He’s already a prince, but William became a knight in shining armour for a drowning 16-year-old girl last week.
The Duke of Cambridge was part of a team of Royal Air Force search and rescue pilots who plucked the struggling girl from the dangerous waters off the coast of Wales on Thursday.
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The teenager had been body-boarding in Silver Bay when she was caught in a rip current and dragged out to sea.
The alarm was raised and William and his team — who were taking their Sea King helicopter through its paces as part of a routine exercise nearby — arrived less than a minute later.
The girl was rapidly losing strength as they approached and had disappeared under the water when William positioned the helicopter above her struggling form.
A paramedic was winched down to fish her out of the water, literally saving her life.
“We never know what we’ll face when we’re called out,” Master Aircrew Harrison said in a statement.
“Sometimes it’s just a twisted ankle or a broken bone, but this was one rescue where we truly did arrive in the nick of time and managed to save this young girl’s life.”
William then flew the girl and her younger sister — who was rescued by a surfer — to a nearby hospital for treatment.
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The Duke has been working as a search and rescue pilot on the remote Welsh island of Anglesey since 2010.
He and his wife Catherine live on the island in their beloved rented farmhouse.
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