An excerpt from Boris Johnson’s upcoming memoir reveals that the Queen personally informed him of a crash involving an RAF F-35 fighter jet.
During one of their regular audiences, Johnson writes that the Queen was the one to tell him that the jet had fallen into the sea while operating from Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.
In a surprising twist, Johnson notes that the Queen was often very well-briefed, sometimes even before he was.
“Sometimes she even seemed to know things before I had been briefed,” he writes. He recalls how she informed him of the incident, saying, “It was she who broke it to me that a very expensive RAF F-35 fighter plane had blown a gasket and dropped off its aircraft carrier and into the drink because someone had left a plastic tray over the air intake.” Johnson adds, “Doubly embarrassing to hear it from the Queen.”
The crash in question occurred in November 2021, when an RAF F-35B Lightning II jet operating from HMS Queen Elizabeth crashed into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after takeoff. The aircraft was part of the UK’s cutting-edge fleet, designed for stealth operations and equipped with advanced technology. Fortunately, the pilot was able to eject safely and was rescued shortly after the incident.
The UK Defence Journal and other outlets reported extensively on the crash at the time, noting that it marked the first loss of an F-35 jet from the UK’s fleet. The incident raised concerns over operational safety and procedures aboard the carrier, particularly regarding the cause, which was later revealed to be a plastic rain cover accidentally left on the aircraft’s intake during takeoff.
The recovery operation to retrieve the jet, valued at around £100 million, was a high-profile event that involved significant international cooperation.
pilot was very lucky to survive the incident.
dreadful negligence might have cost a life
Hi Andy the thing is which level do you put the negligence at ? The member of the ground crew who didn’t remove it, the pilot who must have missed it in his pre flight inspection, the lack of a simple visible system of accounting ?
Or do you step back and blame the moron that thought gapping our carrier capability for 10 years and expect it all to magically restart ?
We had 96 years of continuous Carrier experience and 67 of operating jets, in both we were the 1st and foremost and the most innovative by a mile.
So I blame Cameloon front and centre.
Always use the whys approach to get to the root, keep asking why until you get to a sensible level..then make changes at every level to help prevent the whys happening again.
Totally agree with you I’m amazed the argies didn’t take advantage of the lack of carriers
Not sure how they would have or could have. Till very recently, their air force was pretty much the same types are the 1980s, with high levels of inoperability. And their Navy was in a poor state – their destroyer sank in port, and much of the rest is in a materially poor state. They were also still flying the Super Etendards, just without a carrier…
In short, they had nothing left to try it with, except literally landing a Jumbo and rushing troops out…
If memory serves correct, present on the Falklands are the RAF with Typhoons, a battery of Sky Sabre SAMs and a Royal Navy Frigate and Attack Submarine.
Even if Argentina had what it did in 1982, they wouldn’t be able to stand up to that, they wouldn’t get anywhere near the islands.
I disagree. If the argenine air force all took off together the 4 ? Typhoons would be swamped. One frigate with how many ssm’s ?against a fair few ships !!
You cant take the islands with an air force alone… building up an invasion force and logistics takes time so hopefully satellites or intelligence gives some warning. Extra troops and typhoons could deploy quickly…an ssn would take longer but with a bit of warning would make a ship based invasion very costly
Range of their jets to distance to the islands?
What AAR capability do they have?
Is it Drogue or Boom and is it compatible with their planned F16s?
What ordnance could they carry at that range?
What targets could they effectively engage? Do they have LG capability or still dumb free fall?
What are their jets ECM capabilities against Sky Sabre?
What air to air weapons do they have to effectively engage Typhoon? They were outclassed by Sea Harrier last time round.
Could they even target ground defences like Sky Sabre? As it is mobile.
There are greater intelligence assets present on the FI now than in 82. Would the entire Argentine Air force taking off together not be spotted by signals traffic, and other indicators. We have a DA there, and I assume an SIS Station.
So many variables and so much more complex than just taking off en masse attempting to swamp.
A frigate is only rarely there as a visiting warship. An OPV is based at Mare Harbour.
Attack sub – haha – no, not based there and I think never visited. I doubt they ever patrol in the South Atlantic.
Don’t forget the Infantry Company!! The army also man those SkySabres, not the RAF.
4 Typhoons.
1 Voyager. 1 Atlas.
There is half a Sky Sabre Battery, termed a Fire Group.
There are no Frigates or SSN in the south Atlantic.
The Falkland Islands are not currently under threat.
The intell assets present are greater than in 82, as is our overall intell capability.
So yes, I’d be very surprised if we didn’t see any major operation coming.
👍
Totally agree.
Didn’t it start with Brown protecting Scottish shipyard jobs with a contract that was undoable, although it probably started with those dozens of admirals who had dreams of RN domination of the seas and a carried fleet. Never mind we’re down to a handful of destroyers and not many more frigates. Almost forgot the carrier protection, fo course, that’s what the aforementioned fleet is for.
That an important point. Rebuilding a capability is very costly, things need to be learned again.
How surprising that Boris Johnson was utterly clueless. That seemed to be his permanent state.
Just stop rain covers lurking in the shadows… Be warned!!!
Very funny. Boris discovers the Queen knew more than him.
Probably Doris @ No 10 hadn’t bothered reading the briefing!
Who’d have thunk it?
It does seem wrong that our system of politics allowed such an incompetent individual into high office.it’s not even like he was a competent or good journalist before he went into politics…and I don’t really consider journalism a high demand profession……maybe we should be stress testing our politicians before letting them near office…if you’ve not show competence in a demanding field your not fit for high office….I have no problem with anyone being a voted in representative…but any office if state should have a competence level attachment. After all the conservative government seemed to produce a string of less that competent individuals in high office over the last 14 years.
And now we have a human rights lawyer running the country. Who only became an MP in 2015. Great..
Britain’s standards for who should be their number one national leader have fallen dramatically, just like in America. I can’t imagine any citizen of these countries going to sleep every night feeling somone is in charge and accountable for their safety and the well being of the country. Feels like we’ve all accepted pure mediocrity from our leaders. Heads in the sand hoping it’ll be ok in the end.
The QI of a country tends towards of its journalists.
Well Duffields letter called him out perfectly!
Does it though? How can she claim he has a problem with women given how many positions in his cabinet have gone to women ? Bizarre.
…and who never ran a Government department due to his late start in politics.
Again check out David Cameron
..and Tony Blair had never run a Department before becoming PM.
Unfortunately this is no centrist Blair government but one that is quite far right with a good dose of class war rhetoric.
Starmer has shown appalling judgment so far.
Zero charisma or comms ability.
Amazing what happens when you have a political system that doesn’t make a detailed manifesto and it’s analysis centre stage.
My concern is that Starmer lasts the next four years and doesn’t get replaced by a hard leftist.
The reason for that concern is defence.
Boom. I’ve been warning of this.
I meant left not right!
Starter is making his brand quite toxic quite quickly.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the mid term council elections. I’d predict a swing away from Labour to hard working candidates.
I know you did.
What total and utter crap
Whatever your political persuasion accepting gifts on the scale that Labour unquestionably has is not a good look particularly when you have hounded a previous occupant out of No 10 for a lot less.
Cake-gate…curry-gate…
If we actually get proper defence increases I’ll tolerate it.
Cameron became PM after only 9 years as an MP and had spent most of his life working for the Tory party before being involved with TV company Carlton.
I’d take a human rights lawyer over a guy that had been sacked for lying from was it three jobs previously?
A Human rights lawyer who was knighted for services to law and order.
As opposed to a self serving MP with kids scattered all over and umpteen blackmail opportunities – remember that time he partied with the son of a KGB officer in his villa in Italy?
How anyone could ‘back Boris’ is beyond me.
He should have stuck to writing lies about bendy bananas for the gutter press.
Oh, Boris was never the answer.
He never stood for anything in particular other than Boris.
Mind you the Maybot wasn’t either nor was…
Rishi was handed such a divided mess that it would have taken more than genius to get the party working together. Although he and Hunt did manage to re-stabilise the economy which would have been fine but for Kamakwasi’s inability to communicate.
Reeves has to be more than very careful as a tax and spend budget will set rates on an upwards trajectory as services inflation is still rising and the public sector pay rises will stoke things too.
Although there does need to be a transparent separation to borrowing to invest from running a general current account deficit.
Well outlined
Well said
I’m going to hold judgment for a bit, see what a few policies shake out like if the:
1)defence review goes well,
2) they are brave and reform social care ( which will sort out council funding and get pot holes filled in…as well as allow the NHS to start balancing).
unfortunately none of our politicians so far have been brave enough to tell people that we many end up in a pretty awful war soon and that’s going to cost or that having so many old frail people comes with a massive cost that someone has to pay for, and that having only .75 children each and living to an average age of 82 while only having a pathetic healthy average lifespan of 68-9 years is not sustainable and something has to give. Either we 1) pay more and become poorer ( and we need to pay a lot more) , 2) have a lot more children ( that’s around 1.5 each or 3 per family) , 3) become a far healthier population that looks after itself and move our health life span closer to our actual life span or 4) barbarically say we are not throwing vast resources at the frail and reduce actual lifespan closer to healthy lifespan ( most nations have around an 8 year gap between health life and death..the UKs gap is around 14 years..and it’s the old unhealthy people in that gap that cost…something like 10 times more per year per person than a older healthy person on just healthcare..before we get to social care.
Prosecuting barrister and eventually DPP. He’s got a lot to learn, but he’s no Lettuce
I think the ruling classes think Eton is the ideal stress testing. Anyway they learnt their lesson and Tory faithful made sure they never let such an incompetent idiot into Number 10 again… well for more than a few weeks anyway.
I suspect Larry knew more mate.
Yes, it would be purrrrfectly checked and he would sleep on it.
Expense mistake
Her late Majesty was no fool. I imagine this was one of the few times she divulged what she knew. particularly to someone like Mr Johnson.
Well at least she knew about the Military well beyond throwing Airfix models from his dorm window when Nanny wasn’t looking.
When you see the shape and depth of the F35 intake up close. It’s easy to see how a blanking cap could be missed. The S curve is very steep, (for stealth) and the intake itself is pretty narrow. The new blanking caps now attach external to the airframe, greatly reducing the chances on one disappearing down the intake. Plus, many other procedures will have been put in place. It’s a tough lesson learned. But nothing is easy about carrier aviation.
Aren’t those things bright orange?!
Yes but the air duct bends round behind the cockpit and out of sight. If it goes right inside you would not be able to see it unless you climb right inside as well.
They used to be a red-ish kind of colour.
The question you need to ask is why this did not happened to the much more numerous and more active US Marines F-35B?
The Italians F-35B also, albeit less numbers than RN.
Note those two countries are operating F35B alongside Harriers so they did not had a hiatus in capability, so there has no been the cost that could have been very well a human cost of rebuilding a capability.
Well I will give you the answer from a health care point of view…people are more likely to make an error that the system encourages ( so an inbuilt system weakness that a human has to mitigate against) if:
1) they don’t get a lot of practice ( the more you practice an evolution the less likely you make a forced error)..so size and scale matter ( small Emergency Departments are more likely to miss something unusual happening).
2) overwork..conversely if a small team is overworking it will also make forces errors and miss things.
Essentially the sweet spot for reduced errors is a busy team that has lots of practice but has plenty of staff to manage the demands well with overwhelming the individuals. So if you look at the USN they are busy doing flying operations at all times, but at the same time have very large crews. The RN has had limited flying opps and a very small crew..essentially its mix is cheaper but more likely to Force these system errors.
I know it’s Johnson, so probably better he was kept out of the loop for as long as possible, even when the alternative was a 90 something great grandmother, but a bit concerning that the monarch hears before the guy who actually has to make decisions in the defence and response of this Country. Let’s hope if war breaks out it’s not Charlie who gets to hear first as he is in the greenhouse soothing the stress of his delphiniums, or worst still don’t dare ask him to inform the PM until he has had his morning paper properly ironed.
The Monarch is the head of the armed forces as well as the head of state.
Not concerning at all. I believe Her Majesty was briefed weekly by the military and intelligence community, and displayed sounder judgement in most matters beyond that of these plastic politicians, of either party.
I thought it was the pilots duty and responsibility to check around the aircraft before take off. It is not the pilot-in-command of an aircraft who is directly responsible and is the final authority as to the safe operation of the aircraft.
The Queen took her role very seriously, unlike Bojo.
Yet again Boris reveals details of his private conversations with the late Queen. Disgraceful conduct.
Agreed.
He’s going to put anything he can in his book to sell. All those kids and alimony cost an absolute fortune.
That is a very good point, I don’t believe any other Priminister has ever released any details. But then he lives in and comes from a world of privilege that no long seems to acknowledge that privilege also comes with responsibility.
Agreed.
Did you read of Boris idea to use the military to raid a factory in Holland to grab Covid vaccines the EU had stored there?!!
I’m no fan of the EU or their conduct during Covid, but these are close NATO allies!!
Apparently he was told the military could indeed mount a clandestine raid up the Dutch canals, so assume SBS, but that the idea was “nuts.”
😳
Boris was just awful. He even dismissed the Covid threat for many weeks, calling it Chinese flu. Hence the late lockdown in March 2020.
Boris is and was very lazy and well known for not reading his briefs or paying attention. Wouldn’t surprise me if the queen saw it on the BBC.
He really isn’t that self aware not to realise this just makes him look stupid.
The crash of ZM152 is combination of factors that proves the decision to drop the Harrier 2 and the Royal Navy carriers was a mistake
I am pleased to hear the Queen was well informed. I can’t say I’m that surprised.
Boris, in my humble opinion, had confidence in his ministers and really was not that eager to take on board the detail. Frankly as PM if you take on too much detail across Government your brain will simply end up clogged with someone elses problems.
On the military front Boris was well ahead of the game in providing support to Ukraine and encouraging others to do likewise. If he hadn’t done that it seems highly likely that Ukraine would have been overrun quite quickly. I’m not sure that many other PMs would have acted so quickly.
I would agree with that. Boris had started to reverse the policies of the Moron Cameron\Osbourne – May\Hammond years.
Boris often had big plans. If COVID hadn’t interfered things might have been different.
Often wonder how things may of been 🤔
Very true. It might just have turned into something interesting – then again the conservatives just wanted him to win the election not implement the policy. He was far too middle of the road and popular.
Yes, he might have had even more illegitimate children, lied more to the Queen, and got caught having sex with more “assistants” how many Baronesses would THAT have cost us?
Of course she knew before you Johnson: she was the Boss of the armed forces, not you or any other grubby, nose in the trough politician.
Boris Johnson uninformed and clueless, who’d have thought it….
Boris relied on bluster. Can’t visualise him ever reading his briefing notes before the Queen. Visualise him frantically swatting in the too short limo trip from nr.10 to Buck House
The crash was also filmed and published as part of the BBC documentary series Warship: Tour of duty.
Maybe she feals if WWW 3 start it will solve the English problem.
It is or was the Queens Navy. I would not expect anything less for HM the Queen.