The commander of the Special Boat Service has been killed while diving during a substantial amphibious assault exercise off Narvik, in northern Norway.

Lieutenant Colonel Richard van der Horst is reported to have been leaving a submerged mini-submarine, which allows SBS commandos to approach shore as divers, when difficulties arose.

The commander was recovered from the sea alive but died later in a Norwegian hospital, reportedly with his wife present. In his early forties, Lt Col van der Horst had recently been made an MBE for his work in Iraq. The MoD has said that a board of inquiry will investigate the accident.

The SBS is the special operations unit of the Royal Marines. Together with the SAS, the Army’s equivalent unit, it makes up Britain’s Special Forces Group. SBS commandos are, among other things, expert in diving, swimming, navigation and demolition.

*A British diving tourist has died while exploring a wreck off western Australia. According to Australian news reports, Richard Mann, 53, from Horley in Oxfordshire, got into difficulties on HMAS Swan, near Dunsborough. He was brought to the surface and taken ashore, where a waiting doctor and ambulance crew pronounced him dead at the scene.

News Index Page