British Coroner Calls for Nimrods to be Grounded

British Coroner Calls for Nimrods to be Grounded
agence france-presse
Published: 23 May 11:06 EDT (07:06 GMT)
Print Print | Print Email

LONDON - A British coroner called May 23 for the country's entire fleet of Nimrod spy planes to be grounded, at the end of an inquest into a 2006 crash in Afghanistan that killed 14 servicemen.

Andrew Walker said the victims in the tragedy, in which the Nimrod plane exploded in mid-air shortly after refueling, could not have known that it was not airworthy.

"The crew and passengers were not to know that this aircraft, like every other in the Nimrod fleet, was not airworthy. The aircraft was never airworthy from the first release to service in 1969," he said.

The Royal Air Force operates 16 Nimrod MR2 aircraft out of its base at Kinloss in northeast Scotland, and the aircraft are also used at RAF base Waddington in eastern England.

The entire fleet of reconnaissance aircraft, with its distinctive "double bubble" fuselage and protruding nosecone, was temporarily grounded last year after a dent was found in a fuel pipe.


Rest of article at: http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=3544746&c=EUR&s=AIR