Royals honour India plane crash victims with black armbands at King's birthday Trooping the Colour

14 June 2025, 08:51 | Updated: 16 June 2025, 13:14

The King wore a black armband in tribute to those killed in the Air India plane crash as the Trooping the Colour ceremony staged in his honour began.

Charles’ official birthday was marked with a display of military pomp and pageantry but at the King’s request the event acknowledged the aviation disaster that claimed the lives of 241 passengers and crew, including more than 50 British nationals, as well as around 30 people on the ground.

The head of state and his wife left Buckingham Palace in a carriage at the head of a procession travelling along The Mall and into Horse Guards Parade where hundreds of guardsmen were on parade.

The appearance of the Prince and Princess of Wales’ children sparked cheering when they were spotted in a carriage with their mother, Kate.

Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis followed the King and Queen, with other coaches carrying the Duchess of Edinburgh, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester.

Riding behind the King were the royal colonels wearing black armbands – the Prince of Wales, who is Colonel of the Welsh Guards; the Princess Royal, Colonel of the Blues and Royals; and the Duke of Edinburgh as Colonel of the Scots Guards.

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The Royal Procession was accompanied by the Sovereign’s Escort of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment and the sounds of the Band of the Household Cavalry, led by two shire drum horses bearing solid silver kettle drums.

Senior officers taking part in Trooping also wore black armbands as a mark of respect for the aviation victims, as did the coachmen and women from the Royal Mews, driving carriages carrying members of the royal family or riding on a coach’s lead horse as a postilion.

A minute’s silence will be observed after the King has inspected the guardsmen on the parade ground. It will be signalled by a bugler sounding the Last Post and will end with the Reveille.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said the King requested amendments to the Troopingthe Colour programme “as a mark of respect for the lives lost, the families in mourning and all the communities affected by this awful tragedy”.

In 2017, Trooping was held a few days after the Grenfell Tower blaze and the loss of life was marked by a minute’s silence, a decision taken by Queen Elizabeth II.

The King issued a written message soon after the Air India plane crash saying he was “desperately shocked by the terrible events” and expressing his “deepest possible sympathy”.

He was kept updated about the developing situation on Thursday and it later emerged there was a sole survivor, UK national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh.

Trooping the Colour will see more than 1,000 servicemen taking part in the military display who when not performing ceremonial duties are fighting soldiers.

The colour – regimental flag – being trooped this year is the King’s Colour of Number 7 Company, Coldstream Guards, a prestigious regiment known as the sovereign’s bodyguard which is celebrating its 375th anniversary this year.

The day will end with the royal family gathering on Buckingham Palace’s balcony for the traditional RAF flypast.