Inspired by the "Charles Dies" thread...
"This is the BBC in London broadcasting to The Commonwealth. In the last few minutes Buckingham Palace has announced that His Royal Highness The Prince Andrew is missing and presumed dead in the South Atlantic after the Sea King helicopter which he was piloting suffered an engine failure and crashed into the sea while carrying out a mission in support of the British Task Force yesterday, May 2nd 1982. Despite an extensive search no trace has been found of the Sea King or it's crew..."
What impact would this have had on public opinion and on the Royal Family? Instead of growing into a boorish oaf with a ghastly ex-wife and a number of extremely dodgy friends Andrew is frozen in time as a dashing young war hero. How would his brothers have reacted? Would Edward have subsequently flunked out of the Royal Marines or perhaps he would have wanted to emulate the example set by his brother and been more determined to have a military career? What impact on Charles, bearing in mind that this was just a few weeks before William was born, could he have become more determined to make his marriage to Diana a success?
The outcome of the war would have been unaffected by this, but one interesting possibility is to how Thatcher could have been affected, apparently she was worried at the prospect of Andrew being killed or captured in the Falklands that she wanted him moved to a non-combat role but the Queen insisted that he be treated as any other serviceman.
Any thoughts?