by Tejas Mehta
4 October 2010
Relatives of 14 servicemen killed when their aeroplane blew up over Afghanistan have been awarded a total of £15 million compensation by the Ministry of Defence.
Last year, an independent investigation into the disaster found that the explosion was due to an overflow of fuel being ignited by a hot air pipe.
The report concluded that financial considerations had allowed attention to be drawn away from safety at the MoD in the run up to the accident in September 2006, and the coroner Andrew Walker criticized the Ministry’s ‘cavalier’ attitude to their personnel’s safety and said the RAF Nimrod aircraft had ‘never been airworthy.’
Widows of the 14 men will receive around £800,000 each, with the amount paid to other relatives between £5,000 and £30,000.