This article is literally repeating an article from The Sun, a tabloid with a better track record of reporting on royals caught on holiday with their knickers o

This article is literally repeating an article from The Sun, a tabloid with a better track record of reporting on royals caught on holiday with their knickers off. There are a lot of covers on ports and weapons on a combat aircraft sitting on the flight deck, the implication is that it was the inlet covers, which is impossible, the engine wouldn't have operated with those on and they are kind of obvious. It's much more likely this was a cover on something like a pitot tube or AoA sensor. It's also possible that something just blew off the deck and it had nothing at all to do with crash, The Sun is reporting on some hot tip from the shipboard rumor mill, not the Ministry of Defense.