BAE 'hid full scale of Nimrod danger'

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Although the Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth apologised on behalf of the Ministry of Defence over the Nimrod crash in Afghanistan that killed 14 members of the armed forces, its "business partners" BAE Systems and QinetiQ Group were also severely criticised in the report by lawyer Charles Haddon-Cave.

Calling the safety management of both BAE and QinetiQ between 2001 and 2005 "lamentable from start to finish", Haddon-Cave reported how BAE worked very hard at "building a wall of denial and obfuscation".

The most damning accusation of the report is that although the Royal Air Force had expressed concerns about the safety of their Nimrods, BAE Systems carried out a safety check that was not only "riddled with errors" but "gave the misleading impression ... that the task had been properly completed and could be signed off".

Haddon-Cave said that BAE deliberately hid the scale of the problem from its customer and the lawyer said this behaviour "raised question marks about the prevailing ethical culture at BAE Systems". He added: "The company demonstrated incompetence, complacency and cynicism. The responsibility for this must lie with the leadership of the company."

In particular, Haddon-Cave named BAE's chief airworthiness engineer Chris Lowe, task leader Richard Oldfield and Eric Prince, flight systems and avionics manager. The pressure is almost certainly going to mount for them to "consider their positions" as Ainsworth put it.

However, still not admitting any liability, BAE Systems issued this statement: "The cause of the accident will never finally be determined. The company will consider and assess how best to support the Ministry of Defence in the implementation of the recommendations for improving processes to further enhance the operational safety of aircraft in military use."

For QinetiQ, Haddon-Cave said the company's approach was "fundamentally lax and compliant" and he named and shamed task manager Martyn Mahy, and technical assurance manager Colin Blagrove. Again, the company statement admitted nothing and did not contain an apology.

The company said: "Given the breadth and depth of Mr Haddon-Cave's report, QinetiQ wishes to take time to digest the report fully before making any detailed response. We want to emphasise that QinetiQ will seek to learn from all that the report says."