Four new sites in Scotland – all owned by the Ministry of Defence, Continue reading
Tag Archives: RAF Kinloss
Voyage to Murmansk: a convoy of memories
Take a 16 year old cabin boy with the New Zealand Shipping Company who became a 60s pop singer Continue reading
MoD grounds Nimrod fleet 30 months after inquest blames aircraft for 14 in-flight refuelling deaths
The Ministry of Defence has now announced that it is grounding the BAE Nimrod fleet from 31st March. The aircraft will have their engine bay hot-air ducts and their fuel seals replaced.
These were each thought to have played a critical role in an accident in September 2006 that claimed the lives of 14 servicemen based at RAF Kinloss. The men died when fuel leaking during in-flight refuelling hit a hot pipe.
The coroner at their inquest in May 2008, Andrew Walker, said that the aircraft had ‘never been airworthy’ and called then for the entire fleet to be grounded. The then Defence Secretary, Des Browne, multi-tasking as Scottish Secretary, insisted that the aircraft were safe to fly.
The families of those who died back in September 2006 will reasonably wonder why it has taken so long to make this decision.
Those who have had to fly Nimrod since then will wonder why their safety has been consistently compromised.
The crew who must continue to fly the aircraft until 31st March – and their families – will wonder why the, now admittedly unsafe, aircraft are to be kept in the air for another three weeks.
All the aircraft concerned are based overseas and the MoD says that there will be no operational impact from their withdrawal. This rather defies logic since, in his written statement to the House of Commons, Defence Minister Bob Ainsworth says that the temporary halt to overseas operations ‘will allow us to free up the maximum number of aircraft for the modification programme while also allowing Nimrod to continue with its critical homeland security tasks’.
It is hard to see how a temporary halt to overseas operations can be described as without operational impact.
Then there is a bit of compensatory spin on continuing ‘homeland security’. This is itself undermined by the fact that the movement of engineering staff from Nimrod’s home base at RAF Kinloss to work on the modifications at RAF Waddington ‘will cause a temporary reduction in routine UK-based Nimrod flying but will not affect our ability to protect UK interests at home’.
Again, where’s the logic. Any reduction to what is considered a necessary flight frequency cannot but ‘affect our ability to protect UK interests at home’.
Then the MoD say there will be no operational impact in Afghanistan because they plan to use other UK and coalition aircraft to cover any shortfall. This begs the question why they have not done this long before now.
Nothing adds up. It never did. We can only hope that the Nimrods in the air between now and 31st March get back to base safely.
The photograph, above, of a BAE Nimrod in flight is reproduced here under the Creative Commons licence.
All18 survive as helicopter ditches on approach to platform on Etap Field off Scottish North Sea coast
The RAF received its first report of a helicopter with 18 on board ditching in the North Sea at 6:43 p.m. It was a Super Puma ditching about 120 miles east of Aberdeen as it approached an offshore platform in the ETAP field.
The RAF’s aeronautical rescue coordination center at RAF Kinloss was providing helicopter assistance to the Aberdeen Coast Guard. One RAF helicopter and one civilian helicopter went to the scene and two more civilian helicopters joined them there, with another RAF helicopter in support.
9.30pm UPDATE: It is not known whether or not the pilot had time to make a mayday call but it is now known that all 18 on board have been picked up. James Lyon, assistant controller at RAF Kinloss, says: ‘We have been picking up beacons from their lifejackets… Two aircraft are on the scene’. Three have been taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and and the others are being brought back to the city by a fast rescue boat.
Thursday 19th February UPDATE: Visibility is said to heva been down to half a mile and the helicopter was in view of the platform when it hit the water. The ditched helicopter, said to be missing its tail boom, is reported to have sat upright in the water because of its flotation bags. This made escape a lot easier.
The rescue was more difficult because it took place in darkness and with a cloud base lower then the platform’s deck. There were so many rescue units in the area that a mid-air helicopter collision was a real risk. An RAF Nimrod coordinated movements and acted successfully to defend against this possibility. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch is launching an investigation into the accident and is sending nine people to Aberdeen today.
The First Minister, Alex Salmond has thanked the rescue services for their successful efforts to avert ‘that could have been a terrible tragedy’.
Ten days of increased low-flying as MOD admit pilots required to select practice targets in countryside
The MOD, through Under Secretary of State for Defence, Derek Twigg MP, has confirmed in a letter to Charles Kennedy MP that RAF pilots in training are ‘required to select practice targets which are representative of those they are likely to face in operations. This may include vehicles (in simulation of of military vehicles) as well as buildings.’ People living near Ullapool, which lies within the Tactical Training Areas permitting descent to 100ft, have reported frightening incidents where cars, boats and dams have been targeted in this way. The national media have recently reported that a woman in Dumfries who owns and breeds pedigree Arabian horses is suing the MOD for distress and injury to her animals caused by persistent low flying.
Alongside Mr Twigg’s admission of required targeting comes the announcement that Scottish skies will see increased military low flying activity over the next ten days. RAF Kinloss is host to a course from tomorrow until 4th July to increase the tactical leadership skills of aircrew in a ‘realistic, tactical environment’.
An MOD spokesman talking about the forthcoming course out of RAF Kinloss, said that planners are taking steps to avoid repetitive flying over areas which may be particularly sensitive to low flying aircraft and aircraft noise’. This may well mean that low flying is spread more widely than usual. Argyll’s lochs and glens already see a fair bit of Tornado practice. Email us if you or any of your property appears to have been selected as a target in the manner described above.