Royal Air Force Lyneham Announcement
www.raf.mod.uk/raflyneham
Station Commander Royal Air Force Lyneham
Group Captain Paul Oborn RAF:

It is with great sadness that I am here to announce the names of the personnel who are missing, believed killed, in the recent C130 incident in Iraq.

The whole of RAF Lyneham feels this loss intensely and our thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathies are with the families, friends and colleagues of those involved.

The crew, support personnel and passengers on board were playing a vital role in helping to deliver democracy to the Iraqi people. They will be sorely missed. A crew on a Hercules C130K consists of a captain, co-pilot, navigator, air engineer and loadmaster, as well as specialist technical support personnel. They work closely as a team, often in severely demanding conditions, in order to complete the mission, and this team was one of our best.

Team spirit, self-discipline, professionalism in the air and a sense of humour were characteristics of this crew and we could all certainly learn a lot from them.

The names are as follows:
The Captain: Flight Lieutenant David Stead
The Co-Pilot - Flight Lieutenant Andrew Smith
The Navigator - Flight Lieutenant Paul Pardoel
The Air Loadmaster Flight Sergeant Mark Gibson
The Air Engineer Master Aircrew Gary Nicholson

There were two Ground Engineers on board - Chief Technician Richard Brown and Sergeant Robert O'Connor.

There was also a Survival Equipment Fitter - Cpl David Williams. In addition there were two passengers transitting to Balad - Squadron Leader Patrick Marshall and Lance Corporal Steven Jones.

RAF Lyneham and the Royal Air Force family as a whole are offering all the support and welfare that we can to the families of those I have just mentioned. It would be wrong for us to speculate on the cause of the crash at this early stage and we do not have any comment on the reports that the aircraft was shot down. We would, however, like to thank everyone who has expressed their condolences and given messages of support.