4mastacker, i disagree that this was an accident waiting to happen.......
this was an accident that occurred due to a cumulative sequence of events.... the fact that the insulation around the pipe that ignited the fuel was not sufficiently adequate, was not realised/discovered, until the one day that pipe insulation became vital;the day that the fuel leaked from one of the tanks, across the airframe, and into the area where it could be ( and tragically was) ignited.... at the end of the day, the MOD has admitted resonsibility for it's part in the accident, and has committed to compensation (which I know, wont bring back loved ones), and a further investigation (probably because of the intense media coverage, helped by this forum)
As a former stacker (i presume thats what you did!), what expert knowledge, exactly, do you have in this accident. unless you are a subject matter expert(ie ex pilot, eng etc).
how much experience do you have servicing this aircraft, or actually flying it. as far as i'm concerned, the aircrew did their part, extremely professionally, right until the end, and the groundcrew, did exactly what their relevant documents and experience told them to do.. it was a tragic incident, and i do believe the media coverage has helped in terms of MOD not trying to hide things, but comments like yours, that are unsubstantiated, dont help the families, or the colleagues, friends, and loved ones to understand what happened, what is going to happen, and how the Kinloss community, and the nimrod fleet are trying to prevent this happening again.......
Its an extremely hard fact to digest, but we learn from our mistakes, and I'm sure that the bereaved families, may take some comfort from knowing that their loved ones never died in vain...... that mistakes have been rectified, (as proved with the recent aircraft diverting due to fuel leak) and that this will (hopefully) never happen again... please feel free to PM me.