British Navy submarine in ‘nearmiss’ with ferry
2018 incident was third one in 4 years
A British nuclearpowered submarine narrowly avoided crashing into a passenger ferry between Northern Ireland and Scotland, with disaster averted only because an officer spotted its periscope, a report revealed on Thursday. The government’s Marine Accident Investigations Branch called for an independent review into the incident on November 6, 2018, saying it was the third such nearmiss involving a Royal Navy submarine in four years. The Stena Superfast VII ferry, carrying 215 passengers and 67 crew, was travelling between Belfast and Cairnryan on the west coast of Scotland when a lookout
spotted the submarine’s periscope close by. “The officer of the watch then took immediate and effective action, turning the ferry to avoid a genuine risk of collision with a submerged submarine,” said the chief inspector of marine accidents, Andrew Moll. The submarine, from the Faslane naval base west of Glasgow, was conducting predeployment safety training at the time, and detected and tracked the ferry including with sonar data. “Although there was no collision, this was the third accident or incident between a dived Royal Navy submarine and a surface vessel in four years, which is a matter of significant concern,” Mr. Moll said in a statement
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