This is a disgrace. You would have thought in this day and age you could waste more than £250k on a trip
News
RAF"S JOLLY TO ALPS IS SNOW JOKE
EXCLUSIVE by GARY JONES
228 words
11 January 2005
Mirror
11
English
(c) 2005 Mirror Group Ltd
THE RAF spent £250,000 of taxpayers" money on a 23-day training exercise in Switzerland so pilots could fly in the right type of snow.
But the pre-Christmas trip caused a storm at the Ministry of Defence when aircrews described it as the trip of a lifetime. It emerged the 40- strong group of men and women would finish flying early so they could go skiing, sightseeing and to nightclubs.
No33 squadron, based at RAF Benson, Oxon, also enjoyed five-star hospitality at the Swiss air base at Sion near the holiday resort of Montreux and were paid more for being overseas.
A senior Ministry of Defence source said: "Diversions were found. The Swiss were great hosts."
RAF chief Sir Jock Stirrup learned of the "jolly" when the Puma helicopter squads boasted about it to colleagues and pictures of the trip appeared in the service"s paper the RAF News.
The source added: "Sir Jock is furious. The excuse about the type of snow didn"t go down well.
"The RAF has been hit with nearly 10,000 job cuts so hearing about an expensive fun break in Switzerland didn"t help at all."
A RAF spokesman said: "This training needs altitudes above 5,000ft and can"t be done in the UK."
Document DMIRR00020050111e11b0002v
[IMG]Daily Mirror[/IMG]