A ROYAL Air Force engineer has told an inquest he found "shocking" corrosion on fuel pipe couplings on a Nimrod aircraft shortly before one of them blew up in mid-air.
Sergeant Andrew Whitmore revealed he had to saw off one corroded metal cover by hand.
After Nimrod XV230 exploded while attempting an emergency landing in Afghanistan on 2 September, 2006, with the loss of 14 servicemen – most of them from RAF Ki
nloss – further checks were ordered and they exposed problems with couplings across the fleet.
The faulty couplings were found throughout the planes' fuselages, including in Dry Bay Seven, an area by one of the fuel tanks thought to be where the fatal blaze on XV230 took hold.
Asked whether he had ever seen fuel leaks in Dry Bay Seven involving the pipe couplings, Sgt Whitmore replied he had, but "very infrequently".
On one occasion, after noticing a slow dripping, he removed a panel to inspect the coupling. "It was corroded and the seal was perished," he told the inquest in Oxford. "The casing was corroded and I had to hacksaw it off." He said the corrosion was "pretty bad – shocking, to be honest".
He added that since the tragedy, further checks had been brought in, which revealed similar problems.
Asked by the coroner what the cause of the corrosion might be, Sgt Whitmore said he believed it was salty air – a point the coroner said was concerning because of the Nimrod's major role in maritime reconnaissance.
Nimrod XV230 was on Nato operations against the Taleban when, shortly after air-to-air refuelling, the crew spotted smoke in the cabin. A fire took hold and, as the aircraft approached Kandahar airfield to make an emergency landing, it exploded.
It was the greatest loss of life of British service personnel in one incident since the Falklands War.
The hearing was adjourned until today.
The full article contains 324 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
