FOUR soldiers, including three teenagers, one a Scot, died yesterday
when an Army helicopter crashed during a training exercise.
There were nine Serviceman aboard the Lynx helicopter which plunged to
earth on a military training ground at the Stanford Battle Area, near
Bodney, north Norfolk.
The dead include three members of the Junior Leaders' Regiment, Royal
Engineers, based at Old Park Barracks, Dover, Kent, and the helicopter
pilot.
The Ministry of Defence named the victims as: Junior Sapper Stuart
Driscoll, 16, of Carnoustie; Junior Sapper Peter Lowe, 17, of Croydon,
Surrey; Junior Sapper Christopher Lapping, 17, of Stourbridge, west
Midlands; and the pilot, Sergeant Paul Bennett, 27, married with two
children, from Longstanton, Norfolk.
Two of the survivors suffered serious back injuries, but were said to
be comfortable and stable in the Princess of Wales RAF Hospital, Ely.
Three other survivors were admitted to the same hospital for observation
and X-rays.
The ill-fated helicopter was from 657 Squadron of the Army Air Corps,
based at Oakington, Cambridgeshire.
Accident investigators from Army Air Corps headquarters at Middle
Wallop, Hampshire, were sent to the crash site and a board of inquiry
has been set up to investigate the cause of the tragedy.
An Army spokesman said no decisions had been taken to ground the other
Lynx helicopters. The Air Corps has more than 110.
In the wake of the Lynx helicopter crash, Defence Secretary Mr Tom
King was last night asked for an assurance that Britain's junior
soldiers were not being pushed too far during training.
Mr David Young, Labour MP for Bolton South-East, has written to Mr
King requesting him to spell out the conditions under which young
soldiers are allowed to take part in military exercises.
''I shall want to know whether these sort of manoeuvres are so
advanced, and the simulation to battle conditions so precise, that they
are altogether too stern and rigorous and beyond the normal capacity of
boys in the first flush of training.''
Mr Young said he wanted to be sure, in the light of yesterday's
tragedy, that the Defence Secretary was entirely satisfied that junior
soldiers were not being over-taxed.
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