A SPECIAL forces soldier who died in Oxfordshire when his parachute and reserve failed to open would have been saved if he had been equipped with a radio, an inquest was told.

Capt Daniel Wright, 25, of the Queen's Gurkha Signal Corps, died at Weston-on-the-Green after falling 2,500ft in November, 2005, during his first day of training with the elite SAS regiment at RAF Brize Norton in West Oxfordshire.

Instructors on the ground shouted at the soldier, who was not issued with a radio, to cut away his main chute, but by the time he deployed his reserve,it was too late.

Requests had been made to military chiefs for radios, but they were refused on cost grounds.

Capt Wright's mother, Carol, urged the MoD to accept "penny-pinching" had cost her son his life.

She said: "For the sake of a flipping radio they have lost a potential star amongst their ranks.

"It's such a terrible waste. He was a talented young man who was likely to have had a glittering military career."

Radios are now provided during military parachute training, bringing the armed forces in line with standard practice for initial jumps for civilian trainees.

Mrs Wright added: "We ask the MoD to accept their penny-pinching in not providing the same level of safety equipment as is provided for civilian parachute students has resulted in a far greater use of public funds, for example, the cost of this court case this week."

Capt Wright opened his reserve at 200ft, but disappeared behind a line of trees before hitting the ground.

The inquest at Oxford Coroner's Court was told money for radios was refused because of a lack of funding.

Recording a narrative verdict, Oxfordshire assistant deputy coroner Andrew Walker said: "Capt Wright, on the balance of probability, would not have died had an operator on the ground at the drop zone been able to communicate with him using a radio.

"At the time Capt Wright took the parachute course requests for these radios had been refused as funding was only available for essential items."

Mr Walker recommended that an automatically-deployed reserve parachute with a square canopy should be used by all trainee parachutists from now on.

He said: "I would expect we would not have to wait until another student dies for that measure to be put in place."

Mr Walker said the lower heights from which military first-time parachutists jump, compared with civilians, should be addressed.

He said: "1.5 seconds separated Capt Wright from death. If he had jumped from 3,500 feet he might well be alive."

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "Our thoughts and sympathies remain with the family, friends and colleagues of Capt Wright.

"We are committed to providing our Armed Forces with the best possible equipment, whether for use on the frontline or in training.

"The Board of Inquiry into this incident concluded in June 2006 and made a number of recommendations. We have already acted on many of these and from April 1, 2008 all parachute training will involve radios."