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 four North West men, an inquest heard.
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 office
r as "beyond its sell-by date" - exploded in a ball of flames just minutes after undergoing air-to-air refuelling near Kandahar on September 2, 2006, killing Sgt John Joseph Langton, 29, of Liverpool, Sgt Gary Paul Quilliam, 42, of Manchester, Flt Lt Allan James Squires, 39, of Clatterbridge, Wirral, Flt Lt Steven Swarbrick, 28, of Liverpool, and 10 others .
Wg Cdr Bromehead told the inquest in Oxford how he was not told in the months before the tragedy about increased fuel leaks on Nimrod aircraft, which first came into service in 1969.
Mr Walker asked: "Do you think that a failure to report to you an increase in fuel leaks is a really serious failure?"
Wg Cdr Bromehead, who was in charge of a team of Nimrod engineers at Kinloss between June 2005 and 2006, agreed and said he believed the tragedy was caused by fuel leaking into a dry bay and igniting on contact with a hot air pipe. The crew on Nimrod XV230 had no means of tackling the initial fire and so were forced to attempt an emergency descent to the Kandahar airbase, but at 3,000ft the aircraft exploded into flames.
Rather than repairing each and every leak on a craft when they were known about, Wg Cdr Bromehead said leaks 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 that the Nimrod was an "ageing aircraft" which was "beyond its sell-by date".
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 makes 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 inquest continues.
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