Coroner condemns mine tragedy
Updated on 17 October 2008
Britain's military chiefs should "hang their heads in shame", was a coroner's damning verdict, as he ruled that a catalogue of failures and a lack of crucial equipment was to blame for the death of a British solider in a minefield in Afghanistan.
Twenty-seven-year-old Corporal Mark Wright, who served with the Parachute Regiment, was trying to rescue stranded colleagues when he was killed.
Today Oxford coroner Andrew Walker said the rescue helicopter had not been fitted with a proper winch and the downdraft set off the fatal mine.
