No radio 'led to parachute death'

Captain Daniel Wright used his reserve canopy 1.5 seconds too late

A soldier would not have died if the Army had provided radios for parachute trainees, a coroner has ruled.

Daniel Wright, 25, of Cwmbran, south Wales, fell 2,500ft (762m) during Special Forces training in Oxfordshire.

Coroner Andrew Walker said he was satisfied Capt Wright would have lived had radios been used at the exercise.

Instructors on the ground shouted to him to cut away the main parachute and deploy the reserve, but he was 1.5 seconds too late and died instantly.

Recording a narrative verdict, he said: "Let there be no doubt, this tragedy happened for the want of a simple, inexpensive piece of equipment."

The Special Forces soldier died on his first day of training during his second jump over Weston-on-the-Green airfield in November 2005 when his main canopy failed to open properly and he deployed his reserve chute too late.

Mr Walker said Capt Wright, a member of the Queen's Gurkha Signal Corps, was seen to calmly try to correct the problem with his main chute.

Captain Wright, on the balance of probability, would not have died had an operator on the ground at the drop zone been able to communicate with him using a radio Andrew Walker, assistant deputy coroner for Oxfordshire

A video played to the week-long inquest showed footage of instructors on the ground shouting "cut it away, get off it" meaning for him to cut away the main parachute and deploy the reserve.

Capt Wright did deploy his reserve but was one-and-a-half seconds too late for it to save his life. He died instantly. The cause of death was given as multiple injuries.

Mr Walker said: "Captain Wright misidentified the malfunction as one he should take action to remedy and, as a consequence, when he deployed his reserve parachute it did not have sufficient time to open.

"Captain Wright, on the balance of probability, would not have died had an operator on the ground at the drop zone been able to communicate with him using a radio.

"At the time Captain Wright took the parachute course, requests for these radios had been refused as funding was only available for essential items."

Mr Walker, the assistant deputy coroner for Oxfordshire, said the officer's life would have been saved if he had been given a different type of reserve parachute which would have deployed automatically.

Altitude

Capt Wright had taken off from RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire.

On Thursday, the hearing was read an extract from the officer in charge of military training at the base, claiming that radios, believed to cost about £50, were "long overdue".

On Monday, Capt Wright's mother, Carol Wright, 60, called for the Army to "act upon" the lessons of her son's death.

An Army board has recommended improved emergency training and said trainees should have a bleeping device to warn about their altitude.

A Ministry of Defence board of inquiry found Capt Wright's death was not caused by procedural and training failures, but could not explain why his main parachute became stuck or why the officer had not acted more quickly to open his reserve.