THE families of British servicemen killed when a Hercules plane was shot down in Iraq will not receive legal aid for a forthcoming inquest.

The relatives of a 10th person - Australian airman Flight Lieutenant Paul Pardoel - who also died will receive financial help from their Government.

Two of the airmen were from Swindon - Flt Sgt Mark Gibson, 34, of Sparcells, and Master Engineer Gary Nicholson, 42, of Stratton. They and four colleagues from RAF Lyneham and two other servicemen died when their plane was shot down over Baghdad in January 2005.

Sarah Chapman, sister of engineer Sgt Robert O'Connor who died in the crash, condemned the decision not to fund legal representatives for the families.

She told BBC Online: "I don't want to stand in a court-room and be barraged with information, I don't know what to do. The Government let those men down and they're still letting them down now and I want the public to know that."

A Board of Inquiry found the crash was caused by hostile ground-to-air fire which caused an explosion in the right-hand wing tank which in turn tore part of the wing away from the plane. But some relatives want answers to reports that the aircraft's fuel tanks could have been filled with a specially-designed explosive suppressant foam but were not on cost grounds.

Defence Secretary Des Browne could be called to give evidence at the inquest, scheduled for March.

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: "Legal aid for representation is not usually available for inquests because an inquest is a fact-finding process to determine who the deceased was and when, where and how he or she came by his or her death. It is not a trial."