Simon Evans

A senior RAF engineer responsible for maintaining Nimrod spy planes was not told of a rise in fuel leaks on the craft before one crashed in Afghanistan killing 14 men, an inquest heard yesterday.

Wing Commander John Bromehead, formerly officer commanding Logistics Support Wing at RAF Kinloss, agreed with coroner Andrew Walker that this amounted to "a really serious failure".

The 37-year-old reconnaissance aircraft, described by the officer as "beyond its sell-by date", exploded in a ball of flames minutes after air-to-air refuelling near Kandahar on September 2, 2006.

Wg Cdr Bromehead, who had earlier told the inquest in Oxford how he was not told in the months before the tragedy about increased fuel leaks on Nimrod aircraft, was asked by the coroner: "Do you think that a failure to report to you an increase in fuel leaks is a really serious failure?"

"Yes," came the reply.

Wg Cdr Bromehead, who was in charge of a team of Nimrod engineers at Kinloss between June 2005 and 2006, said he believed the tragedy was caused by fuel leaking into a dry bay and igniting on contact with a hot air pipe.

Rather than repairing every leak on a craft, Wg Cdr Bromehead said they were dealt with according to their severity with engineers ensuring they were within "prescribed limits".

The inquest heard how he told the RAF Board of Inquiry (BoI) that the Nimrod, which first came into service in 1969. was an "ageing aircraft" which was "beyond its sell-by date".

Wg Cdr Bromehead, in evidence yesterday, said: "The bath tub curve is a general engineering principle that is when something gets old, it is more likely to break.

"I did have concerns that the Nimrod may be hitting the far end of a bath tub curve; not in any particular area but just in general. Regrettably it takes a tragedy to perhaps home in on one particular area."

Wg Cdr Bromehead told the hearing there had been in recent years "a dilution of skills and experience" among RAF engineers - not only those concerned with Nimrods - which made it more likely that problems with aircraft could be missed.

He also said the RAF's management structure at the time of the tragedy was "in turmoil", adding that continual cost-cutting and management restructuring had led him to leave the RAF.

The 12 RAF personnel killed were Flight Lieutenant Steven Johnson, 38, from Elgin, Morayshire; Flt Lt Leigh Anthony Mitchelmore, 28, also from Elgin; Flt Lt Gareth Rodney Nicholas, 40, Flt Sgt Stephen Beattie, 42, Flt Sgt Gerard Martin Bell, 48, Sgt Gary Paul Quilliam, 42, Sgt John Joseph Langton, 29, and Flt Sgt Adrian Davies, 49, all from Forres, Morayshire; Flt Lt Allan James Squires, 39, of Nairn, Nairnshire; Flt Lt Steven Swarbrick, 28, and Sergeant Benjamin James Knight, 25, from Inverness; and Flight Sergeant Gary Wayne Andrews, 48, from Fochabers, Moray.

Lance Corporal Oliver Simon Dicketts, from the Parachute Regiment, 27, and from Wadhurst, East Sussex, and Royal Marine Joseph David Windall, 22, from Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire, also died.

The inquest continues.