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KC-10<br />
THE NIMROD ACCIDENT:<br />
COULD IT HAPPEN HERE?<br />
AGING AIRCRAFT,<br />
AERIAL REFUELING,<br />
AND OVERSIGHT<br />
BY JAMES WYNBRANDT<br />
AIRCRAFT REFUELING<br />
In September, 2006 a British Royal<br />
Air Force (RAF) Nimrod MR2<br />
aircraft caught fire immediately<br />
following a refueling rendezvous with<br />
an RAF Lockheed TriStar tanker over<br />
Afghanistan. The resulting explosion<br />
claimed all fourteen crew members<br />
onboard the Nimrod.<br />
A British Board of Inquiry<br />
determined that the accident most<br />
likely was caused by a fuel leak,<br />
associated with the refueling<br />
operation, which came in contact with<br />
a hot Cross Feed/Supplementary<br />
Cooling Pack (SCP) duct in the<br />
Nimrod. These conclusions later were<br />
reaffirmed by the U.K. Air Accident<br />
Investigation Branch and the U.S. Air<br />
Force Safety Center.<br />
Despite these findings, many<br />
defense experts believed that wider<br />
systemic issues contributed to the<br />
accident, and a further analysis was<br />
undertaken. The resulting Haddon-<br />
Cave Review (named for principal<br />
WWW.ABDONLINE.COM AVIATION AFTERMARKET <strong>DEFENSE</strong> | SPRING 2010<br />
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