Royal Navy sailor arrested over bomb hoax on nuclear submarine

Telegraph

a day ago

A Royal Navy sailor was reportedly arrested over a bomb hoax on a Trident submarine.
The Petty Officer on HMS Vanguard is claimed to have caused a full emergency response after calling in a bomb warning to the 16,000-tonne submarine's main control room.
His alleged threat, believed to have been a prank, is said to have triggered a lockdown at HMNB Clyde, the navy's headquarters in Scotland where nuclear-armed submarines are kept.
A bomb squad was reportedly called to the scene in Faslane.
An anonymous source told The Sun: 'The suspect was working in the rear of the boat, in the engineering control room, and allegedly called up front to the main control room and claimed there was a bomb on board.
'It's not clear if he lost the plot or if it was a stupid prank that went horribly wrong. The person who took the call believed it was credible and triggered a full emergency response.
Under investigation
'They did a quick draw and the base piped orders to the Royal Marines to guard the jetty and the submarine hatches to make sure no one could come on or off.'
A Royal Navy spokesman said: 'We can confirm that a member of the Royal Navy is under investigation by the Defence Serious Crime Command for a bomb hoax.'
The £4 billion submarine re-entered service as part of the UK's nuclear deterrent fleet last year after a seven-year refit in Plymouth.
Last January, it was chosen to carry out Britain's first nuclear missile test in eight years, but the Trident nuclear missile misfired and crashed into the ocean after what the Ministry of Defence called an 'anomaly'.
The failure prompted questions about the effectiveness and efficiency of Britain's nuclear deterrent.