I really cannot agree with 5aday.
The Shackleton Mk 2 Phase 3 was not quite the death trap he portrays. Of course there were losses, but operating a large aircraft at low level in all weathers was never going to be 100% safe.
If anything the Mk3 was more of a handful (I flew both). It was heavier, but with the same power until the Vipers were added.
As for the Nimrod, (which I also flew) there were 5 losses.
One was due to multiple birdstrikes, all but two of the crew survived
One was due to a flare igniting in the bomb bay. It was landed sucessfully with no casualties, but was a write off due to fire damage.
One was lost with a reduced crew due to pilot error.
One was ditched due to a fire, all crew survived.
One was lost with full crew due to a fuel fire.
So, five losses, of which only two could be attributed to the aircraft itself, and on three of them all or most of the crew survived..
This was in 40 years of service, with 400,000 hours flown, and, as with the Shackleton, in all weathers and much of it at low level.
Not a bad record.