Why 'lost' RN pilot landed on container ship.

[corsair67]

I believe at the time "Soapy" was accused of mistaking the container vessel for the carrier!


www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/01/nharrier01.xml


Why 'lost' jet pilot took ride on container ship
By Peter Day
Last Updated: 2:29am BST 02/06/2007



When inexperienced Royal Navy pilot Ian "Soapy" Watson got lost flying a Sea Harrier jump jet and landed the £7 million aircraft on the deck of a container ship senior officers reprimanded him for incompetence.

Now it has emerged that behind the scenes they were laying the blame elsewhere to try to get out of a £570,000 compensation bill.

A file released yesterday at the National Archives describes how Sub-Lt Watson, 25, ''incurred the Commander in Chief of the Fleet's Displeasure'' for displaying an unsatisfactory standard of fundamental airmanship.

But the Ministry of Defence file shows that he had completed only 75 per cent of the recommended flying hours in training before being pressed into service and was allowed to take an aircraft with a known radio defect.

An unnamed senior officer commented: ''I am speechless, as was Watson.'' Sub-Lt Watson had taken off from the carrier Illustrious off the Spanish coast on June 6, 1983 to conduct a Nato search exercise.

The crew of the 2,300-ton Spanish container ship Alraigo won a salvage claim and shared £340,000, with the remaining £230,000 going to the owners of the vessel.

[FlyNavy]

Thanks for this interesting story. [You may be aware that an ex-RAN A4G Skyhawk pilot (having transferred to the RN after 1984) ejected from an almost serviceable Harrier in the RN when it ran out of fuel after he was misdirected to 'mother' by the ship itself when all the aircraft avionics failed.]

Without knowing any details, other than what is here (same as newspaper URL) I would suggest that "Soapy" ran out of soapy jet fuel and needed to land ASAP and 'anywhere' would do. Better to pay the salvage fee (if this report is correct) rather than lose the aircraft entirely. I wonder where more details about this incident can be obtained? I'll search around the web (no luck this morning - I'll keep looking).



This container ship does not look at all like HMS Illustrious. :-)

Some info here:
www.airsceneuk.org.uk/oldstuff/2006/newarkshar/shar.htm

"Whilst operating from HMS Illustrious it caused an international incident on 7 June 1983 when pilot Lt I. 'Soapy' Watson landed the aircraft on a Spanish freighter Alraigo after an avionics malfunctions left him without contact with the carrier. The landing area used on the Alraigo freighter was the base plate for a telescope that was being shipped to the La Palma Observatory in the Canary Islands. The aircraft did partially slip off its temporary landing platform onto some containers and was eventually off-loaded from the Alraigo at Santa Cruz in Tenerife and was returned to the UK on the MV British Tay."



www.boatdesign.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5770&d=1144621816

Searching on the name of the container ship was the key to more info:
query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E05E2D6173BF93BA35755C0A965948260

"A British navy warplane made a forced landing on a Spanish cargo ship in the Atlantic on Monday after losing radio contact with its aircraft carrier base, a British Embassy spokesman said today.

The plane, a Harrier vertical take-off jet from the aircraft carrier Illustrious, touched down safely on the deck of the cargo ship Alraigo, she said.

The Spanish ship was some 120 nautical miles southwest of Oporto on the Portuguese coast.

The plane's pilot, 25-year-old Sub Lieut. Ian Watson, told reporters in Madrid by ship-to-shore telephone he had fuel for only one minute's flying time when he made the landing.

He said he could not make radio contact with the captain of the cargo ship and used hand signals to indicate his intention to land. The ship's crew then guided him down onto a makeshift landing pad of eight to 10 containers placed near a deck crane."

______________________________________

media.www.avionnewspaper.com/media/storage/paper798/news/2005/12/06/Opinions/Prof-Cortes.Makes.Class.Memorable-1122477.shtml

Here is a 1st hand explanation that would appear to explain the "mistaken carrier" story that is not quite correct:
"As the class developed, we discussed different topics and elements about flight safety while at the same time having interactive group discussions. However, this semester concluded with a presentation given by the Sub-Lieutenant Ian Watson, AKA "Soapy" (his call sign) from the Britain's Royal Navy. We learned about Soapy during a class discussion on different shocking aviation events. Cortés presented a case about a Harrier pilot who in June 1983, after a failure in the aircraft's NAVHARS navigation system and lacking of fuel, could not return to the carrier. Instead, he landed on a passing Spanish merchant ship, the Alraigo, enroute to Tenerife, Spain.

One of Cortés' students mentioned that he knew Sub-Lt. Watson (currently living in the Deland area). Hence, they were able to get in contact with Soapy to arrange a meeting. After many phone calls he finally visited us and told his story.

Due to the lost in the navigation system which included radios, Soapy was not able to locate the aircraft carrier or talk to anybody after the mission's completion. However, he spotted a radar return which came to be the Alraigo. Without hesitation, he pointed the aircraft in that direction locating the Spanish ship off the coast of Portugal. After a "fast and low" fly-by to check for a landing zone, Soapy spotted one of the containers with dimensions similar to many landing paths in which he had landed before. By means of the Harrier's vertical landing capability, Sub-Lt. Watson landed the aircraft on top of a container packed with milk and whisky. Soapy's quick response capabilities along with his excellent pilot skills saved an aircraft that would otherwise have had to be abandoned.

Soapy immediately became an honorary member of the AS 408 course. He attended many classes and safety presentations given by students and offered great input in our learning experience. Professor Cortés' AS 408 students would like to extend our most sincere appreciation to Sub-Lt. Ian "Soapy" Watson for his great efforts to make us better safety activists. He will always be welcome in this university and remembered by the fall 2005 Flight Safety class."

[flyjoe180]

What a unique story! I would say that Mr Soapy displayed good airmanship in saving the aircraft, the fact he had failed avionics and didnt have complete training, says a lot about the feat he undertook whilst landing on that cargo ship.

[oldnavy]

Hi all. I know "Soapy" very well. I can confirm he definitely did not mistake the freighter for the carrier. He was inexperienced, lost and disoriented due various equipment failures, running out of fuel and needed somewhere to land. So he found somewhere and landed. Interesting fete only possible in a STOVL jet.
There were recriminations relating to the view that many believed he had simply misread or misunderstood the nav kit. Probably true, but it doesn't take anything away from the fact that he needed to solve a potentially fatal problem very quickly. The truth is that many less imaginative, but apparently more experienced aviators would have lost the jet rather than think so innovatively. The story a few threads up about the former RAN pilot who ditched a Sea Jet in the north west approaches of the UK was in amongst a fleet of warships all with flight decks, and all capable as emergency landing platforms. This experienced aviator flew around at medium level looking for external help whilst he let the aircraft run out of fuel rather than turning on the old boglescope and sorting it out for himself, as "Soapy" had done.
Small point, this "Soapy" was always referred to as "Sudz" because there was a much older Soapy Watson already serving on the Sqn when Sudz arrived.
Another small point, I suppose I could be wrong, but I doubt it. The Sqn Sudz was on at the time was a part of Invincible's air group.

[corsair67]

Thanks for all the extra info, Fly Navy and Old Navy. The thing that annoys me the most about this story is that a junior officer was basically hung out to dry because of a bad decision made by more senior officers.

In the end, "Soapy" did a fantastic job of saving the British taxpayer a great deal of money, and to me he should have been congratualted for his actions, not criticised like he was.

I recall a "Soapy" Watson came out to NZ on the Invincible in the early 1980s (83 or 84?) with 801SQN: would that be "Soapy" Snr or Soapy ("Sudz") Jnr? A couple of Shars were supposed to come to a Wings and Wheels at Wigram, but had to cancel because of a major mechanical fault with the Invincible: I was devastated!

[FlyNavy]

OldNavy,
Thanks for your input. I've sent you a PM (private message) on this forum. It is good to know that "Sudz" was such an innovative Harrier pilot under the circumstances showing courageous initiative.

A Nowra Macchi pilot managed to run out of fuel East of Nowra (after climbing, confessing etc.). With a dead engine over 7/8ths cloud cover he managed to do a fast 'precautionary' landing at Jervis Bay airfield - of all places - which somehow redeems him, in my eyes at least. :-)
Phil.

[oldnavy]

For Corsair67, sorry I didn't come back earlier. Both Soapy and Sudz were on Invincible during the 1983 deployment visiting NZ and Aust. Sudz used to call himself Soapy a fair bit, and it did lead to confusion.
Sudz got good recognition for his achievement outside the Navy. Nearly everyone inside the Navy thought he had done good too. I suppose to understand his heirarchy, and why they wanted to bollock him, you would need to meet Sudz, and also understand how many ways you could bring on confusion using the SHAR navhars. The kit was new for its era, but it did have a few gotchas. The situation is best summarised by saying Sudz needed to use superior skill to extract himself from what his heirarchy thought was an avoidable circumstance. Sudz is/was a good pilot, he got there in the school of hard knocks...in those early days on Invincible he was certainly taking a few knocks!