British coroner investigating deadly 2006 military crash in Afghanistan says Nimrod spyplanes were never airworthy

May 23, 2008

LONDON – A British coroner investigating the deaths of 14 military personnel in a 2006 plane crash in Afghanistan said Friday that the Nimrod spy planes were never airworthy.

Fourteen servicemen died when a Nimrod MR2 on an intelligence-gathering mission exploded following air-to-air refueling near Kandahar, Afghanistan, in September 2006.

The crash killed 12 crew members, a Royal Marine and an army soldier – the British military's biggest loss of life in a single incident since the 1982 Falklands War.

The plane was part of a fleet of 15 aging Nimrod MR2 aircraft originally due to go out of service a decade ago. The planes had suffered a series of fuel leaks and other mechanical problems but has served as surveillance aircraft operating over land, particularly in Afghanistan.

“The aircraft was never airworthy from the first release to service in 1969,” said Coroner Andrew Walker, who is holding an inquest into the military deaths.