A senior lawyer has been appointed to lead the review into the crash of a Nimrod spy plane which claimed the lives of a Shropshire airman and 13 colleagues, Defence Secretary Des Browne has said.Charles Haddon-Cave QC will lead an investigation examining the safety of the Nimrod MR2 aircraft, which was introduced in 1979. The aircraft exploded in a ball of flames during an intelligence-gathering mission in Afghanistan.

An RAF Board of Inquiry (BoI) into the loss of the plane, call sign XV230, found ageing components and a lack of fire suppressants were among the “contributory factors” which led to the accident in September 2006.

Among the dead was Flight Sergeant Gerard Bell, 48, formerly of Brookside, Telford.

Both he and his widow Fiona were educated at the Blessed Robert Johnson School in Wellington.

They had two daughters and lived near the RAF Kinloss base in Moray, Scotland.

In a written statement to MPs, Mr Browne said: “Mr Haddon-Cave has experience of aviation and safety matters, having been instructed in all the major aviation and marine inquires in England in the last 20 years.”

Mr Haddon-Cave’s review, which will be published in full, will examine a range of issues beyond the scope of the BoI and will assess who was to blame for the accident.

The terms of reference for the review include:

• To examine the arrangements for assuring the airworthiness and safe operation of the Nimrod MR2 in the period from its introduction in 1979 to the accident on September 2, 2006
• To assess where responsibility lies for any failures and what lessons are to be learned
• To assess more broadly the process for compiling safety cases, taking account of best practice in the civilian and military world.

Mr Browne said: “It is of the utmost importance an authoritative and independent analysis is conducted of the background circumstances to the loss of Nimrod XV230.

“The task Mr Haddon-Cave has undertaken will be complex, but I have asked him to ensure information that would assist our understanding of this tragic loss is published without delay.”