Queen treats William to £8 million helicopter

[joe_bloggs*]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/queen-buys-prince-william-kate-3735003

"The new helicopter will be paid for by the Sovereign Grant – public funds given to the Monarch by the Government every year. For this financial year, the sum is £37.9million"

Wonder if she pays her cleaners a living wage yet?

[evoman3957]

Kids always get more expensive to keep as they get older.

[cee-dee]

It's been leased, not bought and it's registered to the keeper of the Privvy Purse.

[upthecreekyetagain]

You'd have thought she could have been able to afford to rent a new helicopter for Wills rather than an 8 year old second hand banger!

[cee-dee]

It was built in 2008 so it's SIX years old but it's only been owned by the manufacturers.

[upthecreekyetagain]

My mistake - six year old ex-demonstrator

[joe_bloggs*]

I see the bill for their "apartment" refurbishment has reached £4 million ! And they already have a mansion,talk about taking the Micky,
Wonder if they'll be liable for the bedroom tax?

[cee-dee]

I've just read that story on the BBC site and wondered how long it'd be before it made it on to here.

[pillarboxred]

Helicopters are a very dangerous mode of transport although they have their uses; in very dangerous situations or where life is at risk, using a helicopter is more likely to reduce the risk of a near certain fatality than not using one but in everyday life they increase your chance of dying. Why is there a programme called "Helicopter Heroes"? The pilots are risking their lives to help others.

[cee-dee]

The chopper concerned is a twin-engined one and they're much safer than a single. It's rare to have both engines fail at the same time and the Scottish crash (of a twin) seems to have been a shortage of fuel.

Catastrophic failures are very rare and those are mostly down to some issue of maintenance and/or failing to take action following some indication of a possible problem.

Other than lightning strikes, other crashes are pilot error.

[mustard-tree]

"Helicopter Heroes"? The pilots are risking their lives to help others

William did just that with the Search and Rescue in Wales

[pillarboxred]

Well, yes, but I still think helicopters are more dangerous than other modes of transport. They might be the only way to rush someone with a broken back from a mountain gully to hospital, but using one to take a wife and baby to a party in the shires is exposing them to unnecessary risk.

[pillarboxred]

The aviation industry is very rich, there are oceanic expanses and depths of wealth at stake and they know how to defeat investigations. Usually, it is "pilot error", especially when the pilot is not present to defend himself, not their faulty technology and software.