High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The 2005 Royal Air Force Hercules shootdown was the loss of a Royal Air Force Lockheed Hercules C3, serial number XV179 when it was shotdown in Iraq, probably by Sunni insurgents, on 30 January 2005, killing all 10 personnel on board. At the time, the incident was the largest single loss of life suffered by the British military during Operation Telic.