Olympic flame flies into UK on golden wings

IT WAS the moment the 2012 Olympics actually came to Britain. Last night, the Olympic flame was delivered to UK soil by some of the main ambassadors of the London Games, including David Beckham and the Princess Royal.

The iconic flame arrived in the UK on board British Airways flight BA2012, a gold-liveried airliner named The Firefly, ahead of a 70-day tour of the UK.

Over the course of that tour, it will come within ten miles of 95 per cent of the British population, organisers say.

Last night, Lord Coe, chairman of the Games organisers Locog, and London Mayor Boris Johnson joined Beckham and Her Royal Highness in Cornwall.

The flame was held in four different lanterns, which were fastened into specially designed cradles in seats 1A and 1B for the near four-hour flight from Athens.

Lord Coe said: “The arrival of the Olympic flame on home soil is a magical moment for any host country.

“It will connect millions of people around the UK to the Games in a unique way and allows us to celebrate the best of the UK and its people.”

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the torch relay would allow Britain to showcase itself to the world.

He said: “Today, the Olympic Flame begins its journey across the nation. Eight thousand people will pass it from hand to hand, a human chain that reaches the length and breadth of Britain. It will visit a thousand towns and be seen by millions. With every step, the excitement will build.

“This Games is for everyone. Between now and the opening ceremony, we have a chance to showcase our sporting heritage, our people and our culture, the things that made us such a great choice for the 2012 Olympic Games.”

Triple Olympic gold medal-winning sailor Ben Ainslie, who grew up in the nearby town of Falmouth, will be the first of 8,000 torchbearers who will carry it across the country.

The torch visits all four nations of the UK, before being carried into the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, east London, on 27 July for the opening ceremony of the Games.

It will travel through 1,019 cities, towns and villages, on foot or in convoy, and drop in at UK landmarks such as the Giant’s Causeway and Stonehenge. .

The Scottish leg of the tourbegins in Glasgow on 8 June. From there, it will be carried to Inverness, Shetland, Orkney and Lewis. It will then visit Aberdeen and Dundee, before reaching Edinburgh on 13 June.

The flame, meant to represent purity, was kindled from the rays of the sun using a parabolic mirror in a ceremony on 10 May at Olympia, the home of the ancient Olympic Games.

It was taken on a relay of 1,800 miles around Greece, before being handed over to the Princess Royal during a rain-soaked ceremony at the Panathenaic Stadium, the venue of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.

To welcome the Olympic Flame to British shores, the giant antennas at Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station were lit up in red, white and blue.

The Olympic torch remained under guard at RNAS Culdrose overnight and will be flown by the 771 Naval Air Squadron Sea King helicopter to Land’s End today for the start of the relay.