Navaleye,
The aircraft handler was on the deck, with no binos, at close to sun down in the middle of alert red....if he stopped to fetch binos and look around, he should have had his rear end kicked for not doing what he was supposed to be doing.
Still, with binos, you got 11 miles and beyond...this guy got 14nm with a mk1 eyeball!
So...was the AC closer than the stipulated 14nm or the RN employed a descendant of Hawkeye as an aircraft handler on the Hermes???