Colchester: inquest into fatality after 3 Para rescue bid, Afghanistan

4:40pm Friday 10th October 2008

SOLDIERS stranded in an Afghan minefield screamed at the crew of a helicopter not to land for fear of setting off further explosions, an inquest heard.

The Chinook had been sent in to rescue a soldier from Colchester-based 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, who had been injured after straying into an unmarked minefield.

The patrol had requested a helicopter with a winch was sent to extract Lance Corporal Stuart Hale, whose leg had been blown off, but were told none was available.

Instead the Chinook, which was not fitted with a winch, was dispatched.

The helicopter’s downdraft was yesterday blamed for setting off a further mine which killed Corporal Mark Wright.

L/Cpl Hale said that the troops" all thought ‘this is a bad idea’" when they heard the Chinook coming in to land.

"We were all shouting at it to go away," he said.

Medic Lance Corporal Paul Hartley, who was treating L/Cpl Hale, said that when the Chinook landed the crew waved at them to get on but he signalled for the helicopter to leave because of the danger.

"Myself and Cpl Wright both stood up and looked at each other to say ‘what’s next?’," he said.

"That was when the explosion went off."

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