The Alraigo Incident occurred on 6th June 1983, when a lost British Royal Navy Sea Harrier fighter aircraft landed on the deck of a Spanish container ship.^[1][2] Its pilot, Sub-lieutenant Ian Watson, was a junior Royal Navy Pilot undertaking his first NATO exercise from HMS Illustrious, which was operating off the coast of Portugal. Watson was launched in a pair of aircraft tasked with locating a French aircraft carrier under combat conditions including radio-silence and radar switched off. After completing the search, Watson attempted to return to the Illustrious, but was unable to locate it. Running low on fuel, and with his radio having stopped working, Watson headed towards a nearby shipping lane, where he made visual contact with the container ship Alraigo.

See also: https://www.portandterminal.com/the-alraigo-incident-the-time-a-fighter-jet-landed-on-the-deck-of-a-container-ship/

 

Interesting. I wonder what was the results of inquiry. Usually, something like this results in a somewhat shortened flying career.

Here is the "rest of the story. Since the exercise was to be completely covert, his commander sent him out with a known INOP radio!

Here is a link to the following:

https://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/oldies-amp-oddities-the-alraigo-incident-10366728/

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In 2007, Britain’s National Archives released a number of Royal Navy files, and the second inquiry report was finally made public. Noting that Watson had completed only 75 percent of his training before he had been sent to sea, the board blamed Watson’s inexperience, and his commanders for assigning him an airplane “not fully prepared for the sortie,” a reference to radio problems. Nonetheless, Watson was reprimanded and given a desk job.

Watson eventually acquired 2,000 hours in Sea Harriers and another 900 in F/A-18s before resigning his commission in 1996. Today, he says that media attention embarrassed Royal Navy brass and caused the punishment, but refuses to point fingers. “It was me,” he says. “I was there and that’s where it should stop.”

 

6 minutes ago, n4gix said:

Watson eventually acquired 2,000 hours in Sea Harriers and another 900 in F/A-18s before resigning his commission in 1996.

I'm glad that the taxpayer's money which funded his training as a fast jet pilot did not go to waste over the incident. After all, I believe it takes a great deal of skill to land a Harrier from a hover - even to get her into a stable hover in the first place, and then to land her on some shipping containers. A pity she slid backwards... 

I love this part: 

Quote

The captain of the Alraigo refused to let the drop-in visitor throw him off schedule: The British government was informed that Watson and the jet would arrive in Tenerife in four days.

Far from being reprimanded for this incident, the pilot should really have been commended for having the presence of mind to make the best out of the situation and saving his aeroplane with minimal damage, which indeed he did, because the Harrier in question was quickly repaired and returned to service.

After having been repaired, it continued to fly operationally until it was withdrawn from service 20 years after this incident, having been upgraded a few times during that twenty-year operational span. After eventually being withdrawn from flying status, it was used for spares, however unlike many aeroplanes which end their flying time that way, this Harrier still exists, having been purchased by the Newark Air Museum, where it is on display.

All this is testament enough to the fact that in spite of being dinged a bit in the landing on the container ship, it wasn't really too badly damaged, since it was in good enough shape to serve for another two decades.

 

This needs to be done in DCS. OMG\

 

The Pilot saved the plane; but there was politics involved in reprimanding him as it make the navy look bad.  Sad state of affairs, Pilot had to use quick thinking to land a plane.  It takes talent to do this when running out of fuel etc.

Pilot is the hero....but boo to his superiors who messed with his career.

Edited November 3, 20205 yr by Skywolf

.. and that was the RAF acting like they did back in 1983. That organisation has gone severely downhill since then. They've been pretty shocking in 2020... just saying..

Edited November 3, 20205 yr by HighBypass

That was the Navy NOT the RAF!

10 hours ago, Skywolf said:

The Pilot saved the plane; but there was politics involved in reprimanding him as it make the navy look bad.

^^^^ THIS! ^^^^

The Royal Navy put him on a desk job for awhile until a Board put him back on track. Nothing has been reported about what - if any - actions were taken against his immediate superior's who sent him out on a sortie without being fully trained, and in a Harrier with known broken radios.

The pilot is brilliant, he choose to land on a tanker as it has less people usually compared to commercial.  Prevent loss of life and plane even with inop radio and limited training.  

The pressure in the cockpit had to be super intense when facing a situation like that (just getting trained and to be facing a situation like this...just wow).  Someone should find him and bring for a chat on AVSim.  

Edited November 3, 20205 yr by Skywolf