2006 Royal Air Force Nimrod crash facts for kids
XV230 at the Waddington Airshow, July 2005
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| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 2 September 2006 |
| Summary | On board fire following aerial refuelling |
| Site | Chalaghor in the Panjwaye District of Kandahar, Afghanistan |
| Aircraft type | Nimrod MR2 |
| Operator | Royal Air Force |
| Registration | XV230 |
| Crew | 14 |
| Fatalities | 14 |
| Survivors | 0 |
On September 2, 2006, a Royal Air Force (RAF) Hawker Siddeley Nimrod aircraft had a fire while flying. It then crashed in Kandahar, Afghanistan. All fourteen crew members on board died. This accident was the biggest loss of life for the British military since the Falklands War. The plane was on a reconnaissance flight, which means it was gathering information.
Contents
The Aircraft: Nimrod XV230
The aircraft involved in this accident was named XV230. It was the very first of 38 Nimrod planes to start working for the Royal Air Force. This happened on October 2, 1969. The Nimrod was a special plane used for watching the seas and for attacks.
XV230 was one of six Nimrods that had a special camera system added in 2003. This system, called an L-3 Wescam MX-15, could see things from far away. In 2006, the plane was updated so it could send live video from this camera to people on the ground. This helped commanders see what was happening in real-time.
What Happened During the Crash
Investigators believe the aircraft had a fuel leak or overflow during mid-air refuelling. This happened while it was watching a NATO operation against Taliban fighters near Kandahar. Fuel likely leaked from a valve and got into a part of the plane near the wing. This area had hot air pipes and insulation. The fuel soaked the insulation and then caught fire when it got hot enough.
The crew first noticed smoke in the bomb-bay, which is a part of the plane where bombs or equipment are stored. The pilot reported a fire there. He tried to fly the plane to Kandahar air base. The aircraft dropped very quickly, from about 23,000 feet to 3,000 feet in just 90 seconds. Another RAF plane, a Harrier GR7, was following the Nimrod. Its pilot saw one of the Nimrod's wings explode, and then the rest of the plane broke apart a few seconds later.
The crash happened about 25 miles west-north-west of Kandahar Airfield. This area is between two villages in the Panjwaye District. All twelve RAF personnel, plus a Royal Marine and a British Army soldier, died in the crash.
In 2008, a coroner, who investigates deaths, said that the Nimrod fleet had "never been airworthy" since it first started flying almost 40 years before. This means the planes were never truly safe enough to fly. The coroner said that action needed to be taken to prevent more deaths. He urged that the Nimrod planes should not fly until they met safety standards.
Investigation Findings
On December 4, 2007, an official investigation report was released. This report was from a "Board of Inquiry," which is a group that looks into serious accidents. The Board believed the fire most likely started in a fuel tank area. They thought fuel escaped and touched a very hot air pipe.
The investigation found four main things that led to the accident:
- Age of the aircraft: The plane was very old.
- Maintenance policy: How the planes were looked after was not good enough.
- No fire detection: There was no system to find fires early or put them out.
- Changes to the fuel system: Changes made to the fuel system over time were not fully checked for safety.
In May 2008, the coroner repeated his concerns. He said that the Nimrod fleet had never been safe to fly from the start. He also said that safety checks were not done properly. If they had been, the design problem in the Nimrod planes might have been found earlier.
The Nimrod Review
A special investigation, called the Nimrod Review, was started in December 2007. This review looked deeply into the safety of the Nimrod planes.
During the review, it was found that some official documents were destroyed after the crash. An RAF commander admitted that he destroyed some files, even though he said they were not related to the crash. He later said that destroying them was his fault and should not have happened.
The head of the Nimrod Review, Charles Haddon-Cave, QC, sent out warnings to organizations and senior RAF officers. These warnings meant they might be criticized in the final report. This gave them a chance to respond before the report was made public.
On October 28, 2009, Haddon-Cave released his report. He said that the safety checks for the Nimrod planes, done by BAE Systems, were a story of "incompetence, complacency and cynicism." He meant that the checks were done badly, people didn't care enough, and they were dishonest. He also said that the best chance to stop the accident from happening was sadly missed.
The report also said:
- The Ministry of Defence (MoD) had "deep organizational trauma" from earlier budget cuts.
- Safety was put aside to save money. This broke the promise to military personnel.
- A safety review of the Nimrod MR2 by the MoD, BAE Systems, and QinetiQ was called a "lamentable job," meaning it was very poor.
Haddon-Cave criticized how the MoD's culture changed between 1998 and 2006. He said that financial goals became more important than safety. A former senior RAF officer told the inquiry that by 2004, getting ahead meant being good with your budget, not necessarily with airworthiness.
The report directly criticized some individuals for their roles in the safety failures. For example, one officer was criticized for not making safety a top priority. Another was criticized for not properly managing the safety review.
The Defence Secretary, Bob Ainsworth, said the report would be upsetting for the families who lost loved ones. He apologized on behalf of the MoD and the Royal Air Force for the mistakes made and the lives lost.
Legal Action
In December 2008, the families of two of the men who died started legal action against the Defence Secretary.
In March 2009, the Ministry of Defence admitted it was responsible for the deaths of the 14 servicemen. This happened after the families used human rights law to bring their case to court. The MoD stated in court papers that the Nimrod was "not airworthy." They also said that the accident was caused by their failure to properly care for the aircraft.
