British Took Part In Friendly Fire Inquiry Which Cleared US Pilots

Controversial cockpit video was viewed during investigation although British MoD denied it existed

Taken from The Guardian, 07 Feb 2007
By Ewen MacAskill and Julian Borger

British military officials took part in a US military inquiry into the 2003 friendly fire killing of Lance Corporal Matty Hull, which cleared the two reservist pilots involved, and the pilots are back on active duty, it was revealed last night.

A spokesman for US central command, based in Tampa, Florida, said yesterday the investigation concluded the pilots were not to blame.

Windows Media Player: Cockpit Footage Of The Incident (From The Sun, UK)

Another US military official confirmed that the pilots, a lieutenant-colonel and major at the time of the incident, are flying warplanes again, attached to the 190th Air Fighter Squadron, based at Boise, Idaho.

The investigation into the US air attack on March 28 that killed Lance/Cpl Hull near Basra was carried out soon after the incident and the final report completed in November 2003.

"There was a complete investigation back in 2003 carried out by central command in cooperation with the UK," Lieutenant-Colonel Catherine Reardon, a US air force spokeswoman, said. "There were UK air and army LNOs (liaison officers) there. All the information was shared."

Major David Small, spokesman for US central command, said: "The inquiry concluded three main points: that the incident took place in a complex combat environment; that the pilots believed they were engaging enemy targets based on the best information they had at the time; the pilots followed the appropriate procedures and processes for engaging enemy targets.

"Because of these three things, the report deemed the pilots not culpable and, therefore, no disciplinary action was taken. The report basically concluded that, though the loss of life was tragic, it was indeed an accident."

That inquiry examined the analysis of the cockpit voice recording which suggests that the pilots, both part-time reservists from the Idaho National Guard, committed up to half a dozen errors which led to their strafing a British armoured column, killing L/Cpl Hull and leaving four other British soldiers badly wounded.

The news of official British involvement in the US inquiry conflicts with earlier Ministry of Defence claims that a cockpit recording of the attack did not exist. It also raises questions over why British officials involved in the US military inquiry acquiesced in the official conclusion that the pilots were not to blame. After the Sun published the transcript of the cockpit recording yesterday, the US agreed for the video to be used in the Oxfordshire coroner's inquest being conducted into L/Cpl Hull's death.

David Johnson, the deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in London said: "The Pentagon has told the UK Ministry of Defence we would be comfortable with it being entered into the public record and with the coroner showing it to members of the family."

The defence secretary, Des Browne, said yesterday that showing the video to the inquest was "the right thing to do".

The US decision to hand over the cockpit recording to the coroner's office followed negotiations between Downing Street and Washington, in which it was also agreed there would be no inquiry into the leak.

The cockpit video reveals that the pilots clearly saw the orange panels on the top of the British armoured vehicles intended to identify them as friendly forces, but ultimately decided that they were rocket launchers. When one pilot suggested a return to base, the other said: "I think killing these damn rocket launchers, it would be great."

Even after attacking the column, the transcript shows the pilots were still unsure whether they had attacked enemy or friendly troops.

"It doesn't look friendly," one pilot said. Minutes later, they were told of their mistake.

"We're in jail dude," one pilot said. "Goddam it. Fuck me dead," the other cries.

Last week, the coroner Andrew Walker announced he would have to adjourn his inquiry because the MoD had failed to get US permission to show the cockpit video, but Mr Johnson said the request had only come on Friday and the video had been leaked before US military authorities had had time to decide make a decision on whether to hand it over.

The widow of L/Cpl Hull welcomed the coroner's decision to play the video when the inquest resumes next month.

In a statement Susan Hull, a primary schoolteacher, said the tape was "vital evidence" and criticised the MoD for telling told her it did not exist. "It is now well and truly in the public domain. I respect the coroner's court and its authority and am pleased that the coroner will be able to use it as part of his inquiries."

She said the hearing was her last chance to discover exactly how her husband died. "I would have preferred to hear the evidence from the US pilots themselves. However, they cannot be compelled to come and they have not come voluntarily. The video is therefore vital evidence and must be shown.

"I do not relish hearing it in open court but after years of being told that it did not exist or was secret I feel that it was right not to give up hope."

Her lawyer, Geraldine McCool, said the immunity given to US servicemen involved in friendly fire incidents was unhelpful and called on the two airmen to travel to the UK and give evidence at next month's inquest.

"As a solicitor specialising in military aviation I accept that mistakes in battle happen," she said. "Some are avoidable. Some are not. However, the blanket immunity the US forces enjoy from claims by our soldiers, their own soldiers and all civilians is not helpful, in my view, in forging their attitudes to flying combat."

At the time of the incident, the two pilots involved were flying A10 Thunderbolt tankbusters out of a base in Kuwait. They had been deployed before the 2003 invasion as part of the US and British air patrols over Iraq as part of a long-term policy of containment and were in the vanguard when the attack on Iraq was ordered.

A US state department spokesman, Sean McCormack, at a press conference in Washington yesterday, said: "My reaction is that these people immediately understood that it was a terrible, terrible mistake, and they felt immediate remorse of what happened."

Maj Small said that part of the reason the video had remained classified for four years was that the US shared so much classified information with the UK there was no need to declassify most of it.

He added that the inquest in the UK was still at an early stage and "therefore the process for declassifying the video was never given the opportunity to unfold".