Tuesday - April 01, 2008

Airmen shot down, families sue?

I’m not sure if I’m reading between the lines of this story correctly, but when I read “But lawyers for the relatives of the 10 men are expected to demand answers” that’s what I think it implies. Otherwise why would they need lawyers to represent them at a military inquiry?

A HERCULES plane carrying 10 military personnel, including an Australian airman, was not fitted with safety foam that could have prevented it being shot down in Iraq, an inquest has been told.

Flight Lieutenant Paul Pardoel, 35, died three years ago when the RAF transport plane he was travelling on with eight British airmen and a soldier was shot down by insurgents north of Baghdad.

An inquest began yesterday in southwest England, with coroner David Masters expected to examine why the plane was without a key safety device which could have prevented the crash.

Previous inquiries held by Britain’s Ministry of Defence have found the Hercules C-130 crashed after bullets pierced one of the aircraft’s fuel tanks, which exploded and blew off one of its wings.

The Australian Defence Force fitted its Hercules planes with the safety foam well before the 2005 crash which claimed the life of Flt-Lt Pardoel, who spent several years with the RAAF before transferring in 2002 to the RAF.

A Ministry of Defence lawyer, Jonathan Glasson, told the inquest that a program to fit all British Hercules C-130’s routinely deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan was completed last December.

But lawyers for the relatives of the 10 men are expected to demand answers from defence officials giving evidence at the inquest about why the aircraft shot down was not fitted with the safety foam and why not all Hercules used by British forces had ESF.

John Cooper, a barrister representing two of the British airmen, told the inquest that relatives of the servicemen had been led to believe all British Hercules would be fitted with the foam.
...
“We want to examine whether the lack of foam in this case was a matter of negligence.”

There’s that lawyer word. Negligence. So I’m wondering. I hope I’m wrong. But if I’m right, then this might be a legal first.

Donald Rumsfeld’s famous quote “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have” seems to apply here. But the thing about this fuel tank foam is that it isn’t new technology. The US has been using it since the end of the Vietnam war. The Austalian forces upgraded their airplanes years ago. But England and Canada are more than a bit behind the maintainence curve it seems.

(as of 2006) The Canadian military has 29 Hercules in operation. They are commonly used in Afghanistan. Although the American and Australian Hercules have a safety foam device, the Canadian Hercules do not.  “If there is such a foam, it’d be a good thing, but this is the first I’ve ever heard of it,” said Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor.

A Ministry of Defence lawyer Jonathan Glasson told the inquest’s first day of hearings that a program to fit all British Hercules C-130’s “that are routinely deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan” had been completed last December.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/01/2008 at 11:42 AM   
Filed Under: • Judges-Courts-Lawyers • Military • Science-Technology •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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