After turning Preteen, Prince George won’t fly with Father Williams as per Royal Protocol.

As Prince George turns 12 today, a milestone which according to precedent means he must no longer travel with his father, Prince William, in case of an accident. The Royal Kensington Palace released a new photo of George in a checked shirt with a fleece bodywarmer to mark his July 22^nd. birthday.

The arrival of the future heir to the throne’s 12th birthday triggers a little-known protocol whereby the heir to the throne and his presumptive heir will no longer be allowed to travel in the same vehicle.

A member of the Royal Family briefed the Press, “William is a skilled pilot and loves flying but George must travel separately now. William stopped travelling with his own father when he was 12”.

Former pilot Graham Laurie has informed that until William was 12, Charles, Diana, William and Harry would all fly together in one helicopter. However, after William turned 12, he said: “We had to have a separate aircraft and we could only fly all four together when they were young with the written permission of Her Majesty”.

This is an emotive issue in the family; the rule was instituted by Queen Elizabeth II after a royal aircraft crashed in 1967, killing its crew.

It was Royal author Robert Jobson who had previously reported that King Charles has raised objections to William, a qualified helicopter pilot who worked as a search-and-rescue pilot in the RAF, flying his family to their country home in Norfolk. In a biography of Kate, Robert Jobson quoted, “William’s stubborn refusal to take his father’s advice on safeguarding the succession” by flying with his family was a source of tension between the two. Furthermore, Jobson said the late queen had also confronted William on the issue and had been “upset when he defied her,” adding that she “did not hold back” when it came to chastising her grandson.

The rules on modern royal travel were largely shaped by the events of Sept. 13, 1967, when a Royal Air Force de Havilland Devon aircraft crashed in Northern Ireland, killing all seven crew on board. Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, had flown on the aircraft shortly before the crash, prompting a review of safety protocols for royal air travel and resulting on the ban on members of the family in the direct line of succession flying together.

Elizabeth, however, was a huge fan of helicopter travel and known to quip, referring to the execution of Henry VIII’s second wife, “The chopper changed my life more than Anne Boleyn’s”.

Team Maverick