RAF C-130 crashes in Iraq (from ATSNN)

It was announced last night (GMT) of the loss of an RAF C-130 Hercules Transport Aircraft just to the north of Baghdad on Sunday 31st January 2005. The accident was, sadly, fatal with the death of 10 members of the British Armed Forces dying in the crash. They are the first deaths of British servicemen due to aviation related incidents since July 2004 when Flight Lieutenant Kristian Michel Alexander Gover was killed in a helicopter accident at Basra International Airport. MOD (Ministry of Defence) officials have not commented yet on the crash other than to tell of those who died and that they are not yet sure of the cause of the crash and are not ruling out hostile action. During the same breifing to the press they also ruled out that there were SAS operatives on board contrary to a prevailing rumour. This also marks the first shooting down of a British aircraft since the begining of the war in a tragic friendly-fire incident.



Given that this is on the day of the elections held in Iraq I begin to wonder: If this was a hostile action then what was the motive behind it?

If the intention was to strike fear into people to stop them from voting at the polls (a gesture showing that they still have strength enough to down a modern western military aircraft) then it may have in fact had exactly the other effect as people free of oppression from Saddam's regieme went to let their voices be heard, Baghdad had an 80% turnout at it's polls - the people obviously unafraid to show their support any longer.

If it was to strike fear into the Coalition hearts then they have achieved as much as all the other attacks have on the military forces stationed there. They may have comrades fallen protecting and freeing a people but they are doing a job and they all realise that there will be casualties and that ultimately they must get on with their job and be more resilient than those that oppose them are.

So what if it wasn't a hostile action? The RAF pilots are considered amongst the best in the world in training in both Aircrew operations and Maintenance so could human error be to blame here? Given the maintenance record of the RAF I find this quite hard to believe and that there could have been pilot error becomes also hard to believe when you bear in mind that this even took place at around 1635 local time - even though I don't know the particular circumstance except that today's weather is partly cloudy - Baghdad is pretty flat (or so it seems) and so the chance of a pilot crashing into high terrain is low. So if the aircraft was going out of control in anyway surely there would have been radio contact of some kind (none reported of so far).

So in my opinion this leaves only hostile action but until the MOD gives it official verdict I will maintain an open mind. If I can paraphrase from a sermon I recently hearr, whilst we must feel sorry for those that died in this incident and others we should not feel sorry for them as they knew what they were getting into when they signed up for service and that there is little greater honour than to die for one's country. I take that from a sermon given by an ex-armed force chaplain and agree with it. They are gone but they will be glad that they did their part. The hostiles (if there are any) have achieved little, they have merely stirred up a greater resolve in the minds of those out there opposing THEM!

whoops sorry didn't realise that there was already an approved submission

No worries. Since there is already a thread on ATSNN and one on the main board open for this topic, please post any replies there. This thread will be closed.
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