Army officer killed by reversing Warrior with faulty alarm - inquest

Published1 hour ago

An Army officer died when a Warrior armoured vehicle with a broken safety alarm was reversed into him, an inquest has been told.

Second Lt Max George, 26, of Durham, died at the scene of a training exercise on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, on 21 June 2022.

The ongoing inquest at Wiltshire and Swindon Coroner's Court heard an alarm, which was designed to alert the driver when the Warrior's rear doors were open, had been faulty since 2018.

Lt Col Graham Watson, who led a service inquiry into the incident, said the driver of the Warrior "would have almost certainly stopped" if the alarm had sounded.

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Members of 5 Rifles got up at 05:00 BST on the day of the incident and left their barracks at 07:00, the inquest heard.

They were undertaking an exercise called Combat Spirit, which formed the final part of four courses to qualify for Armoured Infantry.

The inquest heard two groups of soldiers had converged on a target and 2nd Lt George was ordered to leave the Warrior through a rear door and take command on the ground.

"[Second] Lt George exited the vehicle and was seen momentarily struggling either with a day sack or trying to free a radio antenna, which may have snagged," Col Watson said.

"He then went to grab his weapon, which was still inside the vehicle and, simultaneously, the student commander commanded the gunner to reverse."

Second Lt George's exit from the Warrior created a "clunking noise", which may have led the commander to assume he was safely off the vehicle and had shut the doors, Col Watson added.

The armoured vehicle was stationary for between 38 and 43 seconds after the collision, the inquest heard, as soldiers shouted "wait" and horns sounded.

A stop call was sent at 10:25, which halted the exercise.

A built-in alarm system, which would have sounded a noise and shown a light to indicate the rear doors were open, did not work as a wire was broken, the inquest was told.

Col Watson said: "The built-in alarm would have alarmed because the rear doors were open, and had that gone off the driver would have almost certainly stopped."

Alarms had been installed on Warriors after two fatal incidents in the 1990s.

Col Watson said several faults with the armoured vehicles were known about, but he told the inquest that these had not meant the vehicle should have been taken out of service.

The inquest also heard the FV-511model involved in the incident was not ordinarily used for disembarking troops and close combat.

"The student commander had done the majority of his training on the FV-510, which is the platoon variant of the vehicle," Col Watson said.

"In general, the crew and service personnel within 5 Rifles were not that familiar with the FV-511 and its differences with the FV-510."

'A hole in our lives'

A pen portrait was read out by 2nd Lt George's mother, Vivienne, during the hearing.

She described her son as "modest and great fun" and said he would "quietly" fundraise through events like the Great North Run and Royal British Legion street collections.

Second Lt George had won the Queen's Medal for best cadet when he passed out from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the inquest was told.

He had also attended Durham School, earned a first in politics with Russian at Newcastle University and obtained a Distinction in his Masters in Eastern European and Eurasian Studies with Russian at the University of Glasgow.

His mother continued: "Max had effortless leadership qualities and his potential was enormous," she said.

"His loss has left a hole in our lives, he was the very best of all of us."

The inquest continues.

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