British airman's death 'entirely avoidable'

A coroner has found that the deaths of two British airmen shot down by an American Patriot missile defence system at the beginning of the Iraq war were “entirely avoidable“.

Oxfordshire Assistant Deputy Coroner Andrew Walker blamed the blunder on a series of “glaring failures” that led a Patriot battery to label the plane a threatening anti-radiation missile (ARM) instead of recognising it as part of coalition forces.