Fresh humiliation as fire breaks out on £3bn flagship
THE Royal Navy faced fresh embarrassment yesterday after a fire broke out on its £3billion flagship aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.
The blaze started on board the Navy’s largest and most powerful vessel while it was docked and waiting for repairs at Glenmallan, Scotland.
There were no reported injuries and no ordnance was involved in the incident. Officials are working to establish how the fire started on the ship.
The drama comes after the Mail launched our Don’t Leave Britain Defenceless campaign for an immediate cash boost for the Armed Forces.
It is the second time this year that HMS Queen Elizabeth has been hit with problems. The vessel was forced to pull out of a Nato exercise last month due to a faulty shaft on one of its two propellers, which weigh 33 tonnes each.
It had been due to set sail from Portsmouth to help lead the Western military alliance’s biggest exercise since the Cold War which was taking place off Norway’s Arctic coast.
But the 65,000-ton ship, whose flight deck covers four acres, had to be pulled out of the Steadfast Defender exercise at the eleventh hour after suspected rust was discovered on the affected part.
This meant there was a risk of it breaking down at sea and HMS Prince of Wales, the Navy’s second aircraft carrier, was sent instead.
At the time, MPs described it as an ‘excruciatingly embarrassing’ fiasco.
However HMS Prince of Wales has also had previous technical issues and broke down in August 2022 after leaving Portsmouth when it suffered a misalignment of a propeller.
A Navy spokesman said there had been a ‘minor, isolated fire’ on HMS Queen Elizabeth while it was docked awaiting repair which was quickly brought under control and extinguished.