A NAVY warship came within a “hair’s breadth of disaster” after nearly crashing into an oil tanker in the Firth of Clyde.
An officer responsible tried to cover up his actions and has been reprimanded, lost his seniority, and fined £3600.
The Daily Record reported that Lieutenant Euan Playford-Johnston had left an untrained colleague to navigate on the HMS Penzance, a minesweeper, when the incident happened on the night of April 17, 2023.
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The navy ship, which was based at Faslane, was on a collision course with the 12,000-tonne Sten Baltic, the court was told, when that tanker’s captain took action to avoid a crash.
The Sten Baltic is an oil/chemical tanker that flies under the Norwegian flag.
Playford-Johnston admitted to negligently hazarding a ship and breaching standing orders at a case which was heard by the Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire.
The two ships came within 400 yards of colliding, the Record reported.
Assistant Judge Advocate John Atwill told Playford-Johnston: "The consequences would have been unthinkable.
“Your actions on that day brought that ship within a hair's breadth of disaster. It brought you within a hair’s breadth of prison."
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