| A brief and moving service was
then held on the tarmac at RAAF base Fairbairn, where Ms Merritt
was flanked by the father of three's parents John and Margaret
Pardoel and her own parents, Maurie and Colleen Merritt. Throughout
the service, conducted by RAAF chaplain Air Commodore Peter
O'Keefe, a visibly distressed Ms Merritt was comforted by
family members.
Air Commodore O'Keefe said Flight Lieutenant Pardoel had
paid the supreme sacrifice in his service of freedom. "We
honour and pay tribute to him, respectfully welcome him home
with military honours, mourning his great loss to his family
and cherishing his memory always," he said. Flight Lieutenant
Pardoel, 35, will be officially laid to rest at a military
funeral on Friday next week in Canberra.
He and nine other British servicemen died when their C-130
Hercules transport aircraft crashed minutes after taking off
from Baghdad airport on January 30. Just why the crash occurred
hasn't yet been established. An ongoing British military inquiry
has ruled out a number of possible causes including a bomb
on board or structural failure, but left open the possibility
it was shot down by insurgents.
Flight Lieutenant Pardoel joined the RAAF in 1988, qualified
as a navigator in 1992 then flew operationally with 34 Squadron,
based at Richmond in NSW, until 1999. Seeking a fresh challenge,
he transferred to the RAF in 2002, flying operations in Afghanistan
and Iraq. His final flight should have been a short and uneventful
hop from Baghdad to the Balad air base. |
The casket of Flight Lieutenant Paul Pardoel
is carried out of St Christopher's Cathedral
|
But eight minutes into the flight
a crewman radioed a distress call and an hour after take-off
wreckage was found about 40km north-west of Baghdad. His casket,
accompanied by his wife and their children - daughters Jordan,
7 and India, 2, and son Jackson, 5 - returned to Australia
aboard a Qantas flight last night.
The casket was then transported by road to RAAF Richmond
for the final flight while family members returned to Canberra
this morning aboard a commercial flight. The Pardoels had
planned to settle in Canberra after he had completed his tour
of duty in Iraq with the RAF. |
