SABOTAGE has been ruled out as a cause of the plane crash which claimed the life of a Hampshire soldier.
Investigators said it was still possible that the RAF Hercules aircraft was shot down in Iraq.
Acting Lance-Corporal Steven Jones, pictured above, 25, of Fareham, was among ten servicemen who died when the C-130 transport place plunged into the desert earlier this year.
The aircraft's 65ft right wing had been torn off, sending it into an instant and violent spin before it crashed 20 miles from Baghdad on a routine flight to the US base at Balad.
An RAF interim report released yesterday dismissed the aircraft being blown up by a bomb, struck by lightning or hitting a bird as reasons for the tragedy.
Inquiries are now likely to focus on whether the plane was brought down by anti-coalition rebels firing a mortar from the ground.
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