MoD covered up truth about Hercules

4:47pm Saturday 17th May 2008

The Ministry of Defence covered up the full truth about the destruction of an RAF Hercules aircraft by Iraqi insurgents to stop the enemy claiming a high-profile propaganda victory, a new report discloses.

The C-130J transport aircraft was struck by two bombs planted by militants as it landed on a temporary runway in Maysan Province in south-eastern Iraq on February 12 last year.

All 64 people on board escaped to safety but the Hercules was so badly damaged it had to be destroyed by coalition explosives experts.

At the time the MoD said the aircraft had been involved in an "incident on landing", telling some journalists there were no immediate signs of enemy action.

But a formal Board of Inquiry report, published on the MoD's website, makes it clear that planted improvised explosive devices were suspected within an hour of the blasts.

The report praises senior defence officials' "sound and well-reasoned approach" to releasing information about the incident.

It notes that this resulted in "minimal media interest" and "denied the enemy the opportunity to exploit the situation for the benefit of their IO (information operations) campaign".

This was the second time insurgents had destroyed a British Hercules in Iraq and could have been a major propaganda coup for opponents of coalition operations.

All 10 servicemen on board died when a Hercules was shot down near Baghdad in January 2005.

The aircraft crashed after being hit by ground fire which caused an explosion in the right wing fuel tank.

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