A royal navy pilot was killed in a helicopter crash after the crew misdiagnosed a fault as a double engine failure and switched them off.

Lieutenant Rhodri Leyshon died after the Merlin Mk4 helicopter he was flying crashed into the English Channel on September 4, 2024.

The crew attempted a deliberate ditching, while wrongly believing their helicopter to be unflyable due to the fault.

The 31-year-old was in the cockpit for a night-time training drill from the HMS Queen Elizabeth carrier, 25 miles south of Lyme Regis, Dorset.

The original vehicle that had been allocated for the exercise had been swapped out due to a fault with its communications system.

A second vehicle was unprepared for flight, so the crew was given a third chopper handed over from a previous drill.

At 8.46pm, 11 minutes into the flight, a part of the second engine’s fuel pump split, causing more fuel to flow into the engine and accelerating its rotor speed.

This caused a red master warning of an engine failure to be triggered, but it did not say which of the engines was affected.

The aircraft’s unnamed commander declared a mayday incident before switching off two functioning engines without consulting a second crew member who would normally collaborate on decisions about critical switches, a service inquiry panel found.

This left only the faulty engine running, and it revved so fast that its safety system shut it off and the helicopter was left without power.

The helicopter hit the water at a speed of more than 120 miles per hour, with the impact detaching the tail from the fuselage.

Lieutenant Leyshon’s body was recovered from the sea two hours after the helicopter crashed.

Two crew members were rescued from the sea with minor injuries, while Lieutenant Leyshon was confirmed dead after being taken to hospital that evening.

The inquiry found poor communication between the crew members who had demonstrated ‘siloed’ behaviour in the cockpit.

Insufficient training was identified as a contributory factor, with the commander having flown just once in the 40 days leading up to the exercise and the pilots lacking experience with deck landings, the report said.

It added that the night search operation was hindered by ‘sub-optimal’ visual aids.

In a statement, Ltn Leyshon’s father, Tim Leyshon, said his son had been ‘let down by the system’.

His mother, Mary Scourfield, added: ‘I know that he would have done everything within his power to get the helicopter back.

‘It is therefore heart-breaking to see that he was put into this situation. What saddens us further is that Rhodri had ultimate faith in and loyalty towards the organisation and system in which he worked.

‘He had so much more life to live.’

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