An inquest into the deaths of three British passengers who died when an airliner crashed into an Afghan mountain will be held at Bradford Coroners Court today.
The domestic Pamir Airways Flight 112 was travelling from Kunduz to Kabul when it crashed into a mountain just 12 miles from its destination on May 17 2010 killing all 44 passengers on board.
Among the victims were father-of-three Chris Carter, 51, from Caerphilly, who was killed alongside fellow Brits David Taylor, 28, from Stoke on Trent and Daniel Saville, 40, from Clapham, London.
Specialist aviation lawyers at Irwin Mitchell are representing the families of the three Brits who died as well as 23 Afghan families and one US family.
Their cases are currently being litigated in the US state of Illinois against Midwest ATC, the US company providing the air traffic control service at the time of the crash, and Honeywell, the manufacturer of the aircraft’s ground proximity warning system.
Jim Morris, a Partner in the Irwin Mitchell Aviation Law team and a former RAF pilot, said: “The families were devastated at losing their loved ones over 5 years ago and we have been fighting for answers and justice for them ever since.
“The families hope that the inquest will understand and take into account the true chain of events and reflect this in the verdict that is delivered.”
Mr Carter was a former soldier with the Royal Regiment of Wales and had served in Iraq, Bosnia and Northern Ireland.
He was in Afghanistan working with International Relief and Development, an organisation combating the country’s drugs trade and helping to rebuild its crumbling infrastructure.
His body was not flown home until three months after the crash on May 17, 2010.
Being an old plane probably with questionable maintenance I would guess the cause was either mechanical or pilot error. It is very rare to have both ATC messing up and the ground proximity system messing up at the same time.