ONE of two British officers who died when their helicopter was shot

down by US fighters over northern Iraq on Thursday was due to return to

his family on Benbecula in the Western Isles in six weeks.

Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Swan, 51, was a staff officer at the Royal

Artillery's rocket range on the island and had been on a six-month

deployment with the United Nations since last November.

He died with 25 others, including Major Harry Shapland, 28, of the

Irish Guards, when US F-15C jets mistook two UN Blackhawk helicopters

for Iraqi Hind gunships and downed them with missiles.

His wife Helen, son Jamie, 17, who attends school at Linciclate on

Benbecula, and his daughter Katie, 20, a college student, expected him

back at married quarters on the remote island in June.

The commander of the rocket range, Lieutenant-Colonel Crawford

Stoddart, said yesterday: ''He was a first-class officer and a loving

husband and father. Our hearts go out to Jonathan's family.''

Colonel Swan's wife Helen was last night being comforted by friends at

her home on the base. She declined to comment. His mother lives in

Hertfordshire and it is expected that the funeral will take place there

when his body is returned to the UK.

The remains of Colonel Swan and Major Shapland, a single man from

Oxfordshire, together with the 15 US victims, were expected to be flown

yesterday to Rhein Main airbase in Frankfurt.

Major Shapland, who had been an officer for eight years and had served

in Germany, Belize, Hong Kong, Zimbabwe, Berlin, and Northern Ireland,

lived with his wealthy family in a seventeenth-century farm house at

Rotherfield Greys, near Henley-on-Thames.

The ivy-clad, red-bricked Peppard Cottage became famous after it was

used as the main location for the Oscar-winning film, Howards End.

Meanwhile, members of the inquiry team began assembling in Turkey to

establish what went wrong.

The investigation into the friendly-fire killings is being headed by

Major-General James G. Andrus, Commander of the American Third Air

Force, based in Mildenhall, Suffolk, who yesterday flew to the Turkish

base at Incirlik.

The Ministry of Defence said the inquiry team would be joined by the

Commander of the RAF's Harrier jump-jet detachment at Incirlik, Group

Captain David Jones, who will initially act as British observer.

Defence Secretary Malcolm Rifkind, on a visit to the US, said: ''This

incident is quite incomprehensible given the normal procedures that

applied, given the fact it is not in the fog of war, indeed it was broad

daylight. A lot of very painful questions need to be asked and more

importantly they need to be answered.''

Fellow officers, friends and colleagues of Lt Col Swann at the Royal

Artillery Range on Benbecula in the Western Isles were said to be

devastated by his death.