Ageing components 'factor in crash'

The RAF Board of Inquiry (BoI) into the loss of the 37-year-old Nimrod MR2, call sign XV230, found that ageing components and a lack of fire suppressants were among the "contributory factors" which led to the accident.

The aircraft exploded in a ball of flames just minutes after undergoing air-to-air refuelling during an intelligence-gathering mission over southern Afghanistan on September 2 2006.

All 14 servicemen on board were killed in the crash which represented the heaviest loss of life to be suffered by British forces in a single incident since the Falklands War.

In the Commons, Mr Browne acknowledged that the BoI had identified failings for which the Ministry of Defence must take responsibility and he apologised to the families of those who had died. "I am sorry," he said.

Mr Browne said that he had been assured by the head of the RAF, Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy, that the remaining Nimrod MR2s were safe to fly after a series of recommendations by the BoI had been put in place.

However, he said that he had ordered the review into the "arrangements for assuring the airworthiness and safe operation" of the Nimrod fleet as the families were entitled to more of an explanation than a BoI could provide.

The BoI concluded that most probable cause of the accident was an escape of fuel following the air-to-air refuelling - either as a result of an overflow or a leak in the system.

Air Chief Marshal Torpy said it was clear that the risks associated with siting fuel and hot air pipes alongside each other in the No 7 tank dry bay had been "underestimated".

He said that air-to-air refuelling of Nimrods, which had been temporarily suspended for two-and-a-half weeks last year following the crash, had now been suspended again following following a further incident last month.