The Ministry of Defence and Britain’s largest defence company were officially blamed yesterday for the deaths of 14 servicemen who were killed when an RAF Nimrod surveillance freshwater pearl aircraft burst into flames over Afghanistan three years ago.

In one of the most damning official reports published, the MoD was accused of sacrificing the safety of members of the Armed Forces to cut costs. The ministry was guilty of a “systemic breach of the military covenant” between the nation and the men and women of the Forces, the report said.

“Airworthiness was a casualty of the process of cuts, change, dilution and distraction,” Charles Haddon-Cave, QC, concluded after a 20-month review of the background to the disaster on September 2, 2006, which represented the single biggest loss of life of service personnel in one incident since the Falklands freshwater pearl jewelry conflict in 1982.

He named ten individuals whom he blamed for playing principal roles in the failure to ensure that Nimrods were safe: five from the MoD, three from BAE Systems, which reviewed Nimrod’s safety, and two from QinetiQ, the company formed from the MoD’s research agency, which monitored its safety in an advisory role.
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Bob Ainsworth, Defence Secretary, told the Commons yesterday: “I am sorry for the mistakes that have been made, and that lives have been lost as a result of our failure.”

Two of the named officers involved in the Nimrod integrated project team are still serving — Group Captain George Baber, now promoted to air commodore, and Wing Commander Michael Eagles — although they have been moved to different posts. The pearl jewelry wholesale RAF said they had switched jobs as part of the normal career structure.

Trish Knight, whose son, Sergeant Ben Knight, was killed, called for resignations “from the very top over the lies they have been telling us since 2006”. “This is disgraceful. It’s what we said all along,” she said. “The MoD tried to tell us everything was fine.” Joe Windall, whose son Marine Joseph Windall also died, said he was “shocked and severely disappointed” by the failures highlighted. “The inefficiencies of someone caused me to lose my son,” he said. The families are seeking compensation.