Sometimes the BBC does make mistakes but this seems to fit their style guide: "Treat collective nouns - companies, governments and other bodies - as singular.

Sometimes the BBC does make mistakes but this seems to fit their style guide: "Treat collective nouns - companies, governments and other bodies - as singular. There are some exceptions: ... Sports teams - although they are singular in their role as business concerns (eg: Arsenal has declared an increase in profits) Rock/pop groups" So treating a crew, like a team, as plural makes sense. https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsstyleguide/grammar-spelling-punctuation#singularandplural https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsstyleguide/grammar-spelling-punctu... Both approaches are regularly used, so it is now more of a style choice, hence being in the style guide. The Economist style guide says Brits are more likely to use plural and Americans singular but writers need to make a judgement in context: https://www.economist.com/johnson/2010/09/20/style-guide-entry-of-the-week-collective-nouns https://www.economist.com/johnson/2010/09/20/style-guide-ent...