‘Wrong data led to death’ of British soldier Mark Smith
London Evening Standard
A British soldier was killed in a friendly fire incident when a shell fell short of its target after the latest weather conditions were not taken into consideration, an inquest has heard.
Sapper Mark Smith, 26, from Swanley, Kent, was killed in the Sangin area of Helmand, Afghanistan on July 26 2010 by a smoke-screen shell that missed its target.
The shell, designed to confuse the Taliban, fell short by 264 metres and landed on an Army compound.
Steven Krstic, an artillery expert, told the inquest at Old Town Hall, Gravesend, Kent that the shell hit the compound because updated weather information was not taken into account when firing.
Although the computer weather systems had not been functioning, data was manually adjusted throughout the day to account for weather variations, he said.
But when the final round was fired after a 40-minute pause in the afternoon, the most recent adjusted information was not used, the inquest heard.
Instead, weather data created at 10.30am that morning was used when firing the missile.
The data includes forecasts on temperature and wind velocity which affect the shell’s speed and direction and must be used when firing.
Data is also manually changed throughout the day to adjust the shell’s target, taking any weather changes into account, the inquest was told.
Because the forecast system was down, gunners could have used the manual adjustments collected through the day when firing the fatal round. But instead they used weather data from early that morning.
Mr Krstic said: “Forty minutes later there would have been a slight change in weather, but what we have done is go back to stage one first thing in the morning when the mission started.
“You’re introducing a new error. If you don’t apply any (meteorological data) at all, you can miss the target by about 500-600m.”
Sapper Smith was only 264m from the shell’s target when he was hit, which breaches safety guidelines that recommend a distance of 500m from smoke shells to allow for error.
Mr Krstic said: “Unfortunately, having 500m from troops or villages is just an ideal circumstance. It is the ideal safety distance but it’s unrealistic.”
A number of factors meant the shell fell short, including breaching the safety distance, the lack of updated weather data and the possible degradation of the propellant which is attached to the shell, he said.
The remaining propellant, which could have dated to 1981, was not sent back to the UK for investigation.
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