Missing Corrie McKeague “probably wouldn’t have known much about it” if he were asleep in a bin which was tipped into the back of a waste lorry in Bury St Edmunds, an inquest heard.
Mr McKeague, who was based at RAF Honington, was 23 when he disappeared in the early hours of September 24, 2016 after a night out in the west Suffolk town.
He was last seen on CCTV at 3.25am entering a service area behind a Greggs store, where police believe he climbed into a bin, which was then tipped into a waste lorry.
His body has never been found.
Nigel Parsley, Suffolk's senior coroner, asked consultant forensic pathologist Dr Nat Cary about possible causes of death if a person were to end up in the back of a bin lorry.
Dr Cary told the inquest in Ipswich: “The most obvious cause of death in those circumstances would be crushing. That refuse lorry is designed to crush and compress refuse.
“If an individual came into the chamber then crushing would be a likely possibility.
“Over and above that, multiple injuries – head injuries, injuries to the limbs.”
He said there could be the “same effect you get in a crowd crush”, adding that suffocation was also a possibility.
Dr Cary said there was a “not impossible, remote” chance that someone asleep while intoxicated in a bin could get positional asphyxia and die before the bin was tipped.
He suggested a possible cause of death in circumstances where a person is tipped into a bin lorry as compression asphyxia, in association with multiple injuries.
Dr Cary said if a person were intoxicated “it would prevent someone being able to take evasive action if someone was in a bin that was then tipped”.
He added: “I would expect a conscious, sober person to have real difficulty.
“I should probably say, he probably wouldn’t have known much about it if that’s what happened.”
Dr Cary said it was “hard to think that someone could survive” if they were tipped into the back of a bin lorry.
Asked how quickly a person may fall unconscious, he said: “It does depend on the level of compression, which is an unknown, but given the levels of force involved in this lorry I would expect unconsciousness would occur quite rapidly within a few minutes.”
He said a medical cause of death of “unascertained” can be recorded when a body has not been found.
The inquest, being heard before a jury, continues.
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