A ROYAL MARINE killed in an explosion while on patrol in Afghanistan would have died “virtually instantaneously”, an inquest was told.

Dale Gostick, who lived in Great Haseley, near Thame, was driving a Viking armoured vehicle towards Sangin, in Afghanistan’s Helmand province on May 25, 2008, when it was blown up by a landmine.

The inquest at County Hall, in Oxford, heard the Army was reviewing the use of the vehicle to see if it could now be made safer.

Marine Gostick, of 3rd Troop Armoured Support Company, was part of a convoy of eight armoured vehicles which was attacked by the Taliban.

The 22-year-old’s vehicle, along with several others, moved out of the “proven track” of the rest of the convoy to return fire and provide cover, but when it moved back a mine exploded.

Dr Nicholas Hunt, who carried out a post-mortem, said: “He had very severe blast injuries to his head, legs and pelvis and any number of those injuries would be unsurvivable.

“He would have been rendered deeply unconscious virtually instantaneously.”

Sgt Derek Daniels, who was part of the convoy, described the moment the Viking was hit.

He said: “I heard an extremely loud explosion followed by dust and debris being thrown into the air.

“I could see the front cab of the Viking had been hit and was on fire.”

The two other occupants of Marine Gostick’s Viking, marines Mark Goddard and Peter Dunning, were both seriously injured.

Both Marine Dunning’s legs were amputated below the knees and Marine Goddard received compound fractures to his legs.

Marine Goddard said in a statement read to the inquest he did not feel comfortable being deployed with the knowledge and training he had received. He said: “I felt we had the very minimum of training.”

But other soldiers giving evidence who went through the same process said they believed it had been sufficient.

Differing accounts were given of whether or not Marine Gostick, a former Wheatley Park School pupil and member of Wheatley Rugby Club, had strayed from the path left by the vehicles before.

Operation Barma, in which two soldiers go in advance of the convoy with handheld metal detectors to check for mines or improvised explosive devices, had not been carried out, but Capt Christopher Kierstead, who was in command of the convoy, said this was time-consuming and would not be done when troops were under fire.

Recording his narrative verdict, Oxford coroner Nicholas Gardiner said: “On 25 May 2008 Dale Gostick was on duty proceeding towards Helmand River in Afghanistan when his vehicle over ran a mine that deployed at a time he was on or near to a supposedly proven route.

“There have been many casualties in Afghanistan and I suspect there will be many more.”

A report by Major Nigel Crewe-Read read to the inquest pointed out several “lessons to be learnt”.

It said the Viking’s armour was being reviewed to make it safer from blasts and there were shortcomings in the vehicle’s communication system which needed addressing.

fbardsley@oxfordmail.co.uk