By NAOMI LARKIN
When the body of Acting Major John McNutt arrives in New Zealand, an honour guard of up to 10 United States military personnel will be in attendance.
Major McNutt, a 27-year-old high-flyer in the New Zealand SAS, and five US soldiers died about 5 am on Tuesday (NZ time) when a US Navy F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet dropped three unguided 226kg "dumb" bombs on an observation post near Kuwait's border with Iraq.
The bombs exploded near where Major McNutt and others were watching a close air-support exercise at the Udairi training range.
Seven other observers were wounded, including ground-based forward air controller US Air Force Staff Sergeant Timothy Crusing, who reportedly told the jet fighter's pilot he could safely drop the bombs.
Major McNutt, formerly of Christchurch, had been New Zealand's sole military representative in Kuwait since December.
Army spokesman Captain Kendall Langston yesterday said Major McNutt's body was due to be flown to Christchurch on Monday on board a US military aircraft.
Up to 10 US military personnel who would be on the same aircraft would take care of "ceremonial aspects" at Major McNutt's funeral at Burnham Military Camp on Tuesday afternoon, he said.
An Army colleague, who will also accompany the body home, arrived in Germany yesterday. Major McNutt's body was flown from Kuwait to the US airbase in Ramstein, Germany, on Thursday.
A US inquiry team led by the Florida-based Central Command chief, General Tommy Franks, and including New Zealand Army Colonel Richard Cassidy as an observer is continuing its investigation into the tragedy.
The investigators are expected to consider mechanical failure and pilot error as possibilities, along with a mistake by an air controller on the ground who was responsible for marking the target for US Navy pilot Commander David Zimmerman.
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