The work has been going on for months and DOES NOT start on 1st April. As has already been stated, aircrew at Kinloss have known about this for months but political interference has muddied the water regarding the rigidity of the date for completion.
Only aircraft that have not completed the hot air duct replacement programme cannot be flown. The 31st March is not a magical date beyond which the aircraft is not safe, this is a date that has been forced on the Kinloss engineering staff to have the work completed by.
Although this has not always been the case in recent years, aircrew at Kinloss are being kept up to speed with the engineering situation. Sky News announced to the world that "the Nimrod is grounded" due to "fuel seals that brought down a Nimrod in 2006". I am announcing that Sky News does not have a clue what is going on with the safety or engineering programmes of the Nimrod.
I believe that the media can have a very important role to play in exposing political malpractice, but ill-informed and poorly researched reporting gives all journalists a bad name.