Latest development this evening is the following statement from BAE, which is already on some news channels and will likely appear in some of tomorrow's newspapers:
STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO HADDON-CAVE REPORT INTO LOSS OF NIMROD XV230
Farnborough, UK – Following publication of the report into the loss of Nimrod XV230 over Afghanistan, we have now had the opportunity to review the report.
We acknowledge that there were a number of failings in our application of our internal processes and procedures during the course of work undertaken as part of the Nimrod safety review which took place between 2001 and 2004. We accept full responsibility for these failings and apologise unreservedly for them.
The Company remains absolutely committed to safety as a priority and has implemented improvements in the course of the review of this incident. It has learnt from the mistakes made in the 2001 safety review, identified originally in the Board of Inquiry report published in 2007. Those lessons learnt have already been applied and improvements implemented.
The Haddon-Cave Report raises wide ranging issues. We will respond as appropriate. Our priority is to identify areas for further improvements to the management of safety risk.
We deeply regret the loss of life resulting from this accident and our thoughts continue to be with the families and friends of those affected by this tragedy.