Ramblers may get Royal to the rescue
Jan 12 2009 by Dan Warburton, The Journal
FROM stricken ramblers to stranded flood-victims, those in distress could soon be in line for the Royal treatment.
Because if Prince William completes an 18-month training stint with the RAF he could be on hand to help those in need of help in the North East.
The 26-year-old may be stationed in rural Northumberland if he is recruited by the Search and Rescue Force (Sarf) in the RAF’s Boulmer base, near Alnwick, Northumberland.
Earning £36,000 as a pilot, Flight Lieut Wales, as the prince will be known, will work 24 hour shifts.
His main role will be to recover RAF personnel but in peacetime the majority of call-outs are likely to involve civilian incidents.
And Carol Grey, who is councillor for the nearby Longhoughton with Craster and Rennington Ward, said the prince would be made to feel right at home.
She said: “It sounds very interesting. I’m sure he would like the area and it would be exciting for everyone here.
“There’s a lot for him to do and people would welcome him. He wouldn’t be bothered here like he would in any other place. People around here take things like these in their stride.
“We’ve got a big house he could visit. I would have him round for tea and he could watch the football.”
The prince’s duties would include guiding a RAF Sea King helicopter, while his four-strong crew launch rescue missions.
These include saving lost hill walkers, or mounting large-scale operations like the evacuations that followed the devastating floods in Morpeth last year.
When on duty he would sleep at the station as his yellow Sea King helicopter will need to be airborne within 15 minutes of a call-out.
When on call, the prince would be unable to stray more that an hour from the unit’s base.
His day would begin with a briefing about the weather before up to four hours of training when not responding to emergency calls.
Sarf also operate in Cyprus and the Falkland Islands with these teams, like their UK colleagues, responding to manmade crises and natural disasters all over the world.
William could opt to be based abroad but it is likely he will serve in the UK for personal and security reasons.
If he did come to the region, it would not be his first time in Northumberland.
In April of last year, The Journal reported that the prince had landed a multi-million pound RAF Chinook helicopter in a field near Hexham while on his way to a university friend’s wedding in Kelso.
It later emerged that the cost of the four-hour flight to get to Northumberland was a total of £18,522.
RAF Boulmer is one of six bases that Prince William could be stationed at. The others are in Anglesey, Lossiemouth in Moray, Scotland, Chivenor in Devon, Wattisham near Ipswich in Suffolk, or Leconfield near Beverley, East Yorkshire.
