Players in way led to helicopter disaster
A HELICOPTER which crashed in Afghanistan, causing unsurvivable injuries to two British air force officers, was unable to land on a football pitch because there were players on it, an inquest has heard.
Flight Lieutenants Alan Scott and Geraint “Roly” Roberts died after a Puma Mk 2 helicopter crashed while trying to land at Nato’s Resolute Support mission headquarters in the Afghan capital Kabul on October 11, 2015.
They were among the five people killed, who also included 44-year-old French-born security worker Gordon Emin and two US personnel, while five others were injured.
An inquest into their deaths at Oxford Coroner’s Court on Monday heard how 32-year-old Flt Lt Scott died as a result of “multiple injuries including a closed head injury” which were “not survivable”.
Flt Lt Roberts, 44, from North Wales, died from a “blunt force head injury”, which forensic pathologist Dr Nicholas Hunt said in the post-mortem report would have caused him to become “deeply unconscious and effectively dead”.
The cause of death for Mr Emin, who lived in Kabul and whose inquest was also opened, was given as a spinal fracture.
A service inquiry report into the incident said the helicopter that the crew and passengers were struck the tether of a nearby surveillance balloon after being forced to re-circle the pitch.
Sergeant Simon Craig, who was a crewman in the lead Puma helicopter, in front of the other as they neared the landing site, said he expected the players to move, but they did not.
“On the approach I realised at the late stage there were a number of players on the pitch. We had to overshoot to the east as we were unable to land on the field until it had been cleared,” he said.
The inquest continues.