Hercules destroyed by British after crash in insurgent area

Above: A British C-130 Hercules crashed in Iraq in December, 2004, with no casualites. A month later another was brought down by a missile, shown on an insurgent video. That crash resulted in the death of 10.

An RAF Hercules aircraft was destroyed by British forces yesterday to prevent sensitive equipment getting into the hands of insurgents after it crashed in the desert in south-eastern Iraq.

The plane was transporting 38 soldiers to Maysan province where British troops are deployed on long range patrols in the area bordering Iran. It crashed on a makeshift landing zone after a night-time "incident on landing", the Ministry of Defence said.

It said there was no evidence insurgents were responsible for the crash landing, but it suggested insurgents were active in the area as it was judged to be too risky to try to recover the Hercules.

Officials said there was no indication that the aircraft was shot down. However, it remained unclear whether there was any hostile action on the ground. It was touching down on a "tactical landing zone" - an area of flattened ground which is not a proper landing strip.

Read the rest at the Guardian