Inquest father questions lack of air transport in Afghan campaign

Corporal Graeme Stiff, 24, of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers was travelling in a Jackal patrol vehicle when it hit what was probably an anti-tank mine on March 15 last year.

Cpl Stiff and Cpl Dean John, 25, were both thrown from the vehicle and killed as they travelled between Forward Operating Bases in the Garmsir district of Helmand Province.

Squadron commander Major Charles Waggett told Wiltshire Coroner's Court the four-vehicle patrol was to take him on an eight-mile journey for a meeting with other senior officers.

Cpl Stiff's father, Lieutenant Colonel David Stiff, who serves with the Defence School of Transport at Leconfield, near Hull, asked Maj Waggett if he was ever offered air support. Maj Waggett said it was not.

Later Lt Col Stiff asked coroner David Ridley whether it was appropriate for the coroner to mention the lack of air transport in his conclusion. The coroner said he was "not minded" to do so and recorded a verdict of unlawful killing.

The inquest heard the blast – likely to have been a commercial 10kg anti-tank mine rather than a homemade device – went off beneath the front, right side tyre.

All three soldiers within the Jackal were thrown from the vehicle, which was flipped over on to its side.

Cpl Dean died on board a helicopter en route to the military hospital at Camp Bastion.

Cpl Stiff, who lived in Bonby, North Lincolnshire, was pronounced dead at the hospital shortly after he was admitted.

The sole survivor of the blast, Lance Corporal James Jones told the inquest he could not recall anything from the explosion.

The cause of death for both soldiers was blast injuries.