Helicopter crash takes British fatalities to 14

It was the weekend the war came home to Britain. After just three days of conflict, the British death toll had risen to 14. A helicopter crash yesterday – the second in just 24 hours – claimed the lives of six more British servicemen.

During the last Gulf War in 1991, 24 Britons were killed in six weeks.

As members of 849 Squadron came to terms with the crash, just a day after the first that killed eight Royal Marines, three ITN journalists – television news reporter Terry Lloyd and colleagues Fred Nerac and Hussein Othman – were declared missing after coming under fire while travelling to Iraq's second city, Basra.

Yesterday's helicopter crash, signalled only by a fiery flash in the sky a few miles off the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, happened at around 4.30am local time when two Royal Navy Sea King helicopters on a routine mission collided in mid-air.

Eyewitnesses aboard HMS Liverpool watched a huge orange fireball shrink and fall into the sea.

First on the scene was the Liverpool's Lynx helicopter. Its pilot, Lieutenant Mark Campbell, said: "We arrived a few minutes after the crash. We were wearing night-vision goggles and our priority was to search for survivors. But all we could see was debris and it was so badly damaged that it was hardly recognisable as the parts of a helicopter. It was a shocking sight."

No official cause has been given for the crash in Kuwait, which also claimed the life of one US serviceman, but an investigation is underway.

Military analysts believe the crash could be down to one of the helicopters straying from its track during the procedural departure and approach to the carrier. It is common for the Mk7 Airborne Early Warning Sea Kings – the eyes and ears for seaborne air power – to fly without radar at night to disguise their location. Only strict adherence to an anti-clockwise flight pattern keeps them apart.

Such accidents were "very rare", said defence analyst Paul Beaver, but a similar incident happened during the Falklands War, when Sea Kings were first used in combat.

In wartime, poor visibility, difficult weather conditions and speed can frustrate the usually effective but sometimes risky "see and avoid" collision prevention measure. Former RAF pilot Simon Turner said: "The helicopter crews involved in this incident would have known the risks and done their best to combat them. But when circumstances, and ultimately luck, conspire against you, accidents like this can happen."

At the allied command centre in Qatar yesterday, Group Captain Al Lockwood, UK spokesman, said: "Circumstances are such that accidents of this type can happen. It's a great tragedy. Certainly there must have been extenuating circumstances and our investigators are into the process of trying to establish the facts."

Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, was again forced to begin his daily briefing at the Ministry of Defence by paying tribute to the dead.

He confirmed there had been a crash, that search and rescue had found no survivors and that the relatives of the crews were being informed. Their identities would be withheld until that had been done. "Although this will be of no comfort to the families, I can confirm the crash is not believed to be as a result of enemy action," Mr Hoon said.

The crash followed that of a US Marine CH-46 helicopter on Friday, which killed eight Royal Marines and four Americans on board. Their names have also been withheld by the MoD.

Again, enemy action was not held responsible. The exact cause remains unclear but the helicopter was flying through a heavy wind and a sandstorm when it crash-landed.

The surviving Royal Marines in 3 Commando Brigade will fight on. So too will the members of 849 Squadron.

Thousands of miles away, relatives and friends of the Royal Marines who died in the first crash began laying wreaths in their honour at Stonehouse barracks in Plymouth, home to 3 Commando Brigade. Grandmothers, mothers, wives and children, fathers, grandfathers and sons visited the place from where their loved ones had been sent, and to which they would never return.

Aboard Ark Royal last night the mood was sombre. Just a week ago a quiz night was held in the officers' mess. Now the man that organised it is dead.

In that mess yesterday, the crew was reported to be "sad, worried and chatting between themselves". But others expressed anger that news of the crash had broken on television news – a BBC crew is filming on the Ark Royal – before families of the victims had been informed.

The Ark Royal's captain addressed the ship's company through the ship's Tannoy. "This was simply a tragic accident, these things do happen. Both crews were professional, they would want us to put this behind us and get on with the job we're here to do," he told them.

They did just that. Hours later, they were flying again.