The Ministry of Defence yesterday defended its decision to cover up the real reason for the loss of a special forces Hercules aircraft in Iraq in January 2007, on the grounds of denying insurgents a propaganda victory.

The incident, reported exclusively by The Herald at the time, involved the crippling of the transport aircraft by a booby-trap bomb as it landed under cover of darkness on a remote desert airstrip near the Iranian border.

However, the MoD refused to confirm the fact then and has only now admitted a device planted on the makeshift runway was responsible for almost destroying the Hercules and nearly killing its 58 passengers and six crew.

The £30m aircraft was so badly damaged it could not be salvaged and was deliberately blown up the next day. This was done to avoid any of its top-secret communications and navigational equipment falling into enemy hands.

The 47 Squadron aircraft was the second Hercules lost to insurgent action in Iraq. The Lyneham-based unit has a flight trained for supporting clandestine SAS and SBS operations. The first of its specially adapted Hercules planes was shot down in January 2005, north of Baghdad, with the loss of nine RAF personnel and one SAS soldier.

It crashed after being hit by ground fire, which caused an explosion in the right wing fuel tank. An MoD report on the second incident in Maysan province two years later now applauds its "sound and well-reasoned approach" in releasing misleading information.

The report says this policy resulted in "minimal media interest" and "denied the enemy the opportunity to exploit the situation for the benefit of their information operations campaign". An MoD spokesman said: "It is our duty to protect the security of troops on operations.

"At times, this means we may have to restrict the flow of information to protect that security. We would not deliberately mislead the public."

According to the subsequent board of inquiry, released without fanfare this weekend, soldiers swept the runway for bombs before the night landing, but as the Hercules prepared to touch down "the crew experienced a loud bang and a bright flash followed a second later by another flash and a louder bang".

The flight crew was "temporarily blinded" by the flashes and the wing close to the tanks was set on fire before the Hercules veered off the runway and its crew was evacuated. The board's recommendations include minimising the "pattern setting" which helped insurgents predict when the plane would land. The RAF operates a fleet of 48 Hercules workhorse transports.