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Wednesday saw a Harrier jump jet depart for the final time from the British Ark Royal aircraft carrier. The aircraft was piloted by Flight Commander James Blackmore, who guided the last one of four Harrier jets safely from the flight deck of the HMS Ark Royal into the sky. The vessel was sailing in the North Sea on its way to Hamburg, Germany after departing from North Shields, North Tyneside. 35 year-old Flight Commander Blackmore said before taking off that it was a privilege and that he was immensely proud to be the final pilot to take off from the...

Might HMS Ark Royal's final farewell Nov 21 2010 by Rob Pattinson, Sunday Sun THE outline of the iconic Harrier jump jet casts a striking image as the winter sun sets on the horizon. It’s like a scene from 80s blockbuster Top Gun as workers tinker around the small GR9, ensuring it’s secured firmly to the deck in the fading light of this cold November afternoon. It’s 3pm on Friday and I’m standing on the deck of the HMS Ark Royal, the Wallsend-built Royal Navy flagship less than an hour after it docked on Tyneside for the very last time...

THE Navy’s flagship deployment of 2010 is underway… with the nation’s flagship kicking it off. HMS Ark Royal departed Portsmouth on a glorious spring morning as the Auriga 2010 deployment to the Eastern Seaboard of North America began. When the exercise reaches its peak off Florida in July, it will see the carrier joined by HMS Ocean and Albion, plus American assault ship USS Kearsarge (a combination of Ark/Ocean, but twice the size…). The road to Florida begins in rather chillier climes, however. Ark’s first ‘stomping ground’ on the deployment is the west coast of Scotland and the regular Joint...

The Ark Royal has docked in Portsmouth after returning from action in the Gulf. Thousands of people lined the docks to greet the 850 servicemen and women, the combined crew of the aircraft carrier and her escort Type 42 destroyer HMS York. Friends and family waved banners and cheered on the wet and windy dock as they waited for their loved ones' return. The flag ship was greeted by a flotilla of local ships and a flyover by military aircraft as it sailed into Portsmouth. Gary Mills, 46, from Aberdeen, wept as he waved to his 20-year-old daughter Emma, who...

A memorial service has been held on board HMS Ark Royal for three British servicemen who died when two Navy helicopters crashed. The accident happened on March 22 when two Royal Navy Sea King helicopters collided over the northern Arabian Gulf. Six British servicemen died in the crash and today's memorial service on the Navy's flagship aircraft carrier was being held for three of the men whose bodies have been recovered. The three men - Lieutenants Tony King, 35 of Congresbury, Somerset, Philip Green, 31, and James Williams, 28 - were from 849 Squadron based at the Royal Naval Air...

ARK ROYAL IS ROCKED BY SERIOUS BLAZE Feb 13 2003 EXCLUSIVE By Richard Gray THE Navy's flagship aircraft carrier was recently hit by "a serious fire", it emerged last night. The crew of HMS Ark Royal were forced to shut down one of the four engines during military exercises as part of the Gulf build-up. The 20,000-ton carrier, which is spearheading our naval task force, had to limp along on three-quarters power for three days. Leaking fuel from one of the gas turbines caused the blaze in the Mediterranean on January 29. Suppressors put it out. Engineers worked flat out...

PORTSMOUTH, England (Reuters) - The flagship of Britain's Navy, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, set sail on Saturday for possible war in Iraq at the head of the largest UK amphibious task force deployed since the 1982 Falklands War. As flag-waving relatives and wellwishers packed the quayside, the carrier steamed out of Britain's Portsmouth harbor in chilly sunshine shortly after noon. "I'm proud of him but still wish he wasn't in there," Felicity Devine, whose 26-year-old son Brad works on the Ark Royal's communications, told Reuters as she watched. "You have to give them a bit of moral support," said...