By IANS,
London : Prince William has been rebuked for using a Royal Air Force (RAF) Chinook helicopter to attend a cousin’s party that cost the ministry of defence a lot of money and loss of face.
Details of the personal flight when the prince was undergoing helicopter training at the RAF’s Odibam base in Britain came to light after a request from the anti-monarchy group Republic under the Freedom of Information Act.
William had used a 9,000-pound training flight on April 11 to pick up his brother, Prince Harry, in London and fly to the Isle of Wight to attend the party for his cousin Peter Philips.
It emerged in the following days that he had also practised landings in a field owned by the parents of his girlfriend, Kate Middleton, and used a helicopter flight to get to a wedding in Northumberland.
Internal e-mails of the military revealed that the prince’s station commander was left in the dark about the “true nature” of the flights and that several senior officers were taken to task after the ministry of defence faced media flak over the affair.
The Prince of Wales, William’s father, was informed of the matter and sources told The Telegraph that William had taken part in a “group conversation” over the affair and had taken his “share of the flak” for the “screw up”.
A defence spokesperson said: “In retrospect, there was a degree of naivety involved in the planning of these sorties but there is no question that anyone misled anyone.”