KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A friendly-fire incident that killed one Canadian soldier and wounded 36 others in Afghanistan last fall could have been prevented, a Department of National Defence report into the incident has found.
Had the American pilot been using his equipment properly, Pte. Mark Anthony Graham would not have been killed when a garbage fire lit by Charles Company was mistaken for the smoke and fire of an intended target and strafed by the U.S. air force.
"The incident pilot was responsible for the death and injuries of the Canadian soldiers in the incident,'' the report released late Friday said.
"He lost his situational awareness.''
Graham was killed and the others were wounded Sept. 4, 2006, during Operation Medusa, the largest Canadian military offensive in a half-century.
Fighting had been fierce in the Panjwaii district, where soldiers were attempting to secure a section of Highway 1, a major thoroughfare across Kandahar province that had been under control of the Taliban.
Troops are still fighting over different sections of the highway.
The report, by a board of inquiry called to look into the incident, found that the morning of the attack, Charles Company, 1st Battalion, the Royal Canadian Regiment, had lit a fire to burn their refuse on the rocks of Ma'sum Ghar before heading back into the battle zone.
Graham, a former Olympic track-and-field athlete, had been standing at the fire, warming up.
Air strikes had been called into the fight zone the day before, after four Canadian soldiers -- Sgt. Shane Stachnik, Warrant Officer Frank Robert Mellish, Pte. William Cushley and Warrant Officer Richard Francis Nolan -- had been killed in the fighting.
U.S. aircraft were in the area keeping up the pressure, and the pilot of the A10-A was tasked with strafing a target that moments earlier had been hit by a guided bomb dropped by another American aircraft.
He was supposed to use the fire and smoke generated by the bomb to identify where he was to shoot.
"He mistook a garbage fire at the Canadian location for his target without verifying the target through his targeting pod and heads-up display,'' the report said.
"The incident was preventable. If the incident pilot had verified the target using the targeting pod and heads-up display, he would have realized his error and discontinued the attack.''
The report said the pilot was disoriented by changing light conditions as night transited into day in southern Afghanistan and had removed his night-vision goggles.
"The transition period between night and day is a difficult one for the pilots because their eyes must adjust to ambient light and the cockpit instrumentation lighting also needs to be adjusted,'' the report said.
"The pilot was relying on his own visual perception to identify the target.''
Neither the pilot nor the Forward Air Controller had been aware that Charles company had lit the fire.
The report also found fault with the FAC, saying their pre -deployment training was insufficient to prepare them for the challenges of Operation Medusa.
"It is with relief that we have finally learned the circumstances that lead to Mark's death and the wounding of many other Canadian soldiers,'' said a statement released by the Graham family.
"This report stirs up many painful memories and we continue to grieve our loss. We are hopeful that the information we received will allow those who knew Mark to move to a different level of healing.''
In its recommendations, the board said no changes are needed to the policies for close air support in operations on the ground, but that training for air controllers be beefed up to reflect the realities of the work in Afghanistan.
Sections of the recommendations and the report itself were blacked out by the military for operational security reasons.
During their almost four-month investigation into the incident, the board said it found the medical response to the accident "remarkable,'' adding that every step of the medical process from treating the injured on the field to the notification of Graham's family was "timely and effective.''
The incident pilot did not testify before the board, but provided a written statement in answer to questions from Canadian officials.
"Board members express their condolences to the Graham family and wish those wounded a speedy recovery,'' the report said.
"Their sacrifices have not gone unseen and will be remembered.''
Graham's death was the most recent friendly-fire incident to befall Canadian troops.
Last week, a U.S. army investigator recommended no charges be filed against an American machine-gunner who killed Canadian army Pte. Robert Costall during a battle in March 2006 in Afghanistan.
The recommendations were in documents released by the U.S. army about the friendly-fire deaths of Costall and Vermont National Guard First Sgt. John Thomas Stone.
The report said the deaths while regrettable were understandable in the context of the firefight.
The Department of Defence in Ottawa released a statement saying its own investigations of the incident have been completed and authorities were reviewing the findings.
In 2002, four Canadian soldiers were killed and eight wounded when a U.S. F-16 fighter mistakenly bombed them during a pre-dawn training exercise.
