Two Royal Navy warships collided in Bahrain at the end of last week because one was incorrectly rewired, meaning that it unexpectedly went into reverse when it was set to go forward, military sources have said.
The minehunter HMS Chiddingfold went backwards into HMS Bangor, which was lying at port, ripping a hole in a cabin above the waterline, in an embarrassing blunder that the defence secretary, Grant Shapps, insisted did not reflect incompetence.
Nobody was hurt in the incident and the navy said late on Friday evening it was investigating. But naval sources said on Sunday they believed the cause of the accident was a simple rewiring error in a recently inspected vessel.
“HMS Chiddingfold’s motor was wired incorrectly and full ahead gave full astern,” a navy insider said. The vessel had been recently inspected by officers at the maritime capability, trials and assessment team, they added.
Fresh video and pictures from inside HMS Bangor show sunlight clearly coming through a hole at the end of a kitchen cabin and damage to sleeping berths. Another picture of the outside of the warship shows the side ripped open and its pennant number, M109.
Previous footage, which appeared on social media on Friday evening, showed HMS Chiddingfold heading inexorably towards HMS Bangor, a crash that its crew appeared unable to prevent.
Both warships, designed to seek out and eliminate sea mines, are based in the Gulf as part of the longstanding British naval presence in the Middle East, recently strengthened in response to the crisis in the southern Red Sea.
Houthi rebels have been attacking merchant shipping travelling through the Bab el-Mandeb waterway in the southern Red Sea, prompting the US and UK to deploy warships in the area and bomb targets in Yemen in an attempt to halt the attacks.
The Ministry of Defence declined to comment on the causes of the accident, saying its investigation was continuing, but earlier on Sunday, Shapps denied that the crash between the two warships was a product of ineptitude.
“We don’t say it’s incompetence when we see an aircraft come down. A very rare occasion just as this would be a rare occasion. It’s right to leave the investigators some time to work out exactly what’s gone wrong,” Shapps told Sky News.
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