UK withdraws Nimrod surveillance planes from overseas operations
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, March 9, IRNA -- Britain's fleet of Nimrod surveillance planes are to be withdrawn from operations overseas to undergo safety modifications, Defense Minister Bob Ainsworth announced Monday.
But the Ministry of Defense insisted that the temporary grounding of the ageing reconnaissance fleet for safety modifications would not affect Britain's military operations in Afghanistan.
The withdrawal follows the deaths of 14 servicemen in a Nimrod crash in Afghanistan in 2006. An inquest last year into their deaths called for the entire fleet of the nearly 40-year old planes to be grounded, but this was rejected by the government.
In his announcement, Ainsworth told parliament that the temporary halt to overseas operations 'will allow us to free up the maximum number of aircraft for the modification program while also allowing Nimrod to continue with its critical homeland security tasks'.
Following the 2006 crash, an inquiry recommended the fleet have replacement fuel seals and engine bay hot air ducts to improve safety. Ainsworth said the modification work was due to be completed by March 31, but has been delayed.
But Graham Knight, the father of a sergeant killed in the Afghanistan crash criticized the decision as 'bizarre' that the aircraft were safe to fly but suddenly they were dangerous.
"It shows what we all said after the inquest that these aircraft weren't safe to fly until after this work had been done," Knight told the BBC.
The Liberal Democrat's shadow defense secretary Nick Harvey described the delay as 'disgraceful', saying it had taken ministers so long to take action to ground unsafe aircraft.
"This is in effect an admission by the government that the Nimrod fleet is not safe to fly, and has not been for years," Harvey said.
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