Spy plane's 'fundamental flaw'

Last Modified: 13 May 2008
Source: ITN

A spy plane which crashed in Afghanistan killing 14 servicemen should not have been passed safe to fly, an inquest has heard.

A senior RAF officer admitted there was a "fundamental flaw" in the aircraft fleet's design.

Air Commodore George Baber admitted mistakes were made during a hazard assessment which could have identified the fault that caused the explosion which downed the ageing Nimrod plane.

He said had they known then what they knew now, the Nimrod fleet would not have been deemed airworthy.

The hearing at Oxford Coroner's Court had previously been told the tragedy was caused by fuel leaking into a dry bay and igniting on contact with a hot air pipe.

The Air Commodore said having fuel couplings in the same compartment as a hot air pipe was a "fundamental design flaw".

The 37-year-old Nimrod exploded just minutes after undergoing air-to-air refuelling near Kandahar on September 2 2006.

The crew had no means of tackling the initial fire and so were forced to attempt an emergency descent to the Kandahar air base, but at 3,000ft the aircraft exploded into flames.

Air Commodore Baber told the inquest that he led a Integrated Project Team (IPT), who together with BAE systems, carried out a comprehensive hazard analysis of the Nimrod plane before the Afghanistan crash.

He said a number of hazards were identified and put into categories. He said the possibility of the explosion in the dry bay was graded as "improbable" - one of the lower categories.

But he admitted it should have graded higher which would have then warranted further action.

He told the inquest: "At the heart of this was a fundamental design flaw. This hazard assessment process was an opportunity to catch any inherent design flaw. We failed to catch that design flaw.

"The consequences were catastrophic and that is why we are here today."

He added that the mistake in categorising the potential hazard was a "failure".

When asked by Michael Rawlinson, the lawyer representing the families, whether the Nimrod was safe to fly he replied: "I find it difficult to answer because the simple answer is 'no' because we had an accident."

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