'10 have quit' due to Nimrod safety

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Aviation writer David Morgan said he was aware of a number of Nimrod personnel who had left the Scottish air base following worries about the aircraft's systems, including air-to-air refuelling.

He was speaking in the wake of a coroner's ruling that the entire RAF fleet of Nimrod aircraft has never been airworthy and should be grounded.

Andrew Walker's verdict followed an inquest into the deaths of 14 servicemen based at RAF Kinloss who lost their lives when their plane exploded in mid-air just minutes after undergoing air-to-air refuelling in Afghanistan in September 2006.

The Ministry of Defence would not comment on Mr Morgan's specific claims, but stressed the RAF placed the "highest priority" on airworthiness and the safety of its personnel.

Mr Morgan, who has flown with Nimrod crews over the last 20 years, said: "I know of at least 10 air crew who left because they were getting worried about the maintenance level of the Nimrod and its reliability.

"But to say the aircraft was not airworthy, I feel, was misleading.

"The Nimrod aircraft is very strong and from what I can gather from friends and crew, the problems were with the aircraft systems, including the fuel systems."

Mr Morgan, who is based in the town of Forres which lies a few miles from Kinloss, added that air-to-air refuelling had "never been successful" as the Nimrod had not been designed for such an operation.

"The fuel is going in at high pressure and high pressure will find weaknesses," he said. "It is a very dangerous thing to pump fuel into an aircraft crammed with electronics."