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The first officer then issued a mayday call and was given clearance for an immediate rapid descent

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The first officer then issued a mayday call and was given clearance for an immediate rapid descent.The AAIB report said the captain and crew member might not have realised the speedy effect of hypoxia - lack of oxygen - despite the pilot's RAF decompression training. "Since these two experienced crew members rapidly succumbed to the effects of depressurisation, it is ... possible that neither fully appreciated the nature of hypoxia."The report blamed the loss of cabin pressure on a damaged aft cargo door of the 24-year-old aircraft, concluding that the cracks must have existed for some 17 years without being noticed by inspection.Peach Air is operated by Caledonian Airlines and flies out of Gatwick and Manchester to the main holiday resorts.The AAIB released a second report yesterday into the crashlanding of another plane, which was being handled by a first officer without sufficient experience to deal with difficult weather.The first officer had been at the controls of the Brymon Airways DHC- 8 travelling from Bristol to Plymouth with nine passengers and four crew on board. As they approached Plymouth the flight crew were told that wind- speed on the ground was 22 knots, with gusts up to 26 knots.Recognising that the airport was notoriously difficult to land in with cross winds, the captain asked the first officer if he was happy to remain in control and continued to offer advice.

However, during the approach the aircraft suddenly lost height and the left-hand landing gear, which was first to touch the ground, buckled, causing the plane to skid along the runway.No one was injured in the accident, on 28 February, but the aircraft suffered extensive damage. The AAIB report said that the commander should have taken control when he realised the difficult conditions.. THE FOOTAGE had been taken by a hand-held camera and it showed a campsite in utter disarray - torn, empty tents, strewn belongings discarded by people leaving in a rush It was silent and lifeless. It was from this jungle camp on the edge of the Impenetrable Forest in Uganda's Bwindi National Park that four British tourists were abducted and murdered with machetes by Hutu rebels. Yesterday at an inquest into the deaths, the victims' relatives broke down as they were shown the footage. "It's a complete disaster for the families and it will take many years, if indeed, ever, to come to terms with the deaths," said the West Sussex coroner, Roger Stone. "I am sure if you keep them in your hearts you will not really lose them."The inquest in Crawley was told that Martin Friend, 24, from Orpington, Kent, Steven Roberts, 27, from Edinburgh, Mark Lindgren, 23, from St Albans, Hertfordshire, and Joanne Cotton, 28, from Essex, were among more than 30 tourists abducted by Interahamwe death squads while on holiday in Uganda last March. They had travelled there to see the region's mountain gorillas.

Four other Western tourists were also killed.The inquest heard that the tourists had been dragged from their tents at dawn on March 1 by up to 150 armed rebels who had shot and bludgeoned their way past armed bodyguards.They separated the British and Americans from French speakers. The inquest heard that while the French government had supported the Hutus during the internal strife in neighbouring Rwanda, London and Washington had backed the Tutsis. The French speaking tourists were then freed.Detective Superintendent Ken Woodward, one of several Metropolitan Police officers who had travelled to Africa to investigate the killings, said: "The Interahamwe obviously targeted the tourist camp at Bwindi but their initial action seemed to indicate that they intended to steal or loot."The inquest saw footage of the trail the tourists were led along. It was during this journey that the rebels inflicted their savagery. The bodies of Americans Rob Haubner, 48, and his wife, Susan Miller, 42, were found one mile from the camp.

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