Drowned cadet 'had wrong lifejacket'

A machine gun had been strapped to the boat, against regulations

A teenage Army cadet who drowned after being pinned under a capsized boat was wearing the wrong kind of lifejacket, an investigation has found.

Kaylee McIntosh, 14, from Fyvie, Aberdeenshire, died on a training exercise on Loch Carnan on South Uist in the Outer Hebrides last summer.

A Marine Accident Investigation Branch report said her lifejacket was not approved for use by children.

It said the jacket's extra buoyancy would have pinned her under the boat.

An error in a headcount taken after the incident meant the teenager was trapped under the boat for an hour-and-a-half before it was noticed she was missing.

Her body was recovered by fish farm workers from under the vessel off Steisay Island two hours later.

The report said the lifejacket Kaylee was given was more than three times the buoyancy of those usually used by cadets in training activities.

Although it is not certain when Cadet M drowned, the delay in recognising the fact that she was missing undoubtedly reduced her chances of survival Marine Accident Investigation Branch report Read the report Most computers will open PDF documents automatically, but you may need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. Download the reader here

It stated: "Following capsize, of the four persons who surfaced under the upturned hull, only Cadet M was unable to swim clear.

"When recovered, her lifejacket was inflated and, as this had to be achieved manually, it is evident that she took this action at some point during her ordeal.

"In the absence of any instructions regarding what to do in the event of capsize, this was probably an instinctive reaction to help keep her afloat.

"However, the lifejacket was not approved for use by children, and its buoyancy was over three times that of the approved lifejackets supplied for cadet force adventurous training activities.

"Consequently, once inflated, it would have pinned Cadet M under the craft and prevented her escape."

Headcount error

Kaylee was one of 34 cadets taking part in the three-boat exercise on 3 August.

A rescue operation was launched after a vessel carrying the schoolgirl and 12 others capsized in choppy seas.

Kaylee McIntosh was keen on an Army career

The vessel, known as a Rigid Raiding Craft 2, had taken on water which became trapped on deck because the boat's "trouser leg" drains had not been lowered.

An instruction for the seated cadets to move from one side of the boat to the other triggered it to go under.

A headcount was carried out, but it is thought that a young female instructor may have been identified as a cadet or counted twice.

As the cadets came from different detachments across the county and were seated in the boats on a first-come-first-served basis, nobody noticed Kaylee was missing.

The report stated: "Although it is not certain when Cadet M drowned, the delay in recognising the fact that she was missing undoubtedly reduced her chances of survival."

The investigation identified several other failures during the exercise.

It said the boat was "ill-prepared and ill-equipped" to navigate safely between Loch Carnan and Loch Skipport.

Not authorised

The report also said the route had not been properly planned and the coxswains had not been well briefed.

It also pointed out that while the cadets were carrying regulation training rifles, the cadet executive officer (CEO) - a former paratrooper - had fitted a general purpose machine gun with blank ammunition to the boat.

Such a weapon is not authorised for the Army Cadet Force (ACF) to use.

Following the accident, all boat "gifting" from the Ministry of Defence to the ACF has been suspended.

The 2nd Battalion the Highlanders ACF, of which Kaylee was a member, has also temporarily suspended all powerboat activities.

Kaylee's parents have called for criminal charges to be brought as a result of her death.