EXCLUSIVE: Queen in terror threat - Security alert as mobile app tracks royal helicopter

The Queen uses a Sikorsky S76C helicopter for official duties

SECURITY experts issued a terror warning for the Queen last night after an investigation by NewsNewsBlog.blogspot.com found that detailed flight plans for the Royal Helicopter can be accessed using a mobile phone app.

 

Terrorists wanting to target the monarch could easily use the downloaded software to track the exact location of the official helicopter in real time – revealing the altitude, speed, GPS coordinated and route of the flight.

 

Terror analysts are warning the information could lead to a “cataclysmic” incident where the data could be used to initiate a remote controlled drone that could target the helicopter mid-flight. 

Alternatively, would-be attackers could station themselves under the flight path and use a rocket-propelled grenade to bring the chopper down.

NewsNewsBlog.blogspot.com used the £2.99 app this week to follow the Queen’s Sikorsky S76C helicopter as it took off from a location close to her favoured holiday home in Sandringham.

Queen boarding the Royal Helicopter

The flight was tracked as it crossed London, flying just a few hundred metres up and clearly visible from the ground, before landing to the south-west of the capital. 

The app showed the aircraft was flying at just 1,307ft – well in range of even a crude surface-to-air missile – and at a speed of just 150 mph. 

 

FlightRadar24, a live flight tracker that can be used anywhere in the world to follow aircraft in flight, provided the exact route of the official helicopter, alerting people on the ground to the important passenger flying overhead. 

A photograph of the purple chopper also featured next to the detailed flight information.

Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams said the potential security breach “could be exploited by terrorists”.

He described the Queen's Helicopter as “an ideal way of transporting members of the royal family to engagements”.

But the expert added: “If its route can be monitored...it poses the problem as to how you combat advances in technology which could be exploited by terrorists. 

“The need is to be one step ahead all the time.”

 

The helicopter costs around £1.5million each year

Royal air travel costs close to £1.5million each year - funded by taxpayers through the Department for Transport.

The Royal chopper, which is based at RAF Odiham in Hampshire, stopped using civilian pilots in 2013 amid a security scare after another helicopter crashed into a crane in fog, killing the pilot and a pedestrian in Vauxhall, London.

The Queen’s machine is fitted with just six seats and is capable of a maximum speed of 178 mph with a range of more than 400 miles.

You always have to be aware of the advance of technology

Dai Davies, former head of the Met’s Royalty Protection Squad

It is thought to have sophisticated anti-missile technology including missile approach warnings and laser decoys that would send a radar-guided rocket off course.

But the risk of terrorists targeting aircraft used to transport the Royals remains real.

Screenshot of the Flightradar24 app showing the Queen's helicopter and flight details

Detailed flight logs for the aircraft, which carries the registration G-XXEB, are available online and show past movements of the luxury copter, including its exact route as well as take-off and landing timings. 

It shows twelve journeys were made in just the last week, with flights departing from Oxford, Southampton and London listed.

The high-level of transparency has attracted criticism from security experts, who fear criminals could monitor flight routes over time to build up a detailed picture of the Royal Family’s travel schedule.

The former head of the Met’s Royalty Protection Squad, retired chief superintendent Dai Davies, urged the Royal Family’s current protection team to always be “one step ahead”.

He said: “You always have to be aware of the advance of technology – which this illustrates – and the ability of these terrorist groups to think outside the box.”

 

The copter is not just used by Her Majesty. Other senior members of the Royal Family, including the future king Prince Charles, make use of the luxury aircraft to attend official engagements.

Justin Bronk, an aviation expert at the Royal United Services Institute, said the readily-available information “increased the chances” of the Queen being targeted by a surface-to-air missile.

In extreme circumstances, terrorists could use the flight route data to crash a light aircraft into the helicopter, he said.

But the biggest threat to the Queen’s safety in the skies comes from small drones, which are an increasingly common threat to aircraft.

Mr Bronk said the small propeller devices posed a “known threat to aviation security” although he added such an attack would still have “a low chance of success”.

He added: “If you're going to do that, you might as well hang around Buckingham Palace and do it as soon as you see the helicopter coming to pick her up.”

 

Screenshot of the Flightradar24 app showing the Queen's helicopter flight

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) last week warned of the risk drones could pose to aircraft, having recorded six serious incidents in the last year alone.  

Princess Diana’s former bodyguard Ken Wharfe described making flight information relating to the Royals freely available as “madness”.

The revelation follows news last week that Prince William’s air ambulance helicopter could be tracked using the same app. 

The Duke of Cambridge, who started flying missions for the East Anglian Air Ambulance service in July, was traced as he flew over Cambridgeshire.

Roy Ramm, a former commander of specialist operations at Scotland Yard, said the information posed a serious risk to the Royals.

“Knowing the precise movements, altitude and speed of an aircraft in flight is intelligence gold for any terrorist," he said.

"The ability to track a high-profile target like this presents a really serious risk."

 

A source at the CAA, which is responsible for air safety in the UK, said the Queen’s helicopter used technology called automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADSB) to transmit the precise details of the flight.

But using ADSB to make flight information available to the public is not compulsory – raising fresh questions about security protocol adopted by Buckingham Palace. 

The CAA said it was “difficult” to block the use of the technology and it was up to individual aircraft as to whether they transmitted the information. 

The source added: “Just because an aircraft registration can be identified, you don’t know who is on board – I don’t see why that is more of a threat than a vehicle on the ground.

“Royal flight operations are subject to the same airspace rules as all other private aircraft.”

Air transport has been used by the Royal Family for official visits since the 1930s. 

King Edward VIII became the first British monarch to use the royal aircraft – a Dragon Rapide - in 1936.

Prince Charles using the helicopter

Since then, successive monarchs have made use of the travel perk to carry out official duties.  

A representative for the Queen said the Royal Household “does not comment on matters of security” while a Metropolitan Police spokesman refused to comment.