Coroner blasts military over dead servicemen.

A CORONER criticised British and American military authorities as he concluded his inquest into the deaths of 10 servicemen whose plane was shot down in Iraq.

A decision not to fit a key safety feature, which may have saved the men, came in for Wiltshire coroner David Master's most severe attack.

Mr Masters told Trowbridge town hall it was "difficult to find logic" in this.

He said it was unbelievable" there was no record of this decision.

The Hercules C130k aircraft, 47 Squadron Special Forces flight XV179, was flying at about 150ft from Baghdad to Balad in daylight when it was felled by a medium-calibre anti-aircraft round which hit a fuel tank in the right wing, causing the ullage - a flammable fuel vapour/air mix created as the tank empties - to explode and blow off the wing.

All 10 men on board - nine RAF serviceman and a soldier - died on January 30, 2005.

Had the aircraft's wing tanks been fitted with ESF (explosion-suppressant foam), which stops ullage explosions, the men may well be alive today, the inquest was told.