The royal aircraft has been grounded in order to fix a technical problem that occurred during a flight to Balmoral to pick up the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth.
AceShowbiz –Queen Elizabeth‘s helicopter was grounded after an in-flight emergency on the way to pick up Princess Anne.
The Sikorsky S-76 aircraft suffered a technical problem just minutes into the flight to Balmoral on Wednesday (25Aug21).
The pilots were forced to abort their trip to the Scottish estate, where The Princess Royal has been staying with the monarch on holiday, and return to Newcastle Airport. According to reports, the fault was still being worked on 24 hours later.
A royal insider told The Sun newspaper, “A safety-first approach was taken and it was flown back immediately for the technical fault to be fixed.”
“There were no members of the royal family on the helicopter. Luckily, there was plenty of time to find alternative travel arrangements.”
Anne later took another helicopter flight in order to conduct three engagements in the Scottish town of Oban.
The Queen and other senior royals are regular passengers on the chopper, which is based at RAF Odiham in Hampshire. It is owned outright by the royal family and they also lease a similar aircraft.
Meanwhile, the British royal family are expected to open the statue of late Princess Diana for public on the anniversary of her passing. The statue was first unveiled by her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, in July, three months after the family’s patriarch Prince Philip was laid to rest.
As for Diana Spencer, the Princess of Wales died in a car accident in Paris, France on 31 August 1997.
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