Three Merseyside servicemen died in the explosion of a 37-year-old RAF Nimrod spy plane that had a "serious design flaw", an inquest heard.
Fourteen people died when the Nimrod XV230 was blasted apartin mid-air in the Kandahar region of Afghanistan on September 2 2006 shortly after undergoing air-to-air refuelling.
A senior engineer from BAE Systems, the British defence and aerospace firm, said his predecessors who made the Nimrod some 40 years ago also failed to fit a fire protection system on a key area of risk on the aircraft.
Among the dead were Sgt John Langton, 29, and Flt Lt Steven Swarbrick, 28, both of Liverpool, and Flt Lt Allan Squires, 39, of Clatterbridge, Wirral.
The tragedy is believed to have been caused by fuel leaking in one of the craft's dry bays, then igniting on contact with a hot air pipe, the inquest at Oxford was told.
The hearing learnd that a section of hot air pipe in XV230's Dry Bay 7 was not lagged to protect it from igniting fuel in the event of a leak from a fuel pipe below it.
Experts said that although the hot air pipe, which can reach temperatures of up to 500C, is insulated in most parts of the aircraft, it remains uncovered in Dry Bay 7.
Coroner Andrew Walker said: "What we have here amounts to a serious design flaw, because we could have a single point failure."
Martin Breakell, BAE's chief Nimrod engineer, agreed although he stressed this scenario would be very unlikely.
Mr Breakell, asked if he considered the lack of a fire suppressant system to be a serious failure, said: "It is a serious failure.''
The hearing continues.
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