A Royal Navy submarine crashed because tracing paper was used to save their charts, an offical enquiry has found. The HMS Trafalgar ran aground during a training exercise off the coast of Skye in November 2002.

A Royal Navy board of inquiry criticised the decision to put tracing paper over charts so student officers could not draw on them.

It said the tracing paper obscured vital information that could have prevented the crash.

An estimated £5m of damage was caused to the hull of the 4,750 tonne submarine when HMS Trafalgar smashed into the seabed off a small island called Fladda-chuain.

Three crew members suffered minor injuries, but there was no damage to the vessel’s nuclear reactor.