Faslane submarine commanders put fishermen's lives at risk

That’s the conclusion of the government’s chief inspector of marine accidents after an incident in the Irish Sea in which a submarine snagged the nets of a fishing vessel.

Steve Clinch also criticised the Navy’s reluctance to engage with the investigation into the collision – and said lessons learned after a similar incident in 1992, in which a Scottish trawler sank, killing all four crew, had been “lost”.

Mr Clinch’s comments follow the publication of a report by the government’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) into the circumstances of the incident in 2015.

The report concluded that the collision with the trawler Karen happened because the sub’s command team believed the vessel to be a merchant ship – and so didn’t think there was a risk of an accident or any need to take avoiding action.

Mr Clinch said: “Eighteen months ago, the actions of the command team of a Royal Navy submarine placed the lives of the crew of the trawler Karen in danger.

“Regrettably, the reluctance of the Royal Navy to fully engage in the subsequent investigation resulted in this report taking significantly longer to deliver than would normally be the case.

“The accident happened because of insufficient passage planning by the submarine’s command team and their failure to follow guidance on fishing vessel avoidance. Had its trawl warps not parted, it is almost inevitable that Karen would have capsized and sunk.

“The Royal Navy’s Code of Practice for Fishing Vessel Avoidance was created after the loss of the trawler Antares and its crew in 1990; however, it is apparent that lessons learned after the Antares accident have been lost. As a result, it is now important that the Royal Navy reviews its procedures and training for the safe conduct of dived submarine operations in the same vicinity as vessels engaged in fishing. By its actions, the Royal Navy also needs to rebuild trust with the fishing industry.”

The collision between the submarine – which has not been identified – and the trawler happened 15 miles south-east of Ardglass, County Down, at 4.05pm on April 15 last year.

The MAIB report says the circumstances of the collision were allowed to develop “because the command team did not follow the standard procedures for fishing vessel avoidance”.

It states: “Had these procedures been followed, the accident would have been avoided. The fishing vessel activity levels were predictable and the Irish Sea was impassable to a deep submarine.

“This hazard should have been identified as a risk to the safety of both the submarine and fishing vessels during the development of the submarine’s passage plan.

“If the submarine command team’s priority was to achieve an undetected, deep, fast passage, then a high concentration of fishing vessels should have been avoided.”

The report also states that an independent safety probe into the incident was “impeded” by delays in establishing and admitting that a submarine was responsible and by the Royal Navy’s restrictions on the release of evidence.

It says: “Additionally, the evidence submitted was insufficient to determine all the causal factors of the accident.”

The report also found it was “highly likely” that the submarine’s command team and sonar operators were “cognitively overloaded” because of the density of shipping traffic in the area, the associated noisy acoustic environment and the “unnecessarily high” speed of advance.

In addition, the investigation into the incident found that evidence of the collision was “either not observed or misinterpreted”, meaning the vessel’s command team was unaware of the incident until some three hours later

A spokesperson for the Royal Navy said: “We have expressed our regret and remain sorry for the incident and delay in confirming our involvement. We’ve revised our procedures to reduce the risk that such an incident could happen again.”

The Karen’s owner gave an estimate of £10,000 for the cost of fixing the damage to the trawler’s nets.