Bodies of Tornado airmen flown home

Bodies of Tornado airmen flown home

Flight Lieutenant David Williams' body is brought home

The bodies of two crewmen from RAF Marham killed in Iraq have been flown home.

Flight Lieutenant David Rhys Williams and Flight Lieutenant Kevin Barry Main were the pilot and navigator of a GR4 Tornado jet.

The men, who served with 9 Squadron, RAF Marham, died when their aircraft was shot down by an American Patriot missile near the Kuwaiti border.

They were returning from a mission over Iraq on Sunday.

Flight Lieutenant Main, 35, from Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, was married with two children and was due for promotion in July.

The bodies of the ten servicemen, the first British servicemen to die in Iraq, were flown into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on Saturday in a C-17 military cargo aircraft.

The Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon and the Duke of York were also attending the ceremony along with several senior military and defence officials.

The flag-draped coffin is carried to a waiting hearse

Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Gardiner was due to open inquests into the deaths of the 10 servicemen after their coffins, draped in flags, were ceremonially carried from the aircraft to waiting hearses.

The first inquest is expected to concern the deaths of the two RAF Marham airmen.

The bodies are expected to be released for family burials.

The flight was due as anti-war protesters again prepared to take to the streets across the UK, and the first march in support of troops was staged by armed forces families.