HMS Richmond helicopter crash

The Westland Lynx helicopter attached to the Royal Navy frigate HMS Richmond crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on 12 June 2002, killing two of the three on board. It had been returning to the ship after an air-to-ship missile live firing exercise, when it suffered a double engine failure.

The two fatalities were Lieutenants Rod Skidmore and Jenny Lewis, the pilot and observer seated in the two-person cockpit; Lewis is believed to be the first female Royal Navy pilot or observer to die in service. A third crew member, Petty Officer Paul Hanson, survived after being rescued. He had been on board to record the exercise.

The helicopter went down approximately 200 miles off the eastern seaboard of the United States, necessitating the deepest salvage operation ever undertaken by the Ministry of Defence. Both the wreckage and the body of Skidmore were recovered, but Lewis's body was never found, leading the coroner to express regret that he was only permitted in law to record a verdict on Skidmore, of accidental death.

Crash and rescue

On 12 June 2002, HMS Richmond was participating in a training exercise with the U.S. Navy to test Sea Skua and Tomahawk missiles by firing them from a Lynx helicopter at a disused American warship at the Virginia Cape range.

The Lynx helicopter attached to Richmond was being piloted by Lieutenant Rod Skidmore, 39, a British citizen and married father of two from Martinstown, Dorset. The flight observer was Lieutenant Jenny Lewis, 25, also a British citizen and one of three women in the forty-strong 815 Naval Air Squadron. Lewis had been in the Navy for four years, previously serving on HMS London and HMS Northumberland. Her family was from the Isle of Wight, and she lived in Sherborne. Also on board was Paul Hanson, a petty officer working as a photographer, from St Helens, Merseyside. He was on board to video record the launch of the missiles and the damage that they caused.

Whilst returning to Richmond in fair weather, Lewis made an emergency call at low altitude around 40 mi from the ship. As stated at the later inquest, Hanson heard a bang from the starboard engine, after which the helicopter nosedived into the Atlantic Ocean from a height of around 400 ft. The crash occurred 190 mi southeast of the US naval base at Norfolk, Virginia. A door of the helicopter was ripped off during the crash, which allowed Hanson to swim free of the craft as it started to sink. He suffered only minor injuries, while Lewis and Skidmore were killed. Five weeks later it was found that Hanson had suffered from two crushed vertebrae.

Following the accident, Hanson said that he could see his fellow crew-members in the water as well, as "there were two green helmets, they were no more than 50 or 60 feet away from me.", but after he swam to them he found that they were just empty floating helmets.

The wreck subsequently sank to 4,000 m, as deep as RMS Titanic, with very little debris left on the surface.

In the aftermath of the crash, a joint search and rescue operation was launched by British and American authorities but was called off at sunset, with only Hanson being rescued. The crew of HMS Richmond held a memorial service on 13 June near the last reported position of the helicopter, including throwing a white Royal Navy ensign into the sea at the position.