Charles to check on air terror
PRINCE CHARLES has developed a fascination (some might call it almost a morbid one) with the security procedures put in place by the Royal Air Force in case terrorists try to mount an attack from the skies on the Olympic games.
He has asked to see the centre of operations at an air base in Northumberland in the week when the Games start, when he will be given a simulated demonstration of how the RAF would deal with any suspicious aircraft flying near the Olympic park.
As a Marshal of the RAF, he was promoted to the full honorary rank by the Queen only last month, Charles naturally has the highest security clearance and will be told the topsecret plans developed at Boulmer, which as the HQ of the military’s air traffic monitoring team already safeguards the whole of Britain’s airspace from its underground operations centre.
The ultimate fear is of a hijacked airliner repeating the American 9/11 attack, although intelligence reports state that the more likely threat would be from a light aircraft on a “suicide bomber mission” deliberately breaking the restricted zone, which will be enforced above East London from this Saturday .
If the pilot did not respond it would be intercepted by either a Lynx helicopter armed with snipers, or a Puma helicopter from one of the eight aboard HMS Ocean, the Royal Navy assault ship moored in Greenwich.
If the alarm is raised about a commercial airliner, two Typhoon fighter planes (which take five minutes to reach the restricted zone from their base at Northolt) will fly alongside the aircraft and establish whether it poses a threat, by using internationally recognised manoeuvres to request it follows them and land safely. If it fails to respond, it will be up to the command at RAF Boulmer to give the order to destroy it, with clearance from the Prime Minister or Defence Minister. Charles, who will stay with his friends the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland at Alnwick Castle when he visits the base, is “absolutely fascinated by the whole process of this operation,” according to one royal aide, who adds that the prince “knows what he’s talking about because he trained as a pilot at Cranwell”.
He will meet Wing Commander Martin Ogden, who is heading the Olympics operation, who says his task will have been successful if his crews’ days are quiet, insisting that “success is boredom”.
The threat to the UK from international terrorism is currently rated as “substantial”, which is the thirdhighest of five levels.