A British F-35 has been stranded in India. Almost as surreal as the day a hunt landed in a Spanish container

The truth is that the United Kingdom expected The F-35b out A practically invincible huntbut today it flies little, and the times that does certainly surrealist situations like the one that is happening right now In India. Be that as it may, not even the current scene approaches what happened in 1983, when the indescribable episode known as the incident in the Alraigo occurred.

The hunt does not start. British f-35b furtive furtive hunt, one of the most advanced and expensive on the planet, remains stranded more than a month In India since he made an emergency landing on June 14 at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport (Kerala) due to a technical failure related to the hydraulic system and the auxiliary power unit.

A team of British engineers and military He arrived in the country on July 6 To take exclusively responsible for the repairs that are carried out under strict security measures in a deprived hangar of Air India, completely sealed and with restricted access to local forces. Although the aircraft was transferred from its initial location after three weeks immobilized, there is no news about when it will be operational again.

Everything goes wrong. But as we said at the beginning, the story, although difficult to believe, is little compared to What happened several decades ago. In June 1983, during NATO maneuvers off the coast of Portugal, the young British lieutenant Ian “Soapy” Watson took off from the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious aboard a Hunt is Harrier For a simulated search mission under combat conditions.

Together with another pilot they had to locate a French aircraft carrier keeping the radio silence and the radars off until they reached the assigned area. After activating them, they both separated and, at the end of the search, Watson tried to meet with his partner, but failed to contact. When running out of precise navigation references and with the inoperative radio, It was disoriented In full ocean. Without any contact, without a signal in the radar and with the fuel running out, the pilot knew that he had to make a drastic decision.

The impossible maneuver. Looking for maritime traffic signs, its radar finally detected a goal: the Spanish merchant ship Alraigowhich was heading to Tenerife. Unable to communicate with the crew, Watson decided to make a past to get his attention. When observing that the containers on the roof formed a flat platform similar to a training track, he opted for Try the unthinkable: land your vertical hunting on load containers.

Although He managed to perchthe aircraft began to slide back until its landing train partially fell from the edge, even impacting Against a van destined for a florist on the island of Tenerife. However, the hunt did not fall and was embedded on the containers. The scene (and images) were forever in the history of aviation.

Arrival. The Captain of the Alraigo, impassive, notified the British authorities that they would deliver the pilot and his plane In Tenerife in four dayswithout altering your route. Upon arrival in Puerto, a multitude of journalists waited for the surreal scene with the Sea Harrier mounted on a merchant ship.

Diplomatic consequences. Upon arriving at Puerto, both Naviera García Miñaur and the Red Crew considered that they had starred in an authentic Maritime rescueas contemplated by Spanish legislation. The value of the Harrier, then encrypted at 1,500 million pesetas, was not a small thing.

To ensure the collection of a fair award, lawyer Fernando Meana He requested without success The preventive embargo of the plane. Given the judicial refusal, it was decided to go to An arbitration in Londonwith the certainty that British legislation (unlike the Spanish) would grant the entire reward to the shipowner, leaving out the crew.

Legal justice. It was then when He entered the scene The lawyer José María Ruiz Soroa, who defended the sailors commissioned by the Merchant Marine Free Union. Thanks to a thorough investigation, Ruiz Soroa located in his father’s archives a forgotten British law, The Maritime Conventions Act of 1911, which established that the distribution of the prize should be made according to the legislation of the country of the Salvador ship.

That norm changed everything. After harsh negotiations, he managed to be signed A new contract with the British embassy in Madrid that guaranteed the application of Spanish law. Thus, the crew and owners of the ship received compensation close to The 570,000 pounds (about 1.14 million dollars of the time). The case became a mixture of diplomatic anecdote, media circus and legal rarity.

Responsibilities Initially, Watson underwent A research board aboard the Illustriumus, which did not take disciplinary measures. But once the aircraft carrier returned to Puerto, a second board attributed partial responsibility, claiming that it had only completed 75% of its training and that the hunting had technical failures, especially in the radio system. The pilot was reprimanded and relegated to administrative functions.

However, Watson continued his career, accumulating more than 2,000 flight hours in Sea Harriers and 900 more in F/A-18 before leaving the Navy in 1996. Despite the controversy, always He assumed responsibility Without excuses: “It was my fault. I was there. And there should end everything.”

Thus, what began as a routine operation ended up becoming one of the most unique and bizarre episodes of British naval aviation.

Image | Navy, Reddit

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