FISHING BOAT NETTED ROCKET SHELL IN OPEN SEA OFF LIMASSOL [see update - thought to be part of Tornado jet]

 Filenews 27 February 2021 - by Ioanna Mantziepa

In mobilisation the port police, bomb squad as well as the national guard, after the detection of missile shell, in the open sea area of Limassol.

According to information from the police, a fishing boat spotted inside its networks on Saturday morning, a missile shell and nothing was found inside.

Powerful Police Forces and bomb squads were at the scene, receiving the missile.

In a statement at the scene, the owner of the vessel said that "around midnight, we were fishing in the area of Avdimos at a depth of about 80 meters. At one point, we noticed that the ship's speed began to decrease. That's when we found out we caught something heavy. We figured we caught a lot of fish. Raising the bag, we saw an object too big - about 6 meters long. It immediately fell out of the bag, hit part of the boat and half the piece was found in the sea. The rest fell into the ship. We immediately headed to Limassol port and immediately notified the Department of Fisheries."

 

Update:

From Cyprus Mail 27 February 2021 by Gina Agapiou

Police on Saturday were investigating after a fisherman found a chunk of what appears to be a piece of a British Tornado fighter jet in the sea.

Both the police, and the bases told the Cyprus Mail there was no danger.

The aircraft segment was found approximately four or five nautical miles off Limassol in the Avdimou area.

The owner of the fishing boat told the media he notified the fisheries department after he found it early in the morning on Saturday.

British bases spokesman Kristian Gray said it was a fuel drop tank “found in the underside of the Tornado jet.”

The last RAF Tornado GR4s in Cyprus were sent back to Britain after operations in the Middle East in February 2019.  “It must have been there for a number of years,” the base spokesman added.  It was taken back to Akrotiri.

In 2015, two armed Brimstone missiles fell off of a Tornado jet over the runway at RAF Akrotiti in their way to Iraq. There were no casualties but the incident raised questions over the safety of the Tornados.