Tank blast soldiers ‘may have been showing off’
TWO soldiers killed in a tank blast may have been “showing off” to a guest not authorised to be with them, an inquest heard yesterday.
Corporals Matthew Hatfield and Darren Neilson, of the Royal Tank Regiment, died of their injuries after an explosion in their tank at the Castlemartin firing ranges, Pembrokeshire, Wales, on June 14, 2017.
Tank commander Cpl Neilson, 31, from Preston, Lancs, was thrown from the Challenger 2 by the blast, while Cpl Hatfield, 27, from Amesbury, Wilts, was loading ammunition.
The men – both fathers of one who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere – were only in the tank because they were taking a senior soldier out for a “guest shoot” which did not have the proper written consent, the inquest heard.
The guest and another soldier were injured in the blast but survived.
Birmingham and Solihull Coroner’s Court heard “bag charges”, high-explosive ammunition, were incorrectly stowed and an airtight seal stopping the explosive gases escaping into the tank crew’s turret was not in place before the lethal blast.
The inquest heard that Major John Poole, in charge of safe firing that day, said in a statement to the MoD: “To think those boys stowed those bag charges incorrectly is a little disappointing to be honest. I would have thought they’d have known better.”
He added: “Whether they were trying to show off to [guest] Mr Lawson, or trying to get through it [firing] as quickly as possible, I don’t know.”
Since the incident, he said, the gunnery school had made changes to the way charges were stowed.
The inquest also heard that permission for the guest shoot had not received the required approval from a high rank.
In emotional scenes, Jemma Neilson, Cpl Neilson’s wife, read a statement, saying she was “proud to say I am the wife of Corporal Darren Neilson.
“He was my world, my soulmate, best friend and hero.”
Cpl Hatfield’s fiancee Jill McBride – accompanied by his wife Abigail Hatfield, from whom he was separated but had a daughter, Lexi – also read a tribute. She said: “When Matthew came into my life… I no longer had to search for anything to fulfil a happy life.”
She added he was a “natural father to his daughter – a son, a brother and dedicated partner and loyal friend”.
The inquiry continues.