Noe this is nasty



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...=1770&ito=1490

The Ministry of Defence covered up the fact that Iraqi insurgents destroyed a £30million RAF Hercules transport aircraft by planting bombs next to a runway.

Military spokesmen claimed publicly that the C-130J aircraft, with 64 people on board, had been accidentally damaged on landing - and that there was no evidence of enemy action.

The cover-up was an attempt to deny the Iraqis a further propaganda coup following the earlier loss of another Hercules. It is revealed in official documents seen by the Mail.

In reality, the aircraft was blasted by a string of at least five bombs buried next to the runway, the Board of Inquiry report reveals.

They exploded just before it touched down in darkness - destroying aircraft systems, injuring passengers and setting fire to the wing close to the fuel tanks.

Those on board had a lucky escape because the pilots' night vision goggles were temporarily blinded by the explosions and the burning aircraft veered off the runway at more than 100mph.

Commanders decided they could not secure the hostile area of Maysan Province long enough to repair the badly- damaged Hercules and it was blown up to stop it falling into enemy hands.

The Board's findings congratulate RAF officials on their "well-reasoned" cover-up of the incident last February, lying to the media and the public to minimise interest and 'denying the enemy the opportunity to exploit the situation' for propaganda purposes.

The report highlights the way insurgents were able to sneak up to the airstrip in south-eastern Iraq - which was in regular use by the RAF supplying ground forces - and to plant five bombs next to the touch- down point. These were missed by soldiers who 'cleared' the site ready for the Hercules to land.

A similar RAF aircraft had been shot down by insurgents north of Baghdad in January 2005, with the loss of all ten servicemen aboard.

On that occasion insurgent groups issued grim footage of the wreckage, boasting of their success. The MoD was anxious to avoid another enemy propaganda coup.

The losses have put pressure on the remaining Hercules aircraft, which are supporting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and have led to problems with maintaining parachute training for the Army.

The Board of Inquiry report describes the drama as the Hercules was riddled with shrapnel from the blast, knocking out key equipment on the flight deck. One soldier on board was only saved from serious injury by his body armour.

All the soldiers and RAF crew scrambled out of the burning aircraft and huddled in the dark, trying to contact their commanders.

Another Hercules offered to pick them up, and then lost radio contact-The pilot opted to land anyway-not knowing the runway was littered with debris and flanked by 5ft-deep bomb craters. The second aircraft was damaged on landing but able to recover those on the ground and take off again.

The report says British forces were at fault for "pattern setting" in the way they used the airstrip, helping insurgents predict where and when the Hercules would land.

Group Captain Paul Atherton, station commander of the Hercules fleet at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire, praised the crew of both aircraft for responding "quickly and decisively."

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"We haven't turned any corners, we haven't seen any lights at the end of the tunnel. The champagne bottle has been pushed to the back of the refrigerator. And the progress, while real, is fragile and reversible."-------Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq:

What did they 'cover' it up for two weeks?

Insurgent booby-trap blasts RAF Hercules at Iraqi airstrip

IAN BRUCE, Defence Correspondent

February 28 2007

THE RAF Hercules transport aircraft destroyed in Iraq two weeks ago was crippled by an insurgent booby-trap as it landed under cover of darkness on a remote desert airstrip, The Herald can reveal.

Sources say an initial investigation report on the incident in Maysan province said the special forces' C130 aircraft was hit when it touched down to deliver rations and fuel for mobile patrols along the Iranian border.

The incident has triggered a review of security procedures for night landing operations.

The £45m J-model Hercules suffered "significant damage" which insiders say might have included a fuel tank fire after the bomb detonated, although all 38 crew and passengers escaped with minor injuries.

The aircraft, from the 47 Squadron flight at RAF Lyneham, was blown up the next day by British troops using demolition charges, to prevent any communications and navigation equipment on board falling into insurgent hands.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "The exact nature of that incident will be determined by an RAF board of inquiry. Until it reports its findings, it would be inappropriate to comment."

It was planned to hand Maysan province over to the Iraqi security forces this year, but this was later amended to withdrawing from fixed bases in al Amarah, the main town, and going over to long-range mobile patrols along the Iranian border. The frontier is one of Iraq's prime smuggling routes for weapons, explosives and drugs.

Heavily-armed patrols using long-wheelbase Land Rovers stay in the desert for weeks at a time, resupplied via night landings on desert airstrips to allow them maximum freedom of movement.

An RAF source told The Herald: "The patrols are a powerful deterrent to those trying to smuggle bombs and other hardware from Iran.

"The fact that someone took the trouble to plant a device on one of the airstrips proves that the strategy is beginning to hurt. The downside is that we could, unless we tighten up security on the landing strips, lose more aircraft. We might not be so lucky with casualties next time."

The RAF operates a fleet of 48 Hercules workhorse transports. It has lost three in the past two years.

One was shot down north of Baghdad two years ago with the loss of nine crewmen and an SAS signaller en route for a base at Balad. A second suffered damage and a fuel fire, but no loss of crew, when it struck a landmine as it landed in Afghanistan last year.

It is understood that approval has been given to buy a replacement for the J-model lost to the booby-trap.

In Iraq yesterday, the government and police said a bomb blast near a soccer field in Ramadi killed 18 people, mostly children, but the US military said it was unaware of such an attack.

US soldiers had carried out a controlled explosion in the city, also near a soccer field, in which 30 people were wounded, including nine children.

The US military often carries out such explosions to destroy captured weapons or unexploded bombs.

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Actually, while I am very much a diehard on the subject of how the government should absolutely not be allowed to lie to its people, this one I have to give them.

Win every battle, and when you can't, do your best to make sure nobody hears about it.

I don't want insurgents knowing that their attacks have worked. I don't want them doing the math and thinking, "Hey, for fifty bucks worth of explosives we can take out this piece of equipment that costs, like, a gazillion times as much. At this rate, we could do to the western world what the western world did to Russia!" Then you get fights like Vietnam. I hate those. Very bloody and basically neverending ... what's worse than that?

On the other hand, I'm not sure how you actually keep the other side from finding out about it, and if you don't, then you're only covering it up from your own people to keep from admitting your mistakes. And that's not okay.

But this business where the military is constantly claiming victory even after a loss ... well, it's annoying when their lapdogs do it on the message boards, but I can't blame them for doing it at all. As long as they're lying to the enemy, and not to themselves.

Not the incident in question, but an "incident"

"Stercus accidit"
$hit happens

Wow, that plane is expensive.

I can fix that. Nothing but a little cosmetic damage.

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When asked about his experience Obama said,"But I slept at a Holiday Inn Express last night."

Democrats.
Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Again.

Herkdriver-

Is that why you have the time to post here

I'm not a "Herk driver" anymore.

Oh, you mean was that my plane?
Negative on that.

I've had a few hard landings in my day, but nothing that severe.

I have time to post because I am between jobs.

ick! I wonder who's head rolled for that one. Thats not just a regular C-130, that there is a MC-130 Talon2... superduper SpecOps aircraft designed for in/exfiltration of commandos on unprepared runways.




Oh and PeaceMaker, if it'll make ya feel any better, these photos should never should have been released either... property of USAF and evidence for the investigation on how the aircraft ended up taxing on a runway that was under construction.

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"When I'm in command, every mission is a suicide mission!" -Capt. Zapp Branigan
The United Church of the Latter Day Tangential Tarts