THE RAF Nimrod disaster that killed a former Telford soldier and 13 other British service personnel in Afghanistan was “avoidable”, an official review found today.

Review author Charles Haddon-Cave was heavily critical of the Ministry of Defence and said the tragedy had been caused by a “yawning gap between the appearance and the reality of safety”.

Today’s announcement prompted an apology in the Commons by Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth.

Mr Haddon-Cave told a press conference in London the 14 men on board Nimrod XV230 acted “with calmness, bravery and professionalism” when the aircraft suffered a catastrophic mid-air fire on September 2, 2006.

But he said they stood “no chance” because their fate was “already sealed” before the first fire warning.

The Nimrod spy plane exploded in mid-air near Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2006, causing the biggest single loss of life for UK forces since the Falklands War. Among the dead was Sergeant Gerard Bell, formerly of Brookside, Telford.

Mr Haddon-Cave condem- ned a military safety review of the Nimrod fleet finished a year before the tragedy as a “lamentable job”.

This “safety case”, drawn up by BAe Systems between 2001 and 2005, represented the best opportunity to resolve “serious design flaws” with the aircraft which had “lain dormant for years”. But this review was “riddled with errors” and missed the key dangers, the inquiry found. The report noted: “Its production is a story of incompetence, complacency and cynicism. The best chance to prevent the accident to XV230 was, tragically, lost.”

Mr Haddon-Cave also said that if the programme to replace Nimrods with a newer model had not been delayed, XV230 would not have been in service in 2006.

In the Commons Mr Ainsworth said: “On behalf of the MoD and the Royal Air Force, I would like again to say sorry to all the families who lost loved ones.”

Sergeant Bell, formerly of Brookside, Telford, and his widow Fiona were both educated at the Blessed Robert Johnson School in Wellington.

By Wayne Beese