A British Army sniper patrol which strayed into a minefield had to wait three-and-a-half hours to be rescued by Americans because UK forces did not have the right equipment, an inquest has heard.

The RAF tried and failed to haul the men to safety because they did not have the right helicopters or any winching equipment.

Scottish soldier Corporal Mark Wright died on board an American Black Hawk helicopter as it flew him to hospital with his comrades, three of whom had lost their legs.

Cpl Wright, 27, from Edinburgh, was later awarded a posthumous George Cross for his bravery in trying to rescue his injured men.

Their commander told a coroner yesterday that he had not been told the patrol was heading out and he would have stopped them if he had known.

The men, all part of or attached to the Third Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, were part of a team providing cover to an American security firm running the Kajaki Dam, in Helmand province.

On Wednesday, September 6, 2006, several men left the Normandy observation point (OP) and headed out into territory which they knew could have been mined.

Their commander, Sergeant Paul McMellon, who was at the Athens observation point a few hundred yards away, said: "I heard an explosion and straight away went to the command post, switched on the radio to verify with OP Normandy what had happened.

"They told me there had been a mine strike, that a sniper had gone out on patrol and he had stood on a mine.

"I was surprised there was even a patrol out because I didn't know about it. I should have known because I was in control."

Coroner Andrew Walker asked him: "Had you known that it was intended to send out a sniper patrol, would you have stopped it?" Sgt McMellon replied: "Most definitely."

He added: "I wouldn't have sent no-one (sic) out there without platoon strength of 24 men. You don't send a few blokes out ... in the middle of nowhere on their own."

He reported the incident to headquarters and requested a helicopter with a winch, as the terrain and the mines would made landing difficult.

However, the RAF only had a twin-rotor Chinook available, which Sgt Mellon accepted, but when it arrived more than an hour later it could not rescue the men.

Meanwhile, more of them had stood on mines.

An American Black Hawk helicopter which eventually lifted the men out did not arrive until three-and-a-half hours after the first blast.

The inquest, in Oxford, has heard that the soldiers at the site did not have accurate information on minefields.

However, Sgt McMellon said it was assumed that anything to the south of the ridge they were on, and any land off known tracks, was mined.

He said: "What we were told was, basically, mines were everywhere and don't go off the tracks. As far as we were concerned it was one big minefield with tracks and a few areas that were cleared."

Sgt McMellon also said that the radios at the Athens and Normandy OP were switched off at the time of the incident because they were running low on batteries, despite requests for new ones.

Mr Walker asked whether, had batteries been available, it might have made a difference to what happened.

Sgt McMellon said that they would have had communication throughout the incident and he would have been asked for permission for the patrol.

"And you would have said no," said Mr Walker.

"Definitely," confirmed Sgt McMellon.

The inquest was adjourned.