Army’s ‘failures’ over new recruit shot dead on night exercise
‘Procedures were not robust enough’ ‘A reminder of the dangers’
ARMY safety procedures, training and equipment failures have been severely criticised after a Scots soldier was killed during a live firing exercise in the dark.
Private Conor McPherson, 24, was shot in the head on the first day of Exercise Wessex Storm in August 2016.
An inquiry was conducted by the Defence Safety Authority to establish what went wrong at the Heely Dod Range at Otterburn, Northumberland.
Its conclusions, published yesterday, amount to a damning indictment of the circumstances surrounding the rookie soldier’s death, coupled with a series of recommendations designed to prevent another tragedy.
Lieutenant General Richard Felton, director general of the Defence Safety Authority, said the safety risk present that night ‘was neither recognised – nor the potential consequences understood – by the fire team, supervising staff or battalion leadership’.
He said he could not understand why the young trainees were subject to an ‘ambitious’ 18-hour plus day, involving nine different shooting sequences.
His report found that by 11pm, the soldiers using live rounds were falling about in the darkness.
While it was ‘ highly likely’ Private McPherson, from Paisley, Renfrewshire, was shot by one of his colleagues, it was found that one soldier did not fire a single round because he found it impossible to identify any targets in the gloom.
Lieutenant General Felton said: ‘The tragic death of Private Conor McPherson serves as a reminder of the dangers inherent in military training.’
But he added: ‘Military training must continue to test and challenge, with progression through a unit’s training cycle correctly adding complexity and greater levels of safety risk.
‘To not do so would reduce the value of training and the preparedness of our soldiers to fight and win in future conflicts.’
Private McPherson had already trained in France and Kenya by the time he joined the month-long exercise with colleagues from 3 Platoon A Company 3 Scots.
Their final mission that day was to negotiate a firing range, using live ammunition, as they moved towards rigid targets without any fixed illumination.
A reconstruction ordered by the inquiry found that the LUCIE night vision goggles worn by Private McPherson were not cleared for use in that type of exercise, ‘mainly owing to its impaired peripheral vision and lack of depth perception’. It was also found targets and the range had not been set up correctly for a night vision scope used by another soldier which relied on thermal contrast.
Lieutenant General Felton wrote: ‘ The r econstruction demonstrated how the procedures for distinguishing personnel from targets were not robust enough.’
The soldiers of A company had only been issued with the new night vision equipment on arrival at Otterburn and there was ‘no recorded evidence’ they had been trained to use it.
The equipment ‘added confusion’ as it made if difficult to distinguish the scene under infra-red light from a Cyalume light- emitting disposable plastic tube.
Weaknesses were also found in the experience of two of the supervisors. One had not super- vised a range for nine months and neither had ever supervised a night exercise without lights, nor had they undergone the required refresher courses.
Once the fatal shot had been fired, and Private McPherson was seen to fall, senior men gave the order ‘stop, stop, stop’ to halt the exercise.
They also told the trainees to look down the range, as they did not want them to see the extent of their colleague’s injuries. Attempts were made to resuscitate the ‘critical’ victim and a call went out to seek an air ambulance.
However, officers discovered that the service does not operate in that area at night.
By the time an ambulance arrived by road, some 38 minutes after t he shooting, Private McPherson was declared dead.
Northumbria Police arrived on the scene just after midnight to take charge of the investigation.
An Army spokesman said: ‘Our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Conor McPherson at this difficult time.
‘The safety of our personnel is our absolute priority and, while deaths in training are rare, any death is a tragedy.
‘We are now carefully considering the recommendations from the independent service inquiry.’
A spokesman for Northumbria Police said: ‘The death is still being investigated and Northumbria Police is working with the Health and Safety Executive and the coroner.’