British military helicopter crew are resigning after being told they need to return extra pay given out in error

An administrative error resulted in the British Ministry of Defense paying an extra £829,000 in salary to around 200 serving and retired Army helicopter crew over the last decade. The move by the Ministry to recover back the money has resulted in at least 15 pilots tendering in their resignation letters.

Westland apache wah-64d longbow zj206 arp
By Arpingstone (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Army leadership had warned that clawing back the over payment would “precipitate increased outflow” of experienced pilots. But defense officials have rejected the plea, saying that writing off the debt would “set a precedent that would be extremely difficult and costly to manage.”