launched using four volunteers, Royal Marines and a Royal Engineer, strapped to the stub-wings of two Apaches. The helicopters could not travel above 50 mph to ensure the safety of the extra passengers from rotor downwash. The Apaches landed under fire inside the compound, after which the rescuers dismounted and recovered the body of LCpl Ford. Ford's body was flown out in the same manner that the soldiers arrived. Another Apache hovered above, providing suppressive fire throughout. None of the rescuers were injured in the recovery mission and they were later hailed for their bravery. In May and June 2008, British and Afghan National Army forces conducted Operation Eagle's Eye, aimed at disrupting Taliban activities to the south of Musa Qaleh; a key portion of which was a major night-time helicopter raid, rapidly deploying members of 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment into the town. In June 2008, a British Apache fired a thermobaric Hellfire missile; the controversial usage of such weapons was approved after extensive legal and ethical evaluations within the MoD. In June 2008, a Taliban leader and several cell members were killed in Helmand Province by a Hellfire missile launched by an Apache of the 664 Army Air Corps. There was a friendly fire incident in July 2008, in which an Apache fired upon a position thought to be held by enemy forces, but instead hit members of a British patrol; this was the first time that a British aircraft had been involved in a blue-on-blue incident in Afghanistan. In September 2008, an Apache was seriously damaged by a crash shortly after takeoff in Helmand province; no loss of life occurred but the airframe was written off. In early to mid-2009, several narcotics and bomb-making facilities were raided by British forces, supported by Apaches. During the summer of 2009, British Apaches were an integral component of Operation Panther's Claw, which was aimed at pushing insurgents out of civilian areas in the runup to the 2009 Afghan Elections. During this major offensive, Apaches from the UK routinely flew alongside US Cobra helicopters to provide air support to soldiers of the Royal Regiment of Scotland and the Royal Marines conducting ground operations. During the Summer 2009 operations, a senior Taliban leader, Mullah Mansur, and several accomplices were killed in a precision strike launched by an Apache. On 25 July 2011, the MoD announced that during a combat operation in the Nahr-e-Saraj