Prince Andrew, the former royal family member, expressed a wish to visit the site of the 1980 Iranian embassy siege while negotiations were ongoing to release 26 hostages. At that time, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, a 20-year-old trainee Royal Navy helicopter pilot, witnessed the unfolding hostage crisis on television.
During the fifth day of the siege, Inspector Peter Prentice of the Royal Protection Unit made contact with the negotiation team handling the armed gunmen who had taken over the Iranian embassy in London. The situation grew more intense as one hostage was killed and left outside the embassy.
The tension climaxed when the SAS conducted a live televised operation to end the siege. Despite safety concerns, Prince Andrew persistently sought permission to visit the scene, even suggesting attending incognito. The idea was dismissed as unnecessary, and the operation’s completion was communicated to him for a potential visit post-conclusion.
Arriving on the sixth day of the siege, Prince Andrew witnessed the aftermath of the SAS intervention, which resulted in the deaths of five gunmen. Tragically, the Iranian dissident group had already killed two hostages before the rescue operation. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her husband met with the SAS rescuers, with one official describing the atmosphere as filled with testosterone and marked by ginger-haired, mustachioed individuals holding beer bottles.
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