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Abject apologies were offered by the Defence Secretary and the RAF yesterday after an inquiry into the death of 14 servicemen in a Nimrod surveillance aircraft that exploded in midair found that the air force had failed to ensure that the plane was safe.

After a history of fuel leaks and bad judgments about the potential risks of fire, the Nimrod MR2 fell victim to a series of avoidable mishaps that resulted in a huge “red-tinged explosion” about 3,000ft above the province of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan last September. The 12 crew members and two passengers, one from the Army, the other from the Royal Marines, were killed instantly.

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The inquiry neatly stops them having to answer any questions about the copious warnings that the RAF and the MoD received

Michael Smith

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• Board of Inquiry Into The Accident Involving Nimrod MR2 XV230

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Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, in an extraordinarily contrite statement to the Commons, said: “On behalf of the MoD and the Royal Air Force, I would like to apologise to the House of Commons, and most of all to those who lost their lives, and to their families. I am sorry.”

Gordon Brown sat next to him as he revealed the shortcomings that were at the heart of the worst fatal incident to be suffered by the Armed Forces in either Afghanistan or Iraq. The families of the victims are now due to receive substantial compensation.

Coming after attacks on the Government by five former defence chiefs who complained that the MoD’s budget was inadequate, the Nimrod affair was seized on as another illustration of the Forces having to depend on ageing and unreliable equipment.

Other shortcomings include: the lack of body armour during the invasion of Iraq, the use of armoured Land Rovers in Iraq that proved vulnerable to roadside bombs and the delay in supplying electronic countermeasures to warn of bombs.

The basic cause of the Nimrod crash was a substantial leak of fuel that burst into flames after coming into contact with pipes as hot as 400C.

One of the possible sources of the leak was through poor seals around fuel pipe couplings that had become damaged and distorted because they had not been replaced for years. Some of them were 38 years old.

The other possible source of the leak was from an overspill during air-to-air refuelling. There was no fire-sup-pressant equipment on board.

The board of inquiry investigators could not be absolutely sure of their findings because it was too dangerous to recover the wrecked Nimrod, which was based at RAF Kinloss.

However, the board of inquiry report published yesterday said the age of the Nimrod, based on the old Comet, was a “possible contributing factor”, although this was denied by a senior RAF commander.The Nimrod came into service in 1969 and was up-graded to Nimrod MR2 in the 1970s. It should have left service in 2003, but its replacement, the Nimrod MRA4, will not be delivered until 2010.

Mr Browne said lessons had been learnt and he had been assured by Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy, Chief of the Air Staff, that the Nimrods were safe to fly. However, last month another Nimrod flying over Afghanistan suffered a fuel leak in the bomb bay after an air-to-air refuelling operation and the pilot had to make an emergency landing. Sir Glenn said that an investigation had failed to discover the cause, so he had ordered all midair refuelling of Nimrods to be suspended.

Sir Glenn said: “I want to publicly apologise for the loss of 14 lives.” He announced that a QC was to be appointed to carry out a full review of the plane’s safety; he had the power to demand a public inquiry if necessary. Compensation to the families would also be handled “expeditiously”.

Sir Glenn said that after the crash a thorough safety check had been carried out on all Nimrods, and the recommendations made by the board had been implemented.

The most damning condemnation of what had gone wrong in the general maintenance of the Nimrod fleet came from Air Chief Marshal Sir Clive Loader, Commander-in-Chief Air Command. Sir Clive said: “I conclude that the loss of XV230 and, far more importantly, of the 14 Service personnel who were aboard, resulted from shortcomings in the application of the processes for assuring airworthiness and safe operation of the Nimrod.”

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