Hercules Destroyed in Afghanistan
24th May 2006 updated 14.20
The newly appointed British Ambassador to Afghanistan narrowly avoided death today when the aircraft he was travelling on caught fire as it landed near Lashkar Gar in the south of the country.

Stephen Evans, 55, [pictured left] was visiting Afghan officials involved in building projects in the Helmand province when the British C-130 Hercules military aircraft burst into flames on the runway, according to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Witnesses saw passengers and crew, scrambling out of the emergency exits as the aircraft swiftly burned up. No one was seriously hurt.

"The plane caught fire very quickly and was destroyed very quickly," said a Foreign Office spokesman. "It's not at all clear what caused the incident." An American military spokeswoman at the airfield said that one or two burst tyres were the likely cause of the accident, and that there was no indication of hostile fire. "Initial reports indicate a tyre burst on landing and debris went up into an engine and caused the fire," said Tamara Lawrence.

Our immediate reaction when the news was filtering through, that another Hercules has been destroyed and fears for the crew and passengers. But we have been assured that all on board have escaped the inferno and there were only slight injuries. These sort of incidents only bring back sad reminders of the Hilton 22 crew that were tragically killed to hostile fire in Iraq January 2005, were all 10 the servicemen on board died. There was also another Hercules crash, again from RAF Lyneham, that caught fire and subsequently was destroyed, during a night-time take off from Kukes, Albania on 11th June 1999. The Hercules failed to gain height, contacted a building and crashed. All 15 crew and passengers escaped.