Senior officers are expected to be criticised today in an official report into the RAF crash that killed former Telford man Sergeant Gerard Bell and 13 other British servicemen in Afghanistan.

The Nimrod spy plane exploded in mid-air near Kandahar in 2006, causing the biggest single loss of life for UK forces since the Falklands War.

Leading aviation lawyer Charles Haddon-Cave QC will today publish the findings of his 22-month review.

He has been asked by the Government to rule where responsibility lies for any failings and given powers to recommend a public inquiry if he thinks it necessary.

Mr Haddon-Cave has told relatives of the men killed that he is likely to name and criticise organisations and individuals in his report.

Serious concerns have already been raised about the airworthiness of the 37-year-old Nimrod MR2, call sign XV230, that blew up minutes after air-to-air refuelling. A coroner ruled in May last year that the RAF’s Nimrods had not been airworthy since entering service in 1969 and called for the fleet to be grounded.

Graham Knight, whose son Sergeant Ben Knight, 25, from 120 Squadron RAF, was killed, said he was optimistic that Mr Haddon-Cave would single out those to blame. The exact content of the report has been kept a tightly-guarded secret.

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth received a copy yesterday, and families will be briefed on it before it is laid before Parliament at about 12.45pm today.

Sergeant Bell, formerly of Brookside, Telford, and his widow, Fiona, both went to Blessed Robert Johnson School in Wellington and moved to Kinloss from Telford with their two daughters.