A collision between two helicopters over the Arabian Gulf in the early days of the Iraq War in which six British servicemen died was "an avoidable accident", an inquest has heard.
The six were serving as part of the Royal Navy's 849 Squadron when they were killed in a mid-air crash between two Royal Navy Sea King Mk 7 airborne early-warning helicopters five miles from the HMS Ark Royal on March 22, 2003.
The Royal Navy's flagship commanding officer, Alan Massey, at the time a Captain and now a Rear Admiral, told the Oxford inquest into their deaths that it was still not known exactly why they crashed.
He said: "There was no need, prima facie, for the two aircraft to fly into each other - it could have been avoided."
He added later: "All I know is that the aircraft flew into each other.
"We can't for the life of us fathom what it was."
Lt Philip Green, 30, from Caythorpe, Lincolnshire; Lt Antony King, 35, from Helston, Cornwall; Lt Marc Lawrence, 26, from Westgate-on-Sea, Kent; Lt Philip West, 32, from Budock Water, Cornwall; Lt James Williams, 28, from Falmouth, Cornwall; and Lt Andrew Wilson, 36, from Exeter, Devon, died alongside a US serviceman.
The inquest heard previously that the two helicopters, piloted by Lts Wilson and Green, had been warned they were two-and-a-half miles apart and flying directly at each other.
According to the ship's air traffic controller, Lieutenant Alistair Dale, they replied that they both had "visual", meaning they could see each other.
However, the transcript from the black box recording recovered from the wreckage of one helicopter was too damaged to pick up these responses and the ship's system was not set up to record them. Lt Dale then watched on the radar as the two helicopters flew closer to each other, then collided.
