Crashed Nimrod `never fit to fly' in Afghanistan, says UK coroner
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, May 23, IRNA
UK-Afghanistan
The 14 British servicemen killed in a Nimrod crash in Afghanistan in 2006 did not know the reconnaissance aircraft was unfit to fly, an inquest into their deaths concluded Friday.
Britain's entire fleet of Nimrod aircraft has "never been airworthy from the first time it was released to service" nearly 40 years ago, said assistant deputy coroner, Andrew Walker, presiding into the delayed inquest in Oxford, west of London.
The 14 soldiers killed, the highest in a single military incident since the 1982 Falklands War, died after their 37-year-old reconnaissance plane exploded minutes after undergoing air-to-air refuelling near Kandahar airfield on September 2, 2006.
On Thursday, Walker said he was considering a number of safety recommendations, including the grounding of the entire Nimrod fleet.
But according to the BBC, the Ministry of Defence is under no obligation to carry out any of his recommendations.
In response to the findings, the bereaved families of the soldiers called on the government to ground the entire fleet to prevent further loss of life.
Concerns have been expressed in the media about serviceability of the Nimrods and were raised again after reports of another fuel leak in November last year that led to the suspension of in-flight refuelling of the entire fleet.
Replacement aircraft were due to start to enter service in 2003 but the delivery has been so far delayed by significant problems during development and construction.
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