Royal Air Force Nimrod XV230 Royal Air Force Nimrod XV230 was the first of 38 Nimrod maritime reconnaissance / strike aircraft to enter operational service with the RAF on October 2 , 1969 . At a ceremony held at Woodford airfield in Cheshire , the aircraft was handed over by the deputy managing director of Hawker Siddeley Aviation , Sir Harry Broadhurst . Receiving XV230 were the AOC - in Chief of Coastal Command , Air Marshal Sir John Lapsley . At Sir Harry ' s invitation , Lady Lapsley performed the naming ceremony . Later in the day an RAF crew flew XV230 to its base at RAF St Mawgan , Cornwall , where the Nimrod maritime operational training unit ( MOTD ) was to be formed . According to Jane ' s Information Group , XV230 was one of six Nimrods equipped with an L - 3 Wescam MX - 15 electro - optical turret in 2003 . In June / July 2006 XV230 was given the capability to transmit real - time video imagery from the MX - 15 to ground stations and commanders . This was implemented under Project Broadsword . During a reconnaissance flight it crashed in Afghanistan on 2 September 2006 , killing 14 military personnel in Britain ' s biggest single loss since the Falklands War . Crash details . The aircraft is believed to have suffered a leak during midair refuelling while it was monitoring a NATO offensive against Taliban insurgents west of Kandahar . The fuel appears to have leaked into the bomb bay where it caught fire , either as the result of an electrical fault or hot air leaking from a heating pipe . The pilot reported a fire in his bomb - bay . He tried to reach Kandahar air base , taking the aircraft down from 23 , 000 ft to 3 , 000 ft in 90 seconds . An RAF Harrier aircraft followed the Nimrod down and the pilot saw a wing explode , followed a few seconds later by the rest of the aircraft . The crash site was about 25 miles WNW of Kandahar Airfield ( which is located 16 kilometers south - east of the city of Kandahar ) between two villages called Chil Khor and Fatehullah Qala in the Panjwaye District . Witnesses included local men Abdul Manan , Afshan Hararoot and Haji Eisamuddin . Twelve RAF personnel , a Royal Marine and a British Army soldier aboard the Nimrod MR2 , XV230 were killed . The 12 RAF crew were all from No . 120 Squadron RAF , based at RAF Kinloss in Scotland and the soldier and marine on board were serving with the Special Reconnaissance Regiment . A board of inquiry report was released in December 2007 . On 23 May 2008 the assistant deputy coroner for Oxfordshire , Andrew Walker , handed down a narrative ruling that it had " never been airworthy from the first time it was released to the service nearly 40 years ago " . " It seems to me that this is a case where I would be failing in my duty if I didn ' t report action to the relevant authority that would prevent future fatalities , " " I have given the matter considerable thought and I see no alternative but to report to the secretary of state that the Nimrod fleet should not fly until the Alarp [ as low as reasonably practicable ] standards are met . " Controversy . There have been concerns in the British media about serviceability of the Nimrod fleet and bereaved families are having to wait for years for the Oxfordshire coroner ' s office to hold inquests into military deaths . Conservative MP , Mr Ian Liddell - Grainger called for its replacement - the MRA4 - to be introduced more quickly . The replacement aircraft has suffered significant problems during the development and construction which has resulted in lengthy programme delays and the in - service date slipping nine years from 2003 to 2012 ( although the replacement has now been scrapped entirely following the 2010 strategic defence review ) . Concerns were again raised when on Monday 5 November 2007 , Nimrod XV235 was reported to have suffered a similar fuel leak . The aircraft landed safely . The MoD have since suspended all in - flight refuelling of the Nimrod fleet . The Scottish National Party ' s Westminster leader , Angus Robertson has criticised delays in inquiries . He said the wait for the Ministry of Defence inquiry and a coroner ' s inquest was a " " disgrace " " that dates have still to be set for the publication of the board of inquiry ' s findings and a coroner ' s inquest into the deaths . He was also quoted as saying " Everybody ' s thoughts are with the families and friends of those who lost their lives . They are having to wait far too long to receive answers to many questions . A 12 - month wait is a disgrace - Publication dates have been put back and put back and the Ministry of Defence should get on with it . " In March 2009 , following continued questions about the safety of the Nimrod fleet and despite constantly stating that the aircraft were airworthy , the MOD grounded the Nimrod fleet for " vital safety modification [ s ] " . There are those who opine that the loss was a foreseeable consequence of design and production failures . Concerns about the safety of the Nimrod fleet have continued to surface since the loss of XV230 . In April 2009 it was reported that the Defence Minister had " glossed over Nimrod safety fears " . The " Independent " newspaper claimed that a report into the safety of Britain ' s ageing fleet of Nimrods , which a defence minister claimed did not reveal " any significant airworthiness issues " , exposed almost 1 , 500 faults – 26 of which threatened the aircraft ' s safety . Board of Inquiry findings . On 4 December 2007 the report of the findings of the official Board of Inquiry into the loss of XV230 was published . The Board believed that the No 7 tank dry bay was the most likely location for the seat of the fire , with the most probable cause being escaped fuel having come into contact with a Supplementary Conditioning Pack ( SCP ) airpipe at 400 degrees Celsius " . . . after entering a gap between two types of insulation " . Four separate factors were listed as contributing to the accident : Age of the aircraft ; Maintenance policy ; Failure of hazard analysis and lack of a fire detection and suppression system ; Not identifying the full implications of successive changes to the fuel system and associated procedures . Links into the full report on the XV230 accident can be found here On 23 May 2008 , the coroner who led the inquest into these deaths stated that the entire Nimrod fleet had " never been airworthy from the first time it was released to service " and urged that it should be grounded . Assistant deputy coroner for Oxfordshire Andrew Walker added : " This cavalier approach to safety must come to an end . There were failures . . . [ in monitoring the aircraft ' s safety ] . . . that should , if the information had been correctly recorded and acted upon , have led to the discovery of this design flaw within the Nimrod fleet . " Nimrod review . The Terms of Reference for the Nimrod Review were set out by the Secretary of State for Defence , Des Browne , on 13 December 2007 . It emerged in May 2009 that an RAF commander destroyed a number of official documents after the loss of Nimrod XV230 . The Times newspaper , 31 May 2009 , reported that all documents relating to the aircraft were immediately impounded but Sqn Ldr Guy Bazalgette , commander of the Nimrod detachment in the Gulf , managed to retrieve one file . Bazalgette subsequently destroyed the document but later told the coroners inquest that none of the shredded documents were relevant to the loss of XV230 . However , Bazalgette admitted : “ They should not have been shredded and it was my fault that they were . ” Also in May 2009 , Charles Haddon - Cave , QC , leading the Nimrod Review issued a number of " Salmon letters " to organisations and senior RAF officers warning them they were likely to be criticised in its formal report . The so - called Salmon letters give those who are likely to be criticised by the inquiry the opportunity to respond to the criticism before the report ’ s publication . The MoD and the Nimrod inquiry team declined to say which senior RAF officers had received letters . On October 28 , Haddon - Cave presented his report , summarised by the statement : The report : Mr Haddon - Cave condemned the change of organisational culture within the MoD between 1998 and 2006 , when financial targets came to distract from safety , quoting a former senior RAF officer who told the inquiry : Mr Haddon - Cave directly criticised 10 individuals in the report - five at the MoD , three at BAE Systems and two at QinetiQ - while throughout the review BAE Systems had been a company " in denial . " Mr Haddon - Cave ' s report directly criticised two RAF officers : Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said the " rigorous " report would make distressing reading for the relatives of those who died . Mr Ainsworth told the Commons the two RAF officers had been moved to staff posts which held no responsibility for safety and the RAF would now consider if any " further action " would be taken against them . Legal proceedings . In December 2008 the Defence Secretary John Hutton was served with a writ by relatives of two of 14 men who died . In March 2009 in response to the writ the Ministry of Defence admitted responsibility for the deaths of the 14 servicemen aboard Nimrod aircraft XV230 , after two families brought a landmark legal action using human rights law . High Court papers submitted by the MoD in response to the claim accept for the first time that the reconnaissance aircraft , which exploded mid - air in Afghanistan , was " not airworthy " . The papers add : " The defendant owed to the deceased a duty of care and the accident was caused by this breach of that duty of care . " Following the publication of the report by Charles Hadden - Cave QC a criminal investigation has been launched by Thames Valley Police in conjunction with the Health & Safety Executive and the Royal Military Police to establish whether it is appropriate to bring criminal proceedings against those named in the Hadden - Cave report .