Daughter still angry at MoD 10 years after Nimrod crash
Student says ministry’s care for staff ‘just a facade’
A YOUNG woman whose father died in the Nimrod plane crash over Afghanistan almost a decade ago has said she is still angry about the cause of the accident.
Flight Sergeant Gary Andrews, 48, of 120 Squadron based at RAF Kinloss, was among 14 people who died when the Nimrod MR2 longrange plane exploded over Kandahar, Afghanistan, on September 2, 2006 after air-to-air refuelling.
Sophie Andrews was just 12 when she learned of her father’s death in the biggest single loss of life of British service personnel since the Falklands War in 1982.
Ms Andrews, of Moray, who is now preparing for her final examinations in art history at York University, said it would have been easier to accept if he has been killed in action.
In 2009, an independent review ordered by the UK Government accused the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of sacrificing safety to cut costs. It was described as the most devastating attack on the MoD and the defence industry in living memory. The MoD admitted negligence in relation to the blast.
Ms Andrews said: “It is like somebody dying in a house fire. It is tragic. But if somebody forgot to check the wiring, it becomes some- thing other than an accident. There was this facade of them [the MoD] caring for those who worked for them. But it was a facade. That’s what really hard. It is something that always comes back when I try to explain to people what happened to my dad.
“It is been a long time, but it is still hard. We still miss him.”
Ms Andrews, her mother Kristina and her younger sister Lauren do not normally mark the anniver- sary of his death. “We tend to wait two days and celebrate what would have been his birthday. Most years we have gone over, spent the day around Grantown-on-Spey and there is a strong chance we will do so again this year.”
The airman was laid to rest in a natural burial ground, Delliefure, in Grantown-on-Spey, a woodland overlooking the March Pool on a bend in the River Spey.
As the anniversary approaches, Ms Andrews has high hopes of studying for a masters degree and achieving her dream to become a fashion forecaster.
She attended Milne’s High School in Fochabers and took her Highers there. Afterwards she went on to take A levels at Gordonstoun, with the fees largely paid by the RAF Benevolent Fund, the service’s leading welfare charity.
She was attracted to the art history course at York University because it would allow her to focus exclusively on the subject but faced tuition fees of around £9,000 a year
However, the fund has been giving her enough to cover the fees and to live on, though sometimes she has to take a part-time job like many other students, to get though the term.
She says she is conscious that, had her father not died, things would have been very different.
“Where we are now is not where we would be have been if he was still around. We stayed in Moray but moved house. Now my mum and sister have moved to near Edinburgh, which is a lot handier for me coming home. And my mother trained as a teacher.
“If we hadn’t lost dad I don’t know if I would have gone to Gordonstoun as I don’t know we would have had the extra money. And I would probably have stayed in Scotland for university.”
So she might not have met also her fiance as she did in York.
She praises the support she has received from the RAF Benevolent Fund. But for now thoughts are focused on her final honours year dissertation on the leading early 20th-century French fashion designer Paul Poiret.
The fund has just launched a campaign to find more people in need of help in Scotland particularly around the RAF Lossiemouth and Leuchars stations.
Paul Hughesdon, director of Welfare and Policy at the RAF Benevolent Fund, said: “Too often, RAF veterans simply don’t know that help is at hand.
“But the message of our campaign is simple: If you or your partner were in the RAF and are in financial need, or you need advice and guidance, we will try to help.”
‘‘ It is tragic, like dying in a house fire. But if somebody forgot to check the wiring, it is no longer an accident