.
An ...