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SHOCK: William GROUNDS Camilla's Sandringham Helicopter... The Pilot Called Him First — Transcript

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0:03Hey, final decision rest with you as a
0:05captain. I guess it's kind of unwitting
0:06rule.
0:07>> So, William just grounded a royal
0:08helicopter from a kitchen table 100
0:10miles away. One phone call, less than 10
0:14minutes, and on a wet field at Ray Mill,
0:17Camila's house in Wiltshire. The engines
0:19went quiet before a single blade had
0:21turned. And honestly, the helicopter is
0:24the small part because of who was
0:26waiting to climb into it and who the
0:28pilot decided to ring first. Camila's
0:30bags were already on board. Two of her
0:33guests were waiting in the house with
0:34their coats on. Her office had a
0:36schedule printed out with a landing time
0:39at Sandringham written at the top in
0:40bold. The crew were walking around the
0:43aircraft with torches and clipboards,
0:45the way crews do before every flight.
0:47And the pilot was standing at the edge
0:49of the grass with his phone to his ear.
0:51He was not calling the royal travel
0:53office. He was not calling Camila's
0:56private secretary. He was not calling
0:58anyone at Buckingham Palace. He was
1:01calling William, not the king, whose
1:03household runs the flight. His son,
1:06sitting at a kitchen table with a
1:08child's homework spread out in front of
1:10him. Nobody is suggesting anyone set out
1:13to do anything reckless that afternoon,
1:15and it is only fair to say so plainly.
1:18But a pilot does not ring the Prince of
1:20Wales over nothing. And the word William
1:22said back to him is the one every pilot
1:24in the country will tell you is the
1:26hardest in the job. The ground crew
1:29noticed. One of them nudged another and
1:31nodded towards the edge of the grass
1:33where the pilot was turning slowly in a
1:35small circle as he talked. The way
1:38people do when they are trying to keep
1:39their voice down and their nerve up at
1:41the same time. Within 10 minutes, the
1:44flight was off. The engines that had
1:46been warming up were shut down. And by
1:48the time the fog had rolled all the way
1:50across the fields from the river, the
1:52story of what happened on that grass had
1:54already traveled from Wiltshire to
1:55Kensington Palace and back again. People
1:58still ask why the pilot rang William
2:00first. They ask why William, who was not
2:03even there, was the one who gave the
2:05order. And they ask what William said in
2:08that call that made a whole crew stop
2:10what they were doing in a single moment.
2:12The answer is an old one. It reaches
2:15back to William's own years in a cockpit
2:17and it reaches the late queen and a rule
2:20she kept for the whole of her reign
2:22without ever once writing it down. Stay
2:25with this pilot a moment because those
2:27who keep everyone else safe are usually
2:30the ones who get blamed for it. Think of
2:33the person who once told you no and was
2:35right and put their name below. Press
2:37like if that pilot earned your respect.
2:40Pass this to the one friend who checks
2:42everything twice and tap subscribe for
2:44Kensington Herald. Since William's order
2:46was short enough to fit on a matchbox, a
2:49quick job for you before the fog rolls
2:51in. If the pilot made the right call in
2:54your eyes, type engines off now in the
2:57comments. Keep it close. Before the
3:00final chapter, you will learn who said
3:02those words to William for the very
3:04first time many years ago and why he
3:07never let them go. Most people never
3:10think about how the royal family gets
3:12around. They see the cars. They
3:15sometimes see the train. But a great
3:17deal of royal travel inside the United
3:19Kingdom happens by helicopter. And it is
3:22run by a small, very quiet team called
3:24the king's helicopter flight. It used to
3:27be called the Queen's helicopter flight.
3:30It was set up in 1998 during the late
3:33Queen's reign and it was renamed after
3:35she died. It sits within the royal
3:38household and its flights are arranged
3:40through the Royal Travel Office at
3:41Buckingham Palace. The aircraft are
3:44based at RAF Odham in Hampshire. For
3:47many years, the flight used Sikorski
3:49helicopters. More recently, the
3:52household brought in two newer Leonardo
3:54AW139 aircraft to replace them. The
3:58reason given was simple. A helicopter
4:00lets a member of the family get to
4:02places that a car or a train cannot
4:04reach easily and sometimes do several
4:06visits in one day. But the people who
4:09fly those aircraft are not chauffeers.
4:11They are professional pilots, many of
4:14them with long careers behind them. And
4:16they work to the same rules as every
4:18other pilot in the country. The weather,
4:20the rest hours, the fuel, the landing
4:23site, the checks. And there is one rule
4:26above all the others. It is the oldest
4:29rule in flying. And it does not change
4:31depending on who is in the back. The
4:34pilot in command has the final word. Not
4:36the passenger, not the passenger's
4:38office, not the person paying for the
4:41fuel, the pilot. That rule is the whole
4:44reason this story happened. William
4:46understands that rule better than almost
4:48anyone in his family. He trained as a
4:51pilot in the armed forces. He spent
4:53years as an RAF search and rescue pilot
4:56based at RAF Valley on the island of
4:59Anglesy in North Wales. He was called
5:01out to people stranded on mountains and
5:03in the sea. Later he spent 2 years
5:06flying for the East Anglian Air
5:08ambulance and some of those flights took
5:10him right across Norfolk over the same
5:12flat fields and the same gray coast that
5:15surround Sandringham. People who flew
5:17with him in those years say the same
5:19thing about him. He was not interested
5:22in being treated differently. He wanted
5:24to be one of the crew. He did the
5:26checks. He sat the briefings. He took
5:28the night shifts. And he learned
5:31something in those years that he still
5:32talks about privately. The most
5:34dangerous moment in a flight is very
5:36often the moment before it starts. The
5:39moment when everyone is ready, everyone
5:41is waiting, the bags are on board, and
5:44somebody important wants to leave. That
5:46is the moment he once told a friend when
5:49good people talk themselves into bad
5:51decisions. So the pilot who was standing
5:54on the grass at Ray Mill that afternoon
5:56knew exactly who he was calling. He was
5:59not calling a prince. He was calling a
6:01man who had been where he was standing.
6:03The two of them had known each other for
6:05years. They had flown in the same part
6:08of the country. They knew some of the
6:10same people. And once a long time ago,
6:13they had sat in the same crew room
6:15drinking bad coffee while waiting for
6:17the weather to lift. The plan on paper
6:19was a simple one. Camila had been
6:21staying at Ray Mill, her own house in
6:24Wiltshire, and she wanted to be at
6:25Sandringham before dark with two
6:27friends. Driving would have taken the
6:29best part of the afternoon. So, her
6:32office asked for a helicopter. That kind
6:35of request is not unusual. It goes
6:37through the proper channels. The Royal
6:39Travel Office looks at it and the flight
6:41crew planned the route. But this request
6:44had changed three times in 2 days.
6:47First, the departure time had moved
6:49later because Camila wanted to finish
6:51lunch at the house. Then, a second stop
6:54had been added at a friend's estate on
6:56the way so that one of the guests could
6:59collect something. Then, the departure
7:01time had moved later again. Each change
7:04on its own was small, but together they
7:07meant the flight would be leaving later
7:09in the afternoon than planned with an
7:11extra landing at a private site the crew
7:13had never used before and with the light
7:15already starting to go. The pilot raised
7:18it in the morning politely. He said the
7:21later departure would push the crew very
7:23close to their limit on working hours
7:25and he said the forecast was showing fog
7:28coming up the river valley later in the
7:30day. He was told that the timing was
7:32important to Camila and that the office
7:34would be grateful if the crew could make
7:36it work. The call that morning did not
7:38end there. The pilot rang back an hour
7:41later from the crew room after he had
7:43looked again at the charts. He asked to
7:46speak to the person who had added the
7:47second stop. We have a friend's estate
7:50in a valley that we have never landed
7:51at. He said, "No lights, no ground crew,
7:55trees on two sides. I would want to
7:58survey it first in daylight and there
8:01will not be any daylight left by the
8:03time we get there. Nothing came back for
8:05a beat. Is that a no? The voice asked.
8:10It is a warning, the pilot said. I am
8:13telling you now, so that nobody is
8:16surprised later. Then we will note it,
8:19the voice said. But you should know she
8:21has already told her guests. His
8:23co-pilot was sitting across the table
8:25eating a sandwich out of a paper bag. He
8:28watched the pilot put the phone down and
8:30push it slowly away across the table as
8:32if it were hot. Well, they have noted
8:35it. The co-pilot put his sandwich down.
8:38That is what they say when they have not
8:40heard a word. The pilot did not answer.
8:44He picked up a pencil and drew a small
8:46circle on the chart around the second
8:48landing site. Then another circle around
8:50the river. Then he sat looking at the
8:53two circles for a long time, while the
8:56kettle in the corner of the crew room
8:57boiled and clicked off, and nobody got
9:00up to use it. By the middle of the
9:02afternoon, the sky over the estate had
9:05gone the color of wet slate. The ground
9:07crew could see it before anyone in the
9:09house did. Out along the river, beyond
9:11the trees, the horizon was simply
9:14disappearing. Not with any fuss, just
9:17quietly, the way fog does in Wiltshire.
9:19a little more of the world going soft
9:21and gray every few minutes. The pilot
9:24walked out onto the grass and stood
9:26watching it. His co-pilot came and stood
9:28next to him. "That's coming our way,"
9:31the co-pilot said. "I know. Second
9:34sight's in a valley. If that sits in
9:36there, we won't see the field." "I
9:39know." The pilot checked the latest
9:41weather report on his tablet. Then he
9:43checked it again. The fog was moving
9:45faster than the forecast had said. The
9:48second landing site, the one that had
9:50been added the day before, was right in
9:52its path. He looked back at the house.
9:55Through one of the long windows, he
9:57could see people moving, coats being put
9:59on. A member of Camila's staff was
10:02already walking down the path towards
10:04them with a phone in her hand. "How long
10:06have we got?" the co-pilot asked. "Not
10:09long enough," the pilot said. The member
10:11of staff reached them a minute later.
10:14She was not rude. people who were there
10:16are clear about that she was under
10:18pressure and she was doing her job. She
10:20said that Camila was ready, that the
10:22guests were ready, and that the office
10:24needed to know the helicopter would be
10:26leaving in the next 15 minutes. The
10:28pilot told her about the fog. She said
10:31she had looked at the sky herself, and
10:33it did not seem too bad. He told her
10:35about the second landing site and the
10:37valley and the crew hours. She asked
10:40whether the second stop could be done
10:41quickly. He said the issue was not how
10:44quickly it could be done. The issue was
10:47whether it could be done safely at all.
10:49With respect, she said, "You said this
10:52morning it was a warning, not a no. This
10:55morning the fog was miles off down the
10:57valley," he said. "Now look at it." She
11:01turned and looked out beyond the trees.
11:03The line where the land met the sky had
11:05gone, not faded, gone. A flock of geese
11:09came low over the field, calling and
11:12disappeared into the gray before they
11:13reached the far hedge. She turned back,
11:16her phone buzzed in her hand. She
11:19glanced at the screen and the ground
11:21crew saw her jaw tighten. They are
11:23asking me where we are, she said. What
11:26would you like me to tell them? Tell
11:28them the crew is checking the weather. I
11:30told them that 20 minutes ago. Then it
11:33is still true, the pilot said. She
11:36paused. Then she said something that one
11:38of the ground crew remembers word for
11:40word because it made him look up from
11:42what he was doing. Camila has flown in
11:44worse than this. The pilot did not
11:47answer straight away. He looked at the
11:49fog again. Then he said very calmly that
11:52he would need a few minutes and he
11:54stepped away across the grass with his
11:56phone. The member of staff went back to
11:58the house and the ground crew who had
12:01been about to start the engines were
12:03told to wait. There were other people
12:05the pilot could have called. He could
12:06have called his own managers. He could
12:09have called the Royal Travel Office. And
12:11later, he did both of those things
12:13properly. By the book, nobody has ever
12:16suggested he went around the system. But
12:18he knew what was waiting for him if he
12:20called the office first. More pressure,
12:23more questions. Somebody on the other
12:25end asking whether there was any way at
12:28all to make it work because Camila was
12:30waiting and he knew that the decision
12:32was his to make. He did not need
12:34anyone's permission to say no. What he
12:37needed was something different. He
12:39needed somebody in the family to stand
12:41next to that decision so that nobody
12:43could turn it into a quarrel about one
12:45pilot being difficult. He needed
12:47somebody who would understand in a
12:49single sentence. So he rang William.
12:52William was at home in Windsor at Forest
12:54Lodge with the children. He picked up on
12:57the third ring. He did not know the
12:59pilot was going to call. And the first
13:01thing he said, according to people who
13:04later heard about it, was simply,
13:06"What's happened?" The pilot told him,
13:08"The fog, the valley, the second sight,
13:12the hours, the staff member walking down
13:14the path." Camila has flown in worse
13:17than this. Nothing came down the line
13:19for a second or two. Then William asked
13:22him one question. "What would you do if
13:24it was anybody else in the back?" "I
13:26wouldn't go," the pilot said. "Then you
13:28don't go." What happened next took less
13:31than a minute. William asked whether the
13:34crew had started the engines. The pilot
13:36said they had been about to. William
13:38asked him to put the phone on speaker so
13:40the co-pilot could hear. And then
13:42William said the words that the whole
13:44crew remembers. Engines off. Now nobody
13:48flies today. If anyone has a problem
13:51with that, they can call me. The
13:53co-pilot said later that he had never
13:55heard a member of the family speak like
13:57that to a crew. Not angry, not loud,
14:00just completely clear. The way a senior
14:02pilot speaks in a briefing when there is
14:04no more room for discussion. The pilot
14:07thanked him. William said, "Don't thank
14:10me. You called it. I'm just making sure
14:12everyone knows you did." Then he said
14:15one more thing, which is the line that
14:17people close to him still mention. "My
14:19grandmother would have grounded it an
14:20hour ago," and he hung up. The ground
14:23crew stood down. The blades stayed
14:26still. Somebody went to fetch the bags
14:28back off the aircraft. And on the far
14:30side of the estate, the fog finally
14:33reached the trees and swallowed them.
14:35Inside the house, the news did not land
14:38well. Camila's staff had been told the
14:40flight was delayed. Then they were told
14:42it was cancelled. Then they were told by
14:45the member of staff who had walked down
14:47to the grass that the decision had come
14:49from William. According to people who
14:51were there, Camila was standing in the
14:53hall in her coat when she heard. She did
14:55not shout. People who know her say she
14:58rarely does, but she went very still and
15:01she asked one question quietly to nobody
15:04in particular. William from Windsor, one
15:07of her guests trying to help, said
15:10something about how it was probably for
15:12the best given the weather. Camila did
15:14not answer him. She asked her private
15:17secretary to get the Royal Travel Office
15:19on the phone. She wanted to know, she
15:21said, whether a decision about her
15:23travel could really be made by someone
15:25who was not in the building and not on
15:27the flight. The private secretary made
15:29the call. While it rang, the room went
15:32quiet. One of the guests sat down on the
15:34edge of a hall chair, still in his coat,
15:37and began to unbutton it, then thought
15:39better of it and did the buttons back up
15:41again. Camila walked to the window. From
15:44there, she could see the helicopter,
15:46small and dark against the grass, and
15:48the crew standing beside it with their
15:50hands in their pockets. She could see
15:52the fog, too. But people who were in the
15:55hall say she did not mention it. "He was
15:57perfectly happy to fly this morning,"
15:59she said. Her private secretary covered
16:01the phone. "I think the weather has
16:03changed since then." "The weather,"
16:05Camila said, "is not what has changed.
16:08Nobody in the hall answered that. A
16:10clock somewhere upstairs struck the half
16:12hour. And then the voice at the travel
16:15office picked up and the private
16:17secretary turned away towards the wall
16:19to speak. And everyone else in the hall
16:21pretended not to listen. And the answer
16:24that came back was the answer that the
16:26pilot had known would come back all
16:27along. The decision had not been made by
16:30William. It had been made by the pilot
16:32in command, exactly as the rules say it
16:35should be. William had simply backed
16:37him. There was nothing to overturn. Out
16:40on the grass, the crew heard about the
16:42phone call from the house within the
16:43hour. News like that does not stay
16:45inside a building for long. The co-pilot
16:48found the pilot sitting in the cockpit
16:50in the dark with the door open and the
16:53instrument panel lit up green in front
16:55of him. They rang the travel office. The
16:58co-pilot said, "I know about you. I know
17:02that, too." The co-pilot leaned on the
17:05door frame. The fog was so thick now
17:07that the house 200 yd away was nothing
17:11but a faint yellow smudge where the
17:13windows were. You were right, he said.
17:16Look at it. We would be sitting in that
17:18valley now with nothing in front of us
17:20but white. Being right is the easy bit,
17:23the pilot said. He switched off the
17:25panel and the green light went out and
17:28for a second neither of them could see
17:30the other at all. It is the next part I
17:32am thinking about. It is worth stopping
17:35here for a moment because most people
17:37get this part wrong. It would be easy to
17:39tell it as William against Camila, a
17:41prince ringing up from Windsor and
17:43spoiling Camila's afternoon. That is how
17:46some people inside the household told it
17:48that evening. But that is not what the
17:49crew saw. What the crew saw was a man
17:52doing the one thing a pilot is never
17:54sure anyone will do for them. He took
17:56the weight off. Because the hardest part
17:59of saying no is not the moment you say
18:01it. It is the week afterwards, the
18:04emails, the meetings, the quiet
18:07suggestion that perhaps you are not
18:08quite the right person for these
18:10flights. Every pilot in that kind of job
18:12knows how that can go. It has happened
18:15before in other places to other crews. A
18:18pilot says no to the wrong person on the
18:20wrong afternoon. Nobody shouts. Nobody
18:23makes a complaint in writing. But the
18:25next rotor comes out and his name is not
18:28on it. and the one after that. And
18:31nobody can ever quite say why. The pilot
18:33on the grass at Ray Mill knew all of
18:35that when he dialed. He knew he might be
18:38finishing his own career with one phone
18:40call. He made it anyway. William had
18:43flown long enough to know it, too. So,
18:45he put his own name on the decision out
18:47loud in front of the crew so that it
18:50could never be quietly placed on the
18:51pilot's shoulders alone. Halfway
18:54through. And this is the part where you
18:56count. The people who protect us almost
18:58never hear that it mattered. Describe
19:01someone who stood beside you when you
19:02made a hard call. Press like if signing
19:05his own name to it was the right move.
19:07Send this to whoever always stands in
19:09your corner. And make sure you are
19:11subscribed to Kensington Herald. Since
19:13the call from Camila's office the next
19:15morning was not the end of this. To
19:17understand why William said what he
19:19said, you have to go back many years.
19:22The late queen flew in helicopters for a
19:24great part of her reign. She was by all
19:27accounts a calm passenger. She did not
19:30fuss. She did not ask the crew to hurry
19:33and she almost never complained about a
19:35delay. But people who worked with her
19:37flights over the years tell the same
19:39story about her again and again. She had
19:42a rule. It was never in any handbook.
19:45She simply said it and she kept to it.
19:47If the pilot says no, the answer is no.
19:51One former member of the household
19:53remembers a day many years ago when a
19:56flight carrying the late queen was held
19:58on the ground because of low cloud. An
20:00official traveling with her became
20:02anxious about the timetable and started
20:04asking the crew whether they could
20:06perhaps try. The late queen who had been
20:09reading quietly, put down her papers and
20:11said to the official in front of
20:13everyone, "The captain has made his
20:15decision. We will all have a cup of
20:17tea." The official tried once more. He
20:20said there were people waiting at the
20:22other end. He said the timetable had
20:24been agreed for weeks. The late queen
20:27did not raise her voice. She simply
20:29picked her papers back up and said
20:31without looking at him, "Then they will
20:33wait too. They have kettles." The crew
20:37sitting up front heard every word. One
20:40of them told the story for the rest of
20:42his career. He said it was the only time
20:44in his life a passenger had made him
20:46feel that saying no was part of the
20:48service and not a failure of it. William
20:52heard that story as a boy. He heard it
20:54again years later from one of the crew
20:57who had been there. And when he began
20:59his own flying training, his grandmother
21:01said something to him that he has
21:03repeated privately more than once. She
21:06told him that the best pilots she had
21:07ever flown with were the ones who were
21:10never afraid to keep her waiting. There
21:12is one more piece to this. Remember the
21:15words William used on the phone, engines
21:17off. Now, they were not his words. Not
21:21originally. When William was a young
21:24man, before he flew rescue missions, he
21:26was being taken somewhere by helicopter
21:28with his grandmother. It was a short
21:31flight, a family occasion, nothing
21:33official. They were sitting on the
21:36ground with the rotors turning, waiting
21:38for the last passenger, when a warning
21:40light came on in the cockpit. The pilot
21:43said it was probably nothing. The late
21:45queen leaned forward, tapped him on the
21:47shoulder, and said, "Enginees off." Now
21:51we'll find out whether it's nothing on
21:52the ground. It turned out to be a minor
21:55fault, nothing serious. They were on
21:58their way again within the hour in a
22:00different aircraft, but William never
22:02forgot the way she said it. Not
22:04frightened, not cross, just certain.
22:08Years later, when he was training, an
22:10instructor asked the young men in his
22:12course to write down the best piece of
22:14flying advice they had ever been given.
22:16Most of them wrote something about
22:18checklists or fuel. William wrote three
22:21words. The instructor asked him where
22:23they came from. He said, "My
22:26grandmother." And the room laughed
22:28because they thought he was joking. He
22:30was not joking. So when the pilot rang
22:32him from that grass at Ray Mill and told
22:35him about the fog and the valley and the
22:37staff member saying Camila had flown in
22:39worse, William did not have to think
22:41about what to say. He had heard it said
22:44before by the person whose house he was
22:46protecting. Camila and her guests drove
22:49up to Sandringham the following morning
22:51instead. It was a long drive and by most
22:54accounts a quiet one. But before the
22:56cars left, something else happened. A
22:59little after 8, Camila's office
23:01contacted the Royal Travel Office again,
23:03not to complain about the canceled
23:05flight. That would have gone nowhere.
23:07They asked a different question. They
23:09asked whether for future flights booked
23:11by Camila's office, it would be possible
23:14to request a different pilot. The Royal
23:16Travel Office did not give an answer on
23:18the phone. They said they would look
23:19into it. Somebody at the airfield heard
23:22about it first, then everyone did. That
23:25afternoon, a senior manager from the
23:27flight came out to the hanger and found
23:30the pilot doing the post-flight
23:31paperwork for a flight that had never
23:33happened. "You have seen the request,"
23:35the manager said. "I have. I have to ask
23:38you formally. Do you stand by the
23:40decision?" The pilot did not look up
23:42from the form, every word of it. And the
23:45call to William, was that the right way
23:47to do it? Now, the pilot looked up. I
23:50logged it with you within the hour. I
23:52logged it with the travel office. I did
23:54it all by the book. The call to William
23:57was the only part that was not in the
23:58book, and it was the only part that made
24:00anyone listen. The manager said nothing
24:03for a while. Finally, he put a hand on
24:05the pilot's shoulder very briefly and
24:08went back out into the cold without
24:10another word. After the manager had
24:12gone, the pilot did not say anything
24:14more about it. He went on doing his job.
24:17But one of the ground crew saw him that
24:19afternoon sitting in the cab of a
24:21vehicle at the edge of the airfield with
24:23his log book open on his knee writing
24:26something. For a long time, nobody has
24:28seen what he wrote. The co-pilot walked
24:31over to the vehicle at one point
24:33carrying two mugs of tea. He tapped on
24:35the window. The pilot closed the log
24:37book before he wound it down. You all
24:40right? Fine. They will not move you. Not
24:43after that. Maybe not, the pilot said.
24:46He took the tea, but somebody should
24:48write down what happened on that grass
24:50while it is still fresh properly in case
24:53anybody tries to tell it differently in
24:55a month. He wound the window back up,
24:57and the co-pilot, walking away, saw him
25:00open the book again, turn back a page,
25:02and keep on writing. William heard about
25:04the request, too. He did not ring
25:06Camila. He did not ring her office.
25:09People who know him say he has learned
25:11that an argument about this kind of
25:13thing only makes it larger. Instead, he
25:16rang his father. The king had heard some
25:18of the story already. William told him
25:21the rest. The fog, the second landing
25:24site, the words on the grass, the
25:26request. The next morning, Charles
25:29listened. People who know him say he
25:31does not much enjoy helicopters himself,
25:34and that he has always had a good deal
25:36of respect for the crews who fly him.
25:38>> The Prince of Wales is your new colon
25:41chief. The great thing is he's a very
25:43good pilot indeed. So that's in.
25:45>> When William had finished, the king let
25:47the silence sit. Then he asked a single
25:50question. Was the pilot right? Yes,
25:53William said. You are sure. I have flown
25:56in fog like that. P at night. I know
25:59what it looks like when it comes in low
26:01over the fields. He was right an hour
26:03before he even rang me. And Camila's
26:06office wants him moved. Camila's office
26:08wants somebody to blame for a canceled
26:10afternoon. William said that is not the
26:13same thing. For a while, nobody said
26:15anything. William could hear his father
26:18moving papers on a desk the way he does
26:20when he is thinking. Then that's the end
26:22of it. The king said nobody changes a
26:25crew because they said no. William asked
26:28whether his father wanted him to speak
26:30to Camila. No, the king said, "Leave
26:34that with me. You have done your part.
26:36Let me do mine." That evening, according
26:39to people in the household, the king and
26:41Camila had dinner together, just the two
26:44of them. Nobody knows exactly what was
26:46said at that table, but a member of
26:48staff who cleared the plates afterwards
26:50says the conversation was quiet and
26:53long, and that at one point the king
26:55said quite clearly, "He kept you safe,
26:58darling. That is the whole of his job."
27:01Camila, the staff member says, put down
27:03her glass and did not reply for some
27:05time. Then she said, "I know I was cross
27:09about the wrong thing. It is not known
27:11exactly what was said after that or to
27:14whom, but the request from Camila's
27:16office was not granted." The pilot
27:18stayed on the rotor, and as far as
27:20anyone knows, he has flown Camila since
27:23more than once, without a word of
27:25complaint on either side. In the end,
27:28nobody was hurt. Nobody crashed. Nobody
27:31was even in any real danger because the
27:33danger was stopped before it could
27:35begin. That is the strange thing about
27:37good decisions in flying. When they
27:39work, there is nothing to see. A
27:41helicopter sits on the grass. Some bags
27:44get carried back to a house. A few
27:46people are cross about their afternoon
27:49and everyone goes home. William has not
27:51spoken about the afternoon publicly. He
27:54almost certainly never will. But a
27:56friend who saw him not long afterwards
27:58says he mentioned it only once briefly
28:01over dinner. He said the worst thing you
28:04can do to a good pilot is make him feel
28:06alone on the grass. The friend asked him
28:09whether he had been worried making the
28:11call he made about how it would land
28:13with Camila. William thought about it
28:15before he answered. Not as worried as I
28:18would have been, he said, if I had told
28:20him to go. It is easy to forget in a
28:22family like this how many of the most
28:25important decisions are made by people
28:27whose names never appear anywhere. A
28:30pilot on wet grass, a co-pilot with a
28:33sandwich, a ground crew standing about
28:35with torches. None of them will ever be
28:37thanked in public for an afternoon when
28:39nothing happened. And yet that is
28:42exactly what the late queen understood
28:44and exactly what she taught her
28:46grandson. Nothing happening is the whole
28:48point. There is one page in that pilot's
28:50log book for that afternoon. The date is
28:53filled in, the aircraft, the crew, the
28:56planned route, Ray Mill to Sandringham,
28:59and in the column where the reason for a
29:01canceled flight should go, there is
29:03nothing at all, one line, still empty.
29:06So, here is the question we will leave
29:08with you. Who in this family will be the
29:10next to be told no on a wet field? And
29:13will the pilot ring William first again?
29:15If you were with that crew from the
29:17start, type engines off now in the
29:19comments. So, the people who keep this
29:21family in the air can see that somebody
29:23noticed. The careful people vanish from
29:25memory the moment the danger has passed.
29:27So, here is how to keep this one
29:29remembered. Join Kensington Herald with
29:32one tap on subscribe as his log book
29:34still holds one page nobody has read.
29:37Press like if that pilot should never
29:39stand alone on the grass again. In the
29:41comments, write the name of the most
29:43careful person you have worked alongside
29:46and send this to someone whose job is
29:48keeping others safe. Our next story
29:51picks up the afternoon after with that
29:53pilot in the cab of his vehicle, the log
29:55book open on his knee, and that empty
29:58line in front of him. What does he
30:00finally write in it? Who is it meant
30:02for? And why, people say, did a copy end
30:05up on William's desk at Forest Lodge?
30:08Watch for it on this

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