A ROYAL Air
Force, RAF, spy plane sent to join the international hunt for schoolgirls
kidnapped by Boko Haram militants has broken down on the way. The Sentinel R1
was forced to divert to Senegal with a “technical issue” and will be grounded
until repairs have been completed.
The unexpected
delay is a repeat of last year’s embarrassment for the UK Ministry of Defence
when a C-17 transporter sent to help French troops in Mali was also temporarily
grounded by technical trouble. David Cameron offered the Sentinel to the
Nigerian government to use its advanced ground scanning radar to hunt for more
than 200 school girls abducted from a school hostel last month.
The modified
executive business jet left RAF Waddington on Sunday bound for its new base in
Accra in Ghana, where it will be stationed while flying across northern
Nigeria. However, the crew reported technical problems midway through the
flight. An RAF source said: “We had a choice of turning around and coming home,
or landing en route.” It was unclear last night when the jet would be able to
resume its flight and travel the remaining 1,300 miles to Accra.
The RAF has lost
more than 8,000 airmen in defence cuts since 2010, while having to keep
aircraft flying in operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere. A recent air safety
watchdog report warned the cuts and a shortage of skilled technicians were
increasing the risk of accidents.
The captives are
believed to have been driven into the nearby Sambisa Forest, and there are
unconfirmed reports some have been forced to marry militant fighters in mass
weddings and others have been smuggled across the border to Cameroon. Nigeria’s
military says near-daily aerial bombardments of the forest that began in
mid-January were stopped to avoid accidentally hitting the girls.
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