RAF crash linked to internal explosion

A senior RAF crash investigator has joined teams probing growing evidence that a Hercules transport plane was brought down by an internal explosion during a mission over northern Iraq.

Mystery still surrounded why the RAF C-130K transport plane exploded in a fireball 32km north of Baghdad, killing nine RAF special services officers and one soldier believed to be attached to the SAS.

Defence experts said wreckage at the crash site pointed to an accident on board the plane, or a bomb planted by insurgents, rather than an incoming missile.

A former defence minister said it was "highly unlikely" that insurgents could have breached tight security to smuggle a bomb on board an RAF plane, but it was not being ruled out. A suicide bomber recently penetrated security at a US base.

Insurgents would have needed a highly sophisticated missile to bring down the plane at 15,000-25,000 feet. Missiles that could bring down planes at that height could also target passenger planes, the former minister said.

Investigators are also looking into a theory that part of the airframe snapped, causing a catastrophic mid-air explosion.

A video by insurgents broadcast by al-Jazeera, the Arab television station, purporting to show the plane being brought down by two Stinger missiles was widely treated with caution, although a wrecked engine shown on the film matched the Rolls-Royce Allison T56 turbo-prop used to power the C-130K.

Downing Street hinted it could take weeks to determine the cause of the crash

- INDEPENDENT