The BBC Pamorama website now has more information on about tonights programme.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programme...ma/6716645.stm
On a Wing and a Prayer An RAF whistleblower has told BBC Panorama about deep concerns among servicemen about the state of the UK's fleet of Nimrod spyplanes.
The insider, an airman with 20 years' experience, revealed a number of technical problems and fuel leaks, including an incident during a UK flight in November 2004 that he believed could have brought down the plane.
It was only when they landed that the damage was discovered
In the incident, he said, a hot-air pipe had ruptured below fuel tanks and superheated air had "blasted out", melting the seals.
Panorama also uncovers details of two major fuel leaks, the first of which, according to former
Nimrod engineer Jimmy Jones, could have caused the loss of another crew.
In November last year,
just eight weeks after the Kandahar crash, a
fuel pipe coupling was found to be leaking after air-to-air refuelling.
The crew thought it so serious that an
air incident report was filed and mid-air refuelling procedures were changed.
Asked how serious he thought the incident was, Jones warned that it could have been a "replication" of the situation in September.
In December, sources told Panorama, a crew on another plane filed an incident report after leaks caused "pools of fuel" to form in the bomb bay and fuel covered flares.
Retired Air Vice-Marshal Brian Robinson told the programme that operations in the Middle East were having a huge impact on the Nimrods.
He said: "They are doing a full pint job with a half pint of resources. That can't go on, it has to change."