An SAS soldier who died in Oxfordshire when his parachute and reserve failed to open would have been saved if he had been equipped with a radio, an inquest has heard.

Capt Daniel Wright, 25, of the Queen's Gurkha Signal Corps, died at Weston-on-the-Green after falling 2,500ft in November, 2005, during his first day training with the Special Forces at RAF Brize Norton in West Oxfordshire.

Instructors on the ground shouted at the soldier, who was not issued with a radio, to cut away his main chute, but by the time he deployed his reserve, it was too late.

Requests had been made to military chiefs for radios - but were refused on cost grounds.

Capt Wright opened his reserve at 200ft but disappeared behind a line of trees before hitting the ground.

The inquest at Oxford Coroner's Court was told money for radios was refused because of a lack of funding.

Recording a narrative verdict, Oxfordshire assistant deputy coroner Andrew Walker said: "On November 17 at about 12.27pm Capt Wright was on active service on the parachute training phase of a parachute training course when, after an uneventful first parachute descent, he left the aircraft to complete his second descent.

"Immediately on exiting the Sky Van aircraft his main parachute suffered a rare malfunction and failed to completely deploy from the parachute sleeve.

"Capt Wright mis-identified the malfunction as one he should take action to remedy and as a consequence when he deployed his reserve parachute it did not have sufficient time to open and he died instantly from the injuries he suffered when he landed.

"Capt Wright, on the balance of probability, would not have died had an operator on the ground at the drop zone been able to communicate with him using a radio.

"At the time Capt Wright took the parachute course requests for these radios had been refused as funding was only available for essential items."