HMS Queen Elizabeth: ‘Drunk’ British sailors arrested after £3billion aircraft carrier's arrival in US

Six British sailors from the Royal Navy’s £3 billion aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth have been arrested over allegations of drunken behaviour in the US.

Two of the sailors were tasered by police when the arrests were made in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, on Wednesday night, according to reports.

They were held mostly on suspicion of drunk and disorderly behaviour and three of the sailors resisted arrest, local police reports said.

The trouble is said to have started outside Lynch’s Irish Pub.

The Royal Navy’s 65,000 tonne huge aircraft carrier, nicknamed Big Lizzie, arrived in the US this week.

Police sergeant Larry Smith said: “Six sailors were arrested in the bar district and all the offences were alcohol related, such as disorderly intoxication and resisting arrest.”

A Royal Navy spokesman told the Standard: “We can confirm that a number of naval personnel are assisting US police with their enquiries - it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.

“The Naval Service places great importance on maintaining the highest possible standards of behaviour from its personnel at all times.”

HMS Queen Elizabeth left Portsmouth Naval Base on August 18 and docked at Mayport, Florida after just under three weeks on the open seas.

The purpose of her visit is to conduct trials with US F-35B fighter jets, which are expected to carry out 500 landings.

The honour of landing the first of the training jets on to the carrier will go to one of three British pilots taking part in the US deployment.

They are a Royal Navy commander, an RAF squadron leader and a civilian test pilot accompanied by a major from the US Marine Corps.

Speaking ahead of the journey to the US, Commodore Andrew Betton, commander of the UK Carrier Strike Group, said that the carrier would be provided full protection in the face of Russian threats during its journey.

He said: “Russian submarines are more active in the North Atlantic than they have been since the Cold War and we take that very seriously, the ship will be well protected as she makes her transit across the Atlantic.

“We will seek to operate professionally and within the standard of laws of the high seas operating in international waters going about our business.

“We are not seeking confrontation, we are heading to the east coast of the United States to conduct trials.”