 The flight crew were temporarily blinded by the explosions |
The full truth about the destruction of an RAF Hercules aircraft was covered up by the Ministry of Defence to deny Iraqi insurgents a propaganda victory.
The MoD said the C-130J was involved in an "incident" on landing and there was no evidence of hostile action.
But the £30m plane was struck by bombs planted by militants next to a temporary runway in Maysan province, south-eastern Iraq on 12 February 2007.
The disclosure comes in a formal Board of Inquiry report.
The 58 passengers and six crew on board all escaped, but the plane was so badly damaged commanders decided they could not secure the area long enough to recover it and blew it up to stop it falling into enemy hands.
The incident followed the destruction of a British Hercules in Iraq in January 2005 when it was shot down near Baghdad, killing all 10 servicemen on board.
It crashed after being hit by ground fire which caused an explosion in the right wing fuel tank.
No comments:
Post a Comment