THE official report into the loss of a Naval Lynx over Basra 12 months ago says there was nothing its crew could have done to prevent the crash.

Five people were killed when the 847 Naval Air Squadron came down in the heart of the southern Iraqi city on a Saturday afternoon in May 2006.

Lt Cdr Darren Chapman – 847’s CO – Wg Cdr John Coxen, Flt Lt Sarah Mulvihill, Capt David Dobson and Mne Paul Collins were killed in the crash as their helicopter conducted the second reconnaissance patrol of the day.

The aircraft exploded in a ball of flames before plummeting on to the roof of a house. Troops and crash investigators who entered Basra to recover the crew’s bodies and the smashed remains of the Lynx found themselves in the middle of a riot.

The Board of Inquiry report into the tragedy concludes that the Yeovilton-based Lynx was shot down by a surface-to-air missile which struck the aircraft’s tail pylon, prompting it to hang loosely and engulfing the rest of the Lynx in a fireball.

Out of control, the helicopter plunged on to the roof of a house and embedded itself in the upper floor of the building, while its wreckage burned for another 45 minutes.

Iraqi fire crews put the blaze out, but British troops then had the difficult task of removing the wreckage as quickly as possible to establish the cause of the crash, and to remove the bodies for repatriation.

The report praises an all-night effort by an 847 NAS ‘downed bird’ engineering team and Royal Engineers who cut the remains of the Lynx into smaller sections to it could be taken out of the building. They did so whilst constantly subjected to sniper and mortar fire and bombs being lobbed at them.

British forces finally abandoned the site the afternoon after the crash when they could no longer defend the cordon and were forced to leave behind some smaller pieces of wreckage which was promptly stolen by locals.

The families of the five people killed have been informed of the results of the inquiry, which has made several recommendations, all of which have been acted upon by the MOD.