Royal Navy: HMS Prince of Wales to deploy to the Indo-Pacific later this month as intense training progresses

Sailors have been completing emergency scenario training at HMNB Portsmouth this week, with HMS Prince of Wales due to leave the city soon for the Indo-Pacific region. She will take charge of the UK Carrier Strike Group on diplomatic missions and military drills, visiting Japan, Australia and elsewhere.

F-35B fighter jets, helicopters and a new suite of Malloy T-150s drones will be among the components operating within the strike group, bolstered by other Royal Navy ships and international allies. In the run-up to the nine-month operation, members of the ship’s company have been completing emergency scenarios training; personnel had to use their lightning-quick reactions to deal with a “crash-on-deck” scenario.

Lieutenant Mbongiseni Nyathi, an air weapons specialist on HMS Prince of Wales, said: "The scenario involved an F-35 about to take off when its undercarriage failed, causing it to veer off and crash into the island. Our job as subject matter experts is to review that scenario and determine the best possible way of dealing with the accident."

Personnel from the Joint Aircraft Recovery and Transportation Squadron (JARTS); the Defence Safety Authority’s Defence Accident Investigation Branch (DAIB); explosive ordnance disposal teams; security and the Institute of Naval Medicine all rushed on board to co-ordinate their assessments. JARTS provided a model wreckage to create as realistic a scenario as possible. Sailors on the post-crash management team had to rescue the casualties, with other personnel having to prevent the situation from escalating and harming others around them.

Once the area was brought under control, investigators advised the Royal Navy sailors on how to preserve the evidence of the crash for potential investigations. This included securing CCTV recordings, identifying and interviewing witnesses, retrieving flight data recorders and other crucial sources.

Squadron Leader Peter Pateman from the DAIB said: "Being able to conduct simulated crash exercises is a key part of DAIB's tools to develop not only DAIB skills but also partner organisations' capabilities.”