EXCLUSIVE – A credible source, wishing to remain unnamed, has confirmed that an arrest has been made in connection with the leaked footage of an F-35 crashing on take off from HMS Queen Elizabeth.
A male member of crew has been arrested and has now been flown back to the UK.
“I have had it confirmed that the arrested male is a member of HMS Queen Elizabeth ships company.”
I have contacted the Ministry of Defence for comment and will update this article if/when I get it.
Earlier in the month, footage emerged showing an F-35 jet crashing into the sea on takeoff from aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth. The video was, of course, recorded surreptitiously and disseminated outwith the ship without permission.
The source also told me:
“I’ve been told by someone ashore in the U.K. the arrest was made and then had it confirmed by HMS Queen Elizabeth ships company.”
Details remain sketchy at this time and given this could potentially impact someone’s career, the UK Defence Journal will be refraining from publishing any names or rumoured charges.
It has also emerged that the mobile phone video of the crash was well known onboard before or hit social media.
Britain and America are currently engaged in operations to salvage an F-35B which ditched into the ocean after taking off from HMS Queen Elizabeth.
It is understood that while the point at which the jet entered the sea is known, the aircraft’s wings would have made it glide underwater for a reasonable distance before settling on the sea bed.
National Security Adviser Sir Stephen Lovegrove told the Commons Defence Committee yesterday:
“The pilot was recovered safely and is still undergoing medical checks. We are hopefully that he will be absolutely fine. It would be premature of me to comment on the reasons for the accident. The recovery of the flight data recorder and the wreckage are really vital for an accurate investigation to determine the causes of the crash. Clearly the swift recovery of the aircraft is what we would like to do and we are working closely with allies on the mechanics of that. We haven’t got the plane up yet.
We are aware of Russian undersea capabilities, and you are quite right to identify them as being state of the art. The kinds of precautions and operations that we are undertaking at the moment are designed at least in part to ensure that the technology of the F-35B remains as confidential as you would like it to be. Those security aspects are very much at the top of our mind. My understanding is that the experts know where the aircraft is.”
What caused the crash?
We don’t know, anyone claiming to know in the public domain doesn’t really know either.
Quite funny that news about a sailor being arrested for leaking information has also been leaked out.
These idiots will end up having their phones confiscated when on patrol because of how stupid they are.
Hope it was worth it 😬
I suspect the 30 second thrill of releasing it will be eclipsed by the loss of career, prison time and criminal record limiting their future life chances.
Be interesting to see what the person ends up with? All 3 you mention aren’t out of the question, depends how serious this is viewed, and if the powers to be decide to make an example of them?
Surely this is undermining the security of the system as the biggie, rather than taking a photo?
Same as a policeman leaking a photo being the primary offence, rather than what is on the photo.
Compare even with the IB sociopaths in prison – it is 3-6 months for breaching an injunction, not blocking traffic.
Would it make much difference whether it was a newbie or a 20 year veteran?
A lot will depend on how the authorities view the breach, after all is said and done, its just a vid of a plane going into the sea! Easy to say I know, but you could film the same at an airshow with a F35 crashing, whats the difference really? Just that its from a aircraft carrier!
The thing is, what secret has actually been breached at the end of the day? There will certainly be some form of disciplinary proceedings taking place, but I m not sure what it will lead too, possibly just a ‘slap on the wrist’, sounds mad I know, but planes taking off aren’t really classified as secret, the charge will probably be something like ‘un-authorised release of video material etc etc’.
Like I say, not entirely sure where the Mod will go with this.
At an airshow one is a member of the public. In this QE incident, one is a member of the military. Don’t you see the difference? Even if one works in a factory one should be careful what to share, let alone on an aircraft carrier and in uniform. That is, unless the person who shared the footage was a contractor. On US carriers there’s hundreds of them, all civilians.
Well aware of the difference fella! As much as I think the lad was an idiot, he hasn’t contravened the OSA period. What he has done is probably break a host of smaller regulations for which he will have to answer. He will not be keel-hauled, shot at dawn or kicked out of the service. Will most probably receive a bigish fine and/or be confined onboard for a period of time. Might give him some time to reflect on the error of his ways!
Contravening the Official secrets act ,could be thrown into the charges that way bye bye career and pension Social media should have no place when restricted or classified acts of the Realm are taking place on board HM vessels
Ive just replied to Matt above, personally I don’t think it will come to much. Think there will be more of a tightening up of rules governing the use of social media devices when deployed. Its a lot easier on a SM, shit reception underwater!!!! 😂
Wot no Gertrude
There was a time presocial media and mobile phones, with in-built Cameras when you joined Ship or shore establishments and you had a Camera you were supposed too register your camera with the Reg Staff the same should be done with Mobile phone and Sim Numbers it’s taken over 2 weeks too pin this Rating down
I think they still have to register social media devices with the relevant authorities onboard. Don’t think it’s that easy pinning it down to a individual when you have a large crew, probably takes a while, hence the delay. Can just imagine the MAA/EWO needing this like a hole in the head!
I wonder when it will be a basic Human Right too have a mobile phone on operational deployment some Ambulance chasing Lawyer ( Liberty) will be looking into this little number
Possible loss of pension too
Social media matlots ,colchester on the cards stacks of Likes for that future ruling hope they go viral there what a Richard Cranium
Good, the RT used the footage a lot for its propaganda purposes. Not a smart move.
Oh dear, the modern generation are wonderful but you need to stay off those phones!
Will the charges be for recording, disseminating or showing the incident?
Wether you physically sign OSA or not it still applies.
The signing thing is more to remind people they are under an obligation.
Whoever it is just better not play the Whistle- Blower act
Should not be allowed to have smartphones on active duty ships. I have spoken to some serving RN leaders and they said that ratings use them to surreptitiously communicate behind the backs of their leaders…some could say this was always the case, but smartphones allow recording of voice, video, and text and god knows what else depending on the app you install.
Hi Rob. I have wondered if it’s possible to operate a form of cell phone signal disruptor on board ship to prevent this sort of thing.
It is easy/possible to block wifi connections, but I think harder to block phone data carrier connections (i.e. BT, Vodafone etc). But in this case it looks like (assumption) the picture was taken at sea, away from any telephone company data carrier access, and then uploaded to internet via ship’s WIFI. Or, the person waited until they were shoreside in Spain. Which I believe they were. In which case then they would have easily found an internet cafe and uploaded to internet. Perhaps blocking smartphones would not have prevented this event occurring. I guess all will be revealed later. Thanks for the question.
Not hard at all to disrupt and completely block cellular transmissions. What’s harder to do is to do that while not inadvertently screwing up ship’s comm systems in the process.
It could also have been a small palm-sized camera.
Or just the camera on a phone.
Probably a salutary lesson, however, for les autres.
True.
Faraday Cage springs too mind Klonkie
Indeed. Its interesting to note according to this news article ships can be tracked from their mobile phone comms.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/05/uk-and-france-take-part-in-huge-naval-exercise-to-counter-emerging-threats
Any EM transmission will do.
That give you who, what, where.
Cell phones have UID so you also can track who is on board; leadership, comms, warfare, EW, ASW & how many pilots.
You can get a log of info from raw phone transmissions even not listening in.
Hi SB,
Yup, the code breakers back in 1940 were able to identify German units and approximate force strangths simply by identifying unit call signs and certain radio operators, even before they broke the Engima code.
The knowledge that can be inferred from signals traffic is, as you point out, considerable and always has been. People do not realise that traffic analysis is NOT code breaking.
Cheers CR
Agreed.
The main thing that was got from Enigma was the traffic analysis.
Breaking the code was often secondary as you could infer from timing length and hand what was in the message anyway.
Are you trying to kill RN recruitment. For the generation the RN targets to join smart phones and communicating vis social media is how they operate. Stopping this in peacetime would kill moral of those in service and put off joiners. The RN knows this, that’s why so much effort has gone into providing internet at sea.
The overall aim of any military organization is to project violence and lethality to an enemy that wishes you the same level of harm. It’s not to entertain the social media addicted needs of the snowflake generation. Where are the priorities, really? Politically correct jobs or …having the ability to drive bayonets into the chests of enemies? The UK Military is not a socialistic jobs scheme!
Not easy to project violence without the people to do it. The U.K. armed forces have to compete for personnel with all the other employers. Up till Covid helped it had been very difficult to both get new people in and keep mid seniority people. Getting “all in was like this in my day” or there all week politically correct snowflakes about it doesn’t help. In fact it hinders.
“Not easy to project violence without the people to do it. “
You can recruit the people to do it WITHOUT the hurt-feeling brigade.
” In fact it hinders.”
It shouldn’t hinder since you claim said people are not actual snowflakes. You’re countering your own argument by saying that it hinders [recruitment because their feelings are hurt]
How to fuck up your life in one utterly stupid act. It’s something you can guarantee will happen, if it’s a fuckwit thing to do someone will always do it….to be human is to have that little Red stupid button in you head you just need to press……
problem is half of todays generation could not careless if they screw there lives up or not, they have no self discipline at all except for me me me and stuff anyone else, lockdown proved that with idiots hording stuff then throwing it away when it was over..
I think the issue here is that throughout society we have essentially decriminalized crime by not punishing people for crimes they have committed or giving unduly lenient sentences. People see this in society and then you get idiots like this feeling like they can record things with impunity. For once I really hope they make an example of this guy and throw the book at him. We should be doing this across society both civil and defence – ensuring we are also gender neutral in our approach as often women have more lenient sentences for the same crimes. I would add that if you look in civic society that reported crime is only going down because people have given up calling the police as they know our plastic bobbies won’t investigate as they are too busy recording non-hate hate crimes – I hope the Military Police (MPs) are better…..
WOW! Couldn’t have put that better myself!
I guess if the video was well known on-board, then the lad who filmed the footage, might not have been the person who leaked it online. Many pictures are taken on the flight deck, because let’s be honest, it’s a pretty cool workplace. But sharing pictures/video of an incident is a big no no. Maybe social media traning is required for those who serve today, Maybe it is already provided. But it’s a very important tool in today’s 24hr news cycle, and can and will be used against us by those that wish to portray the RN and the UK in a bad light.
My thought entirely, the level of idiocy to have filmed it, be known to have filmed it by others aboard and then release it to the public is beyond stupid but one of those who had a copy and thought that they could pass it on anonymously a little less so. One wonders if that is the case which of the two has actually been arrested. As if the loss of the plane wasn’t a bad enough shitfest. Let’s hope there isn’t a spy on board sending film to our potential enemies if it’s this easy, beginning to think the events onboard in Vigil weren’t so unbelievable after all now.
I doubt he knew it would crash when he started recording..
It would have been smart to delete it, and definitely would have been smart to make sure no one else knew of the videos existence, but we still don’t actually know anything else.
It was filmed from the one of the ships monitors during a playback after the crash so he knew
Whoops definitely should have watched it again before opening my mouth.
Keep your enemies close and ‘friends’ even closer.
To be honest the idea that there are no spies in the services is daft, of course there are 🙁 there are just too many people for there not to be.
The idea that they would try to damage a SSBN a la Vigil, I agree is pretty unbelievable but it was a damn good thriller 🙂
Cheers CR
So all you armchair admirals/ Air Marshals and not to be left out Generals are suggesting the gallows for a sailor/airman for releasing a video . Yet the person who couldn’t see an intake blank on his/her walk round before flight and losing a multi million pound weapon system is let off .
Perpetuating the unsubstantiated rumor that an intake cover was ingested should be a prosecutable offense.
Ironic that it would appear that someone has been arrested for leaking footage of the F-35 aborted takeoff, and that news of the arrest has, so it seems, also been leaked.
Is the leaker of the arrest news now going to find themselves subject to arrest?
And how many times can this cycle repeat before a lean-manned ship finds itself in trouble?
I don’t know about the RAF or NAVY, but I have had to bend the ears of my juniors and seniors regards posting stuff on social media. I know that on ops, part of the briefing package is regards social media, so I would presume that people working around modern equipment such as::
The Carrier
F35
Weapons
Have already had their ear bent, at a stroke this richard edward has ensured that the rest will now have to endure a much stricter regime. Hopefully he gets visited by a few before he returns to the Uk.
100% with you.
I was also bending my lots ears over phone use.
Phones allow people to track your location (as do sports watches) . OPSEC breaches during conversations on phones are common place.
I even found one lad calling his girlfriend on his mobile from inside a fully stocked up Magazine, with the door left ajar during a FOST Thursday war.
The scrote then tried to drop me in the cack for taking his phone off him and the “robust” bollocking I gave him. Apparently I he said to his DO that I cannot take personal possesions off of people. I justifies it by him having unauthorised electrical equipment in a magazine and so breaching JSP/BR 862 Explosive Safety rules. He ended up with Stoppage of leave and a 200 quid fine.
Moral of the story don’t piss off the Warrant!
All the more reason that phones should be turned in when onboard. They spend more time on them than actually doing their jobs. So many caught skiving too through items they upload to social media. Idiots. On real ops none are permitted and that is they way it should be. They all have access to internet anyway onboard but at least that can be controlled. Another career down the tube. I’d say go back to mail but half can’t write anyway and that includes those incharge.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hms-queen-elizabeth-sunken-f-35-jet-is-raised-from-sea-bed-xn0dhfp9x Plane recovered.
Good news
Fantastic news.
Now the remains have been recovered, let’s hope the government’s instant reaction to cover everything up is tempered.
The idea that it provides a propaganda opportunity to opposing countries isn’t a good enough excuse. When the Kuznetsov was set on fire a couple of years ago, I was impressed that TASS was allowed to publish footage, both stills and video. Almost certainly better reality than speculation.
Britain screwed up on this one. Both in terms of the crash and the leak. Time to hold our hands up and discuss how to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
I understand the wreckage has now been successfully recovered in a joint UK/US/Italian effort.
The fact it was well known on board an nothing happened until it was released into the wild shows that the ships management team and many be the RN wider need to do a major cultural change piece of work around media ect. Every so often this pops up in all areas as people are so use to filming and sharing everything and they get so use to their job it may seem OK to film and share ( the is happens with the NHS, police ect). At one point a lot of NHS organisations band mobile phone use on premises and I’ve investigated a fair few incidents around this. You have to hold the individual to account then hit the whole culture hard with education and making sure leaders are on top of it, with zero tolerance.
The fact it speed through the ship, shows that a lot of people thought it was OK to film and share.
Beyond stupid. If the authorities have got the right person then out they go, feet not touching the floor.
Didn’t stop fxxxing Brian Hanrahan on May 24th 1982
He was a journo – different rules apply.
RN were very naive in dealing with BBC in ‘&2 – thought they had WWII hooouuum Service on propaganda duty.
His deployment , and coverage of OP Corporate, was only granted by the MOD on condition that any reporting for the BBC and World service was not too divulge any information liable too be useful too the Argentinian Government and Armed forces . To which he ignored
I guess he didn’t have a “film an F-35 crashing into the sea due to utter incompetence” loicence.