Nimrod crash report damns MOD

An independant report into the Nimrod crash in Afghanistan in 2006 that claimed the lives of 14 service personnel has blamed cost-cutting by the MOD which contributed to a culture that sacrificed safety. Charles Haddon-Cave's report blasted the MOD, BAE Systems and QinetiQ for the poor job it made in conducting a safety review into the Nimrod MR2. Haddon-Cave blamed an "organisational trauma" in the MOD as a result of the 1998 Strategic Defence Review which caused cost and not safety to be the top priority.

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth has admitted the MOD failed and apologied to the families of those who died when XV230 crashed. Meanwhile the head of QinetiQ has resigned though it is claimed to be unrelated to the Nimrod report. QinetiQ were blamed in the report for failing to check BAE Systems work on the Nimrod and their claims as to the aircraft's safety.

XV230 caught fire while being inflight-refuelled when leaking fuel came into contact with a hot air pipe. A safety review conducted a year before the crash was said to be riddled with errors and did not identify design flaws which led to the accident.