Nimrod planes withdrawn after delay of safety modificationsChris Smyth
RAF Nimrod surveillance planes are to be withdrawn from overseas operations until the summer after vital safety modifications were delayed, the Government said today.
All Nimrods which have not had hot air ducts replaced will be grounded, Defence Minister Bob Ainsworth said, and the rest will operate only in Britain.
The Nimrods play a key role in intelligence gathering and communications in Afghanistan, but the government insisted operational capabilities would not be affected.
The decision comes as a result of an inquiry into the death of 14 servicemen when their Nimrod exploded over Afghanisation in 2006, the forces' largest loss of life in a single incident since the Falklands war. The inquiry recommended that fuel seals and engine bay hot air ducts should be replaced to prevent any repeat.
Last May, a coroner said the Nimrod fleet "was never airworthy" and condemned the Ministry of Defence's "cavalier approach to safety". The MoD insisted the planes were safe to fly.
In a written statement to the House of Commons today, Mr Ainsworth said that replacement work was due to be completed by March 31, but had been delayed by "problems with the provision of replacement fuel seals".
He said: "Our technical experts have advised us that, in order that the risks involved in operating the aircraft remain tolerable and as low as reasonably practical, no Nimrods should fly after 31 March 2009 unless their hot air ducts have been replaced. Ministers and the Chief of the Air Staff accept this advice. Delays to the replacement of the fuel seals will, however, have no impact on flying since our experts assess that the risk is tolerable."
Overseas operations have been halted to speed up the replacement work, which is now due to finish in the early summer. Those Nimrods that have had the hot air ducts replaced will continue to fly in the UK. The MoD refused to say how many planes have had the work completed.
Nick Harvey, the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, said: "This is in effect an admission by the Government that the Nimrod fleet is not safe to fly, and has not been for years. It is disgraceful that it has taken so long for ministers to take action to ground unsafe aircraft which have already claimed the lives of our service personnel and are still putting others at risk."
Engineers have been moved from the Nimrod's base at RAF Kinloss to RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire to speed up the work. "The reallocation of these personnel will cause a temporary reduction in routine UK-based Nimrod flying, but will not affect our ability to protect UK interests at home," Mr Ainsworth said.
An MoD spokeswoman said the move will not affect the RAF's ability to provide "an effective surveillance capacity" in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
American and other coalition spy planes are likely to be called upon to fill the gap, along with the RAF's Reaper unmanned drones.
The Nimrod spy plane entered service in 1969 and, after a series of delays, a replacement in due to enter service in 2011.
On September 2, 2006, a fire broke out on Nimrod XV230 over Afghanistan, causing the plane to explode and killing all 14 on board.
An MoD inquiry concluded that the explosion was caused by fuel leaking through a corroded coupling and coming into contact with a hot air pipe.
At an inquest into the deaths, the Oxfordshire Deputy Coroner, Andrew Walker, blamed misalignments of fuel pipes and couplings for the deaths, making stinging criticisms of the MoD.
Families of two of the dead servicemen have since launched legal proceedings against the MoD. The MoD spokeswoman insisted that today's decision was "totally unrelated" to the action.
Source
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5875486.ece
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