Source said that Prince William was at the centre of a major security alert last night after a source on Sunday discovered that terrorists could use a mobile phone to track his every movement in his new job as an air ambulance pilot.
Source warned of the ‘extraordinary risk’ to the future King presented by a £2.99 app, which gives away precise details of his helicopter’s position, direction of travel, speed and altitude.
Former police officers said the information presented ‘intelligence gold’ for terrorists wishing to track the Prince’s flightpath in an attempt to shoot him down
Astonishingly, subscribers can even opt to receive alerts every time the Prince’s East Anglian Air Ambulance takes off from its base at Cambridge Airport on a 999 rescue mission, relaying real-time flight data from the helicopter’s on-board transponder.
The app also reveals where the air ambulance lands.
Although Prince William’s presence on official visits is often publicised in advance, security experts stressed that when he arrives at the scene of an emergency the area will not have been screened in advance.
A Mail on Sunday team last week used the app, called flightradar24, to monitor Prince William’s progress as he flew from North Norfolk after attending a road accident.
Using the detailed information on the screen, we were able to have a photographer waiting at the precise moment the helicopter came into land at the airport.
A terrorist armed with a rocket-propelled grenade, ground-to-air missile or even less sophisticated weaponry would have had little difficulty targeting William’s aircraft as it regularly flies below 1,500ft with a cruising speed of just 150mph.
Roy Ramm, a former Commander of Specialist Operations at Scotland Yard and an ex-head of the Flying Squad, called for immediate action to shut down the security loophole.
