PRINCE Harry’s former Army instructor claims a story in his memoir about a “suicide” training flight is “complete fantasy”.
In Spare, the Duke of Sussex recalls how his Slingsby T67 Firefly propeller plane was stalled with “no warning”, leaving him fearful it was an “aborted suicide attempt”.
Prince Harry carrying out pre-flight checks on the flight-line from Camp Bastion
The Duke of Sussex’s military career involved two deployments to Afghanistan
But ex-Sergeant Major Michael Booley, who was sitting alongside Harry, insists every detail of the flight was discussed beforehand and everything went to plan.
He told The Mirror: “I am staggered by this. In shock even.”
The prince, 38, wrote in his divisive bestseller that on one of their first fights together in 2009, Booley “threw the aircraft into stall”.
He said: “I felt the left wing dip, a sickening feeling of disorder, of entropy, and then, after several seconds that felt like decades, he recovered the aircraft and levelled the wings.
“I stared at him. ‘What in the absolute—? Was this an aborted suicide attempt?’
“‘No,’ he said gently. This was the next stage in my training.”
Booley – who served in the military for 33 years and ranks Harry as one of his top five students – dismisses this version of events.
He said: “Whilst the book compliments me, the recollection of the sorties and lessons is inaccurate, I’m afraid.
“It’s important to highlight that nothing in the cockpit comes as a surprise.
“Every sortie is thoroughly briefed beforehand, every single aspect.
“The sortie is flown exactly as per that brief.”
Booley, 57, said he blames ghostwriter JR Moehringer for “dramatising” the events and still considers Harry a “friend” and “a man I respect immensely”.
The prince, whose military career lasted 10 years and included two deployments to Afghanistan which saw him allegedly kill 25 people, was presented with his wings later that same year.
Spare, published on January 10, sold a record-breaking 3.2 million copies worldwide in its first week and it’s likely to become one of the bestselling biographies of all time.
But many have questioned the validity of some of the claims in the 416-page memoir.
As well as the allegedly misleading training flight story, readers noticed Harry’s recollection of the death of the Queen Mother was potentially incorrect.
The duke says he received a phone call in March 2002 to say that his great-grandmother had passed away during a spell of “bright and warm” weather at Eton.
But reports from the time indicated the then-17-year-old was on a skiing holiday in Switzerland with his dad and brother.
Charles‘ office released a statement saying he would return from the Alps, and Harry was pictured re-entering the country a day later.
Another possible error is in Harry’s account of his first date with Meghan Markle.
In the book, he writes that the former actress looked “chic” and “heart-attack beautiful” in a black sweatshirt, jeans and heels at Soho House.
But Meghan previously said she wore a blue dress for the occasion, and even had a thread from it sewn into her wedding gown as her ‘something blue’.
Harry’s memoir spare has sold a record number of copies since its release in early January 2023
Harry rose to the rank of captain
The Duke of Sussex with wife Meghan Markle
