AN AIRCRAFT carrying 14 British military personnel crashed in Afghanistan yesterday, killing all on board. In one terrible blow for the armed services it was the biggest single loss of life since the Falklands war.

The Nimrod MR2 reconnaissance aircraft is believed to have been brought down by a technical fault, possibly a fire in its electronic equipment.

The Ministry of Defence quickly moved to deny that the Nimrod had been shot out of the sky, despite a claim by the Taliban that the plane had been hit with a ground-to-air missile.

The aircraft crashed at about 4pm local time, 12.30pm British time, a dozen miles west of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.

Twelve RAF servicemen, a Royal Marine and a soldier died in the incident.
The crash more than doubles the number of British forces killed in the past three months in southern Afghanistan. The total dead has now risen to 27.

The £100m aircraft was on a mission for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and was supporting a Nato mission.

The aircraft is believed to have been co-ordinating special forces operations against the Taliban, intercepting their communications and providing real time video surveillance of what was going on on the ground.

The plane came down near a village called Chil Khor in the Panjwai district, a Taliban stronghold.Special forces are engaged in a major operation codenamed Medusa to clear the Taliban from the Panjwai district.

Shortly after the crash Abdul Khaliq, a purported spokesman for the Taliban, claimed responsibility. “We used a Stinger missile to shoot down the aircraft,” he said.

However, Major Scott Lundy, an ISAF spokesman, said: “Their claims are absolutely false. There was no indication of an enemy attack on the aircraft.”
Des Browne, the defence secretary, who described the news of the deaths as “dreadful and shocking”, said: “This is not the time for speculation, as the operation to secure the crash site is ongoing.

“I can say, however, all the indications are that this was a terrible accident and not the result of hostile action.”

Senior officials dismissed any suggestion that the aircraft was shot down. The Nimrod would have been flying far higher than the range of any weapon available to the Taliban, including the Stinger.

Nevertheless, the speed of the Taliban claim suggested that their forces were in the area of the crash, which may hamper the recovery operation.

News of the crash emerged shortly after 2pm British time, when ISAF reported an aircraft “missing” in Afghanistan.

Major Luke Knittig, another ISAF spokesman, said that the aircraft made an emergency call shortly before it disappeared.

Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi, district governor of Panjwai, said: “The plane was coming over Panjwai and there was flame coming from the tail and there were flares being shot out from the plane. It crashed between two villages called Chil Khor and Fatehullah Qala in vineyards. In a short period the troops surrounded the area and no civilians were allowed to enter.”

Abdul Manan, a witness in Chalaghor village in Kandahar, said the plane crashed about 100 yards from his home and pieces of wreckage landed nearby. He reported seeing a small fire at the back of the plane before it hit the earth with a huge explosion that “shook the whole village”.

Manan said young men in the village wanted to go closer but American helicopters landed around the burning wreckage and established a cordon to keep onlookers away.

Haji Agha Lalai Dastageer, head of the Shura council for Panjwai, denied that the Taliban could have shot down the plane. “The Taliban do not have heavy weapons because of the fighting that is going on, they have buried them,” he said.

British officials said flames from the back of the plane could be consistent with a fire caused by equipment failure.

Operation Medusa was launched in Panjwai district, the spiritual and symbolic heartland of the Taliban movement, after residents had been warned to leave the area, officials said. It involved “hundreds” of Nato troops and a similar number of Afghan police and army soldiers, ISAF said.

Panjwai, about 20 miles west of Kandahar, has seen months of intense fighting, with ISAF officials saying that it has one of the main concentrations of Taliban in south Afghanistan.

Seasoned fighters had been “hardening their defence positions, sandbagging buildings and bringing in ammunition”, Lundy said. “We have had indications that these Taliban fighters are of the hardcore variety as opposed to the soldiers-for-a-day we see sometimes.”

Charles Heyman, a former major and former editor of Jane’s World Armies, said: “It’s a black day. It’s a disaster for our soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan.”

The Nimrod MR2 is based on the Comet airframe that dates from the late 1940s. Best known for its maritime search and rescue role, the Nimrod has been probably the most important of the RAF fleet in the war on terror.

The 12 man RAF crew appear to have been augmented by a Royal Marine and an army intelligence specialist, who was probably intercepting Taliban communications.

The MoD has set up a helpline on 08457 800900 for concerned relatives.

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