Royal Navy denied knowledge of submarine collision

The Royal Navy denied all knowledge of a collision between a submarine and a fishing trawler in Manx waters.

That's according to a report from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch - it began investigating after the Northern Irish vessel 'Karen' was fouled in April last year.

The report found the command team on-board the submarine was unaware it had collided with the boat, which was trawling for prawns, until around three hours after it happened. 

The incident was logged by the Karen's skipper but the Royal Navy denied there were any UK or NATO subs operating within 50 nautical miles at the time.

The issue was raised in parliament in June where the Royal Navy once again denied that a submarine had been to blame - it took until September to finally conclude it had been responsible. 

The MAIB says that meant the investigation was conducted without the navy's 'full cooperation' - with it taking 10 months for the officers to submit evidence to the investigation team. 

It concluded the crash could have been avoided if 'standard procedures for fishing vessel avoidance' were followed and says the Royal Navy has now ordered pre-deployment briefing to be reviewed.