THE helicopter crash that killed Kent airman Marc Lawrence and five colleagues in the early days of the Iraq war was an accident, a coroner has ruled.

Lieutenant Lawrence, 26, from Westgate, near Margate, perished on March 22, 2003, when two Royal Navy Sea King mark 7 airborne early warning helicopters collided over the Arabian Gulf in March 2003.

They belonged to 849 Squadron operating from HMS Ark Royal and were on surveillance missions for British forces.

The week-long hearing at Oxford concluded on Monday and the county’s assistant deputy coroner Sir Richard Curtis apologised to families for the worry and anxiety that the delay in bringing the inquest had caused.

The inquest heard that the crash could have been caused by a number of facts but no conclusion was reached then or at the Board of Inquiry.

Ark Royal commanding officer Rear Admiral Alan Massey believed there was no need for the two aircraft to fly into each other and that it was difficult to fathom what happened. He descrbed it as an avoidable accident.

The helicopters - one returning from a mission and the other just airborne - had been warned they were two and a half miles apart and were flying directly at each other.

It meant both were near the Ark Royal at the same time although the inquest heard this was standard procedure.

It was estimated from their positions that the craft would have had visual contact for more than a minute and could have changed course successfully in just five seconds.

A fireball engulfed both when one Sea King veered upwards into the other, its rotors cutting into the fuel tank.

Lt Lawrence was a keen musician and water sports enthusiast. He was engaged to be married to his then fiancee Elaine Cleaver the summer after the accident.

The former Garlinge Juniors and Chatham House schoolboy joined the Navy after leaving Plymouth University.

He was a talented euphonium player, attaining Grade VIII, and a member of Thanet Music Centre and Kent Youth Wind Orchestra.

His interest in music continued throughout university, and he played in the ship’s band on board HMS Ark Royal.

In the weeks after the accident Marc’s mother Ann said: "I know in him there was a need to do something valuable with his life. We are immensely proud of him."

The verdict of accidental death was recorded on Lt Lawrence and the other servicemen: Lieutenant Philip Green, 30, from Caythorpe, Lincolnshire; Lieutenant Antony King, 35, from Helston, Cornwall; Lieutenant Philip West, 32, from Budock Water, Cornwall; Lieutenant James Williams, 28, from Falmouth, Cornwall; and Lieutenant Andrew Wilson, 36, from Exeter, Devon. All of the men were based at the Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose, near Helston, Cornwall.