DARKYARD CRISIS

A HEALTH and safety probe has been launched after a huge blackout hit Britain’s newest aircraft carrier.

A local power outage plunged the HMS Prince of Wales into darkness leaving hundreds of engineers scrambling to escape.

A source at the Rosyth Dockyard, in Fife, where the vessel is being built, told how some had to feel their way out from the bowels of the 65,000-ton warship in the pitch black.

The probe was launched because back-up lighting failed to kick in during the incident at about 3am last Wednesday.

The insider said: “It was really dangerous. There would have been a few hundred men on board and many had to make their way out from the depths of the ship in total darkness.

“The emergency lights should have come on but nothing happened. It was pure luck that no one was injured getting off a half built ship in the dark.”

The source told how work was stopped on the site until the emergency lighting could be checked.

Response to the incident was also hindered by last week’s extreme weather.

The insider claimed bosses on the Babcock site carried out a “darkened ship” test on Monday which highlighted further issues.

He said: “We were told the problem had been fixed but when the safety officers did the test, most of the back-up lights failed again. This is a huge safety issue considering there are more than 3000 different compartments on the ship.”

A Unite union spokesman said: “Unite are aware of recent safety concerns over inadequate safety lighting cover on the Prince of