MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

C-130K: RAF has not grounded its fleet.

The RAF will not stop its Hercules C-130 planes flying despite America grounding its 30 oldest aircraft because of wing cracks, the Ministry of Defence has said.

Flight restrictions have been imposed by the US on 60 more of its C-130 fleet. The move by the US Air Force comes less than a fortnight after an RAF Hercules crashed into the Iraqi desert, killing 10 servicemen.

An MoD spokesman said there were no plans to ground any of the RAF's fleet, adding that the UK version of the plane, the C-130K, was "very different" to America's C-130E.

"If the US thought there was a problem they would have informed us," he said. "I am not aware of any such approach. If the president of the board of inquiry (into the Iraq crash) thought there was any risk to fleet safety from his initial findings, the UK fleet would have been grounded."

The spokesman added that Britain had been "liaising" with the US over the C-130 since the tragedy. He stressed that until the full report was completed, no definite cause for the crash could be stated.

"The UK C-130 is much younger, both in terms of years and flying hours, than the US fleet. This means the UK fleet has a lower fatigue rate. We use the C-130K primarily for strategic flying, the transportation of equipment and personnel, which puts less strain on the aircraft."

The British model dates from the late 1960s, while the US's fleet was built at the beginning of that decade, he added.

"The construction of the wing section of the UK Hercules is different to that of the grounded American fleet. The wing structure is much more durable and stronger on the K variant. It's a different variant and that's why the RAF has not grounded its fleet."