Mix-up over body parts of British airmen killed in Afghanistan

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2007

LONDON (AFP) — The Ministry of Defence confirmed news reports Sunday that the body parts of British airmen killed in the crash of a reconnaissance plane in Afghanistan had been put in the wrong coffins.

An MoD spokesman said there had been a "regrettable incident" but that families of the dead had been made aware of the mix-up in time for it to be sorted out for the funerals.

Trish Knight, whose 25-year-old son Ben was among those killed, was quoted in The Observer weekly as saying she had thought of cancelling her son's funeral and raised concerns of a wider problem.

The Observer said the error occurred after a Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft, suffering from an apparent technical fault, crashed near Kandahar in September last year, killing 14 airmen, a...