That's an expensive mistake to pay for.
Someone left the engine cover on!
Dramatic footage of what appears to be a jet crashing off the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth was posted on Twitter.
www.bbc.co.uk
No way could they all have missed one or two of the lower engine intake covers being fitted, surely that's not been confirmed yet?
I doubt it was the upper one, as that's kept closed anyway without engines running, so I doubt there is even a cover for that for normal operation.
Assuming procedures haven't changed much, aren't much different on the boats compared to land, and it was a normal departure......
It would have needed to have been actually fitted on the previous after flight service (AF)
Then it would have needed to be missed by 1-2 groundcrew when doing the before flight service, and the supervisor (if he went outside, but that's doubtful)
Then it would need to be missed by 1-2 groundcrew and 1 aircrew, during the pre-flight walk around (looking in the engine intakes is high up the list of checks)
Then it would need to be missed on start-up by the groundcrew, and also the aircrew, can't imagine the engine functioned all that well before that, and this would get noticed, especially as it's single engine.
Then it would need to be missed on final departure checks and taxi.
That's a big chain of events to go wrong.
It could have sucked up a cover from something else mind, something much less noticeable or from another aircraft/ piece of equipment, which is much, much more common, as is sucking up birds!