Equipment questions over soldier's deaths

Published on Tuesday 10 November 2009 21:30

TWO servicemen were killed by a mine in Afghanistan at a time when a metal detector shortage was causing "concern" in their unit, an inquest heard yesterday.

Gary Thompson, 51, and Scot Graham Livingstone, 23, both Senior Aircraftmen (SACs) with the Royal Auxiliary Air Force Regiment, died in a roadside explosion outside Kandahar Airfield, the main Nato base in southern Afghanistan.

The coroner, David Masters, was told the patrol had only one Ebex metal detector between six vehicles, meaning a river crossing was not exhaustively scanned for IEDs (improvised explosive devices).

However, the device that killed them was largely plastic and would not have been picked up by a detector in any case, experts told the inquest in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.

SAC Thompson, from Sherwood, Nottingham, and SAC Livingstone, from Glasgow, died in the blast on 13 April last year. Two other men were injured. The explosion occurred as the convoy was crossing back over the shallow river, having regrouped from performing split missions.

The inquest continues.