MoD criticised for helicopter crash

Dec 9 2009

A coroner has criticised the Ministry of Defence for failing to adequately maintain a helicopter which crashed and caught fire in Iraq, claiming the lives of two SAS soldiers.

Herefordshire Coroner David Halpern said that the primary cause of the RAF Puma's crash-landing near Baghdad in November 2007 had been pilot error.

But the coroner, who heard seven days of evidence about the deaths of Corporal Lee Fitzsimmons and Sergeant John Battersby, ruled that a faulty fuel valve had been a relevant factor in one of their deaths.

Mr Halpern, sitting at Hereford Town Hall, said it was "inexplicable" that the inoperative anti-spill valve had not the been the subject of any checks for almost 30 years.

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