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Non-Subscriber Extract
Safety issue suspends Nimrod MRA.4 flight training
By Tim Ripley
11 October 2010
Flight training on the BAE Systems Nimrod MRA.4 maritime patrol aircraft has been halted after a "potential safety issue" was identified by the UK Ministry of Defence's (MoD's) new Military Airworthiness Authority (MAA) last month.
The undisclosed problem could not have come at a worse time for the Royal Air Force (RAF) effort to bring the Nimrod MRA.4 into service, with the programme already subject to the UK's Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), which is due to report later this month.
RAF sources say they fear the issue might be used to try to kill the MRA.4 programme because it may be associated with the image of the aircraft's predecessor, the Nimrod MR.2.
An MR.2 crash in Afghanistan in 2006 cost the lives of 14 crew members and led to the RAF's safety record being tarnished in the subsequent investigation.
A consequence of the MR.2 crash was the establishment of the MAA; the Nimrod MRA.4 is the first aircraft to go through the organisation to receive its formal release to service (RTS) safety clearance.
Jane's understands that the flying element of MRA.4 training has been 'paused' since March while MAA experts examine the aircraft under the new RTS procedure.
RAF personnel have continued to train on MRA.4 simulators at BAE Systems' Warton site in Lancashire and at the aircraft's future main operating base at RAF Kinloss in Scotland.
The MAA investigation involves examining documents provided by the MRA.4's manufacturer that show the results of the aircraft's flight-test programme to prove it meets the required safety criteria.
An MoD spokesman told Jane's that "work undertaken to validate the BAE Systems safety case on production-standard aircraft had identified potential safety issues.
That issue is being rectified at the moment. The aircraft will not fly again until we are fully satisfied. Safety is our overriding priority".
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