Their hands are tied
I have witnessed first hand how hard all the Linies at Kinloss work to make the Nimrods as safe as possible. The pressure the whole Nimrod fleet is and has been under is causing experienced people to PVR because they are fed up with spending half the year in the Gulf with no answer to the problem of an aircraft that is just past its sell by date.
My concern is for all those who fly in the Nimrod as I can not believe they are as safe as they should be in light of the state of the air frame and the strain put on all those involved in working on it.
In Sept 2006 I felt it was horrifying that it would take the loss of 14 men to make the higher command sit up and take notice. The fact that they have not taken action is sickening.