Hereford Puma Crash Inquest Verdict Delivered
09/12/2009
Today in Hereford Town Hall, Mr Halpern, the Coroner who has sat through an 8 day Inquest into the death of Sergeant John Battersby and Lee Fitzsimmonds delivered a verdict indicating in his view, the MoD owed soldiers the duty under Article 2 of the Human Rights Act (Right to Life) and that it had been breached in 3 respects.
He referred to the lack of any proper procedure of policing of procedure with regard to restraints on the aircraft.
He declared this was explicable by the anti-spill valves that had not been checked for 30 years and failed to operate the post crash fire, which took hold in 4 minutes. He also referred to a lack of display night vision goggles which have since been fitted to the Puma and which could have helped the pilot in the Brownout condition.
Mr Halpern has found evidence that this equipment was not available to pilots.
Statements were read by Jacquie Auty, Lee's mother and on behalf of Joanne Battersby, John's widow. Geraldine McCool of our MOD Unit acted for both families at the Inquest.
It was a hard - hitting verdict, which also referred to other matters in evidence such as communication failure, which did not help the pilot who was trying to do this best under the circumstances.
Joanne Battersby indicated that she did not blame the pilot or the RAF.
Family members are thankful that the Learned Coroner has looked into wider issues in operation were not available to pilots but installed in US aircrafts on the night of 20 November 2007.
