Sub Lt. Ian "Soapy" Watson

Started by Flying Pig, October 16, 2014, 04:26:09 PM

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Flying Pig

Here is an interesting story I stumbled across.  Its about a Royal Navy Harrier Pilot who has Nav and Comm failures after a training mission and could not find his way back to the carrier..... instead, he found his own carrier with about 1 min of fuel remaining  >:D

Interesting story... the plane was saved and went on to fly until 2003.  It takes a little research but the pilot was initially sent off to desk duty until it was determined it was equipment failures and that the pilot was sent out on a training mission after only completing about 75% of his required training.  The pilot later went on to fly about 2000hrs in Harriers and about 900 in F-18s before he retired after about 25yrs total service.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD4oiBSXGDM

When inexperienced Royal Navy pilot Ian "Soapy" Watson got lost flying a Sea Harrier jump jet and landed the £7 million aircraft on the deck of a container ship senior officers reprimanded him for incompetence.
Now it has emerged that behind the scenes they were laying the blame elsewhere to try to get out of a £570,000 compensation bill.
A file released yesterday at the National Archives describes how Sub-Lt Watson, 25, ''incurred the Commander in Chief of the Fleet's Displeasure'' for displaying an unsatisfactory standard of fundamental airmanship.
But the Ministry of Defence file shows that he had completed only 75 per cent of the recommended flying hours in training before being pressed into service and was allowed to take an aircraft with a known radio defect.
An unnamed senior officer commented: ''I am speechless, as was Watson.'' Sub-Lt Watson had taken off from the carrier Illustrious off the Spanish coast on June 6, 1983 to conduct a Nato search exercise.
The crew of the 2,300-ton Spanish container ship Alraigo won a salvage claim and shared £340,000, with the remaining £230,000 going to the owners of the vessel.

JacobAnn

Another reminder that there are always at least 2 sides to every story.

Brit_in_CAP

I remember this...I was a Junior Technician (E-3 equivalent) in the RAF then, and this made the news big time, as you might imagine!

The young man went on to have a successful career in the RN, albeit with a really good bar story to tell!  His No.1 (formation leader) that day made the comment later that "Soapy did exceptionally well for his experience".  It later emerged that his navigation equipment had misaligned on the carrier deck and he had not noticed the misalignment - that again, the formation leader noted, was not surprising given his state of training.  Some years later, a more experienced pilot had to eject (safely) in similar circumstances, off the Scottish coast (I think...memory fades). 

On the point about two sides to every story, the formation leader noted, in an online forum a few years ago, that he didn't recall backstabbing; the formal interview was, he said, equal measures of backslapping and developmental feedback'. (http://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-278302.html)

While Sub Lt Watson was aboard his temporary home, the entire wing was airborne trying to find him, and the carrier had abandoned EMCON and activated their search radar...the radar warning screens lit up like Christmas, apparently!

The young officer was known to his squadron colleagues as 'Sudsy' (as in 'son of soapy') as there was another 'Soapy', Lt M Watson RN, who had flown during the Falklands Conflict as wingman to Commander 'Sharkey' Ward.

As to 'Soapy'....apparently, long ago there was a band of soap issued to the Fleet manufactured by a company called 'Watsons'.

Private Investigator

Quote from: JacobAnn on October 17, 2014, 09:48:32 AM
Another reminder that there are always at least 2 sides to every story.

In the tradition of Kurosawa's Rashomon 羅生門

Two sides to every story, well told indeed.  8)

Brit_in_CAP

Quote from: Private Investigator on October 18, 2014, 05:16:02 PM
Quote from: JacobAnn on October 17, 2014, 09:48:32 AM
Another reminder that there are always at least 2 sides to every story.

In the tradition of Kurosawa's Rashomon 羅生門

Two sides to every story, well told indeed.  8)

I had to look up your reference on my usual search engine..!
:)