Family members of servicemen killed in the 2006 Nimrod air crash have been told it could be almost a year before the fleet’s safety issues are fully dealt with.

Fourteen servicemen, including Flt Sgt Gary Andrews from Tankerton, were killed when the RAF aircraft exploded due to a fuel leak near Kandahar on September 2, 2006.

Last month, a three-week inquest into the crash concluded with the assistant deputy coroner calling for the entire fleet to be grounded – but the MOD immediately insisted it was airworthy.

Yesterday, bereaved relatives had a ‘full and frank’ discussion with minister Bob Ainsworth and Air Chief Marshall Sir Glenn Torpy about their concerns about the Nimrod fleet.

Horsmonden resident Robert Dicketts, whose 27-year-old son L Cpl Oliver Dicketts from Sussex was also killed in the crash, said the minister assured measures would be put in place to bring planes up to full airworthy standards, but it could be almost a year before this happens.

“We asked why it would take so long, and this was something the minister couldn’t answer,” he said.

“We feel lot of measures they are now dealing with should have been dealt with yesterday rather than tomorrow.”

Mr Dicketts said the families would continue to lobby the Government to make improvements on the fleet and await answers from to questions that were unanswered at the meeting.

He added: “We don’t want to ground the fleet, they are doing an exceptionally important job for the safety of troops, but we want to make sure (the soldiers) are flying airworthy planes.

“We don’t want another 14 families going through what we’ve been through over the last two years.”

Mr Dicketts said the minister also gave a full apology for reacting publicly to the coroner's report on the crash before having read the full transcript - something that greatly upset the victims’ families.