Sgt Ben Knight had set up home in the Highlands

Graham Knight's son Benjamin was one of 14 servicemen - 12 of them based at RAF Kinloss in Moray - who lost their lives when their Nimrod went down last year.

He said it could be years before an inquest into the accident begins.

His petition on 10 Downing Street's e-petitions site has gathered 501 names and will run for a year.

Graham Knight said many of the families affected by the crash had signed up to it.

The Nimrod MR2 came down near Kandahar last September after a reported technical fault.

Sgt Benjamin Knight, 25, originally from Bridgewater, Somerset, but had set up a new home in Westhill, Inverness, was one of the Kinloss-based crew who perished.

His father said families of servicemen and women killed in Afghanistan or Iraq were waiting too long for the Oxfordshire coroner to complete the inquests into their deaths.

I had tried to convince him not to take up flying, but he said he was more likely to get knocked down by a car Graham Knight

Graham Knight said he had been told that the results of a military board of inquiry into the crash could be released within months.

However, he said: "That will only tell us what we already know, that there was a fire on board that caused the crash.

"We cannot ask the questions we want to know the answers to until an inquest is held.

"Questions like how many times have there been fire before? How many other near misses had there been?"

He said a backlog of cases going back to 2003 meant it could be years before an inquest into the Nimrod incident was heard.

'I was right'

Memories of the day his son died remain fresh with Graham Knight.

After buying a new van and taking a ride in the countryside, Mr Knight returned home and watched as a BBC News report of a helicopter crash become one of a stricken Nimrod.

He said: "We rang the helpline that was put up for families concerned about a loved one and left our details.

"Two-and-a-half hours later there was a knock at the door and the RAF told us that Benjamin was involved."

Graham Knight, 55, who also flies, said his son had loved flying and living in the Highlands.

He said: "I had tried to convince him not to take up flying, but he said he was more likely to get knocked down by a car.