Corrie Mckeague: Wrong bin weight recorded in missing airman search

CCTV cameras recorded Corrie Mckeague walking into an area in central Bury St Edmunds known as the "horseshoe"

A bin was mistakenly thought to have been too light to contain missing RAF gunner Corrie Mckeague because of an error with a weight-recording device.

Mr Mckeague, 23, of Dunfermline, Fife, vanished in the early hours of 24 September 2016 after a night out in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

Police believe he climbed in a bin which was tipped into a waste lorry.

An inquest heard police were told a bin weighed 11kg (1st 10lb), but it was then found to be 116kg (18st 3lb).

Mr Mckeague, who was based at RAF Honington in Suffolk, was last seen on CCTV at 03:25 BST entering a service area behind a Greggs store.

He has never been found.

Mr Mckeague was last seen on CCTV heading towards a bin loading area behind some shops in Bury St Edmunds town centre

Waste firm Biffa initially gave police the lighter of the two readings, which the inquest in Ipswich heard was caused by a weight-recording device on the lorry not being cleared of its data before the start of the driver's shift.

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Stephen Graham, IT services director for Biffa, said each bin was weighed when full, and when emptied, to get the weight of its contents.

The weight is recorded on a device on the lorry, which is later uploaded to Biffa's database.

Mr Mckeague had been asked to leave Flex nightclub a couple of hours before the last sighting of him on CCTV

Referring to the weight of the bin taken from behind Greggs, he said: "It's an error in the process as the device hasn't been cleared after picking up bins at the Biffa depot."

A timestamp showed that the 116kg weight was from 24 September, while the 11kg was from the previous day, he added.

He said he was "99% confident" the 116kg reading was correct, adding "perhaps I should have said 100% - I think there's always 1% somewhere for room for anomaly in the world of computers but otherwise 100%".

Bin lorry driver Martyn Thompson previously told the inquest that he lifted the lid of the bin when he collected it at 04:19 BST and there was no-one inside.

Asked if he could explain the difference between the 116kg weight and what the driver said he saw, Mr Graham said: "Personally no.

"All I can say is this is what the weighing equipment says and this is what the system says.

"I can't account for what the driver saw."

Christopher Ball, an area manager for Greggs, said the bin would have had "four, five bin bags of potential rubbish" inside, such as paper waste, plastic tubs and coffee grinds.

He said the bin had a lock but this could be "easily popped if someone is strong enough to lift the bin lid".

The inquest, which is before a jury, continues.

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