King Charles III marks Air India tragedy at Trooping the Colour

King Charles III attends the Trooping The Colour parade, in London, June 17, 2023. Trooping the Colour is the King's Birthday Parade and one of the nation's most impressive and iconic annual events attended by almost every member of the Royal Family.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)

LONDON — King Charles III and other members of the royal family in uniform wore black armbands and observed a moment of silence during his annual birthday parade Saturday as the monarch commemorated those who died in this week’s Air India plane crash.

Charles requested the symbolic moves “as a mark of respect for the lives lost, the families in mourning and all the communities affected by this awful tragedy,” Buckingham Palace said.

An Air India flight from the northwestern city of Ahmedabad to London crashed shortly after takeoff on Thursday, killing 241 people on board and at least 29 on the ground. The plane was carrying 169 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian. One man survived.

In addition to being Britain’s head of state, Charles is the head of the Commonwealth, an organization of independent states that includes India and Canada.

The monarch’s annual birthday parade, known as Trooping the Colour, is a historic ceremony filled with pageantry and military bands in which the king reviews his troops on Horse Guards Parade adjacent to St. James’ Park in central London.

The military ceremony dates back to a time when flags of the battalion, known as colours, were “trooped,’’ or shown, to soldiers in the ranks so they could recognize them.

Charles, wearing a scarlet military uniform, traveled to Horse Guards Parade in an open-topped, horse-drawn carriage accompanied by Queen Camilla. Prince William and other uniformed members of the royal family rode behind the king on horseback, followed by Kate, the princess of Wales, and her three children in another open-topped carriage.

The festivities featured 1,338 soldiers, including 244 musicians, who paraded past the king following the moment of silence for those affected by the Air India disaster.

The royal family then returned to Buckingham Palace, where they appeared on the balcony to wave to the crowd and watch a flyover of military aircraft.

The finale of the flyover was an appearance by the Royal Air Force aerobatic display team, known as the Red Arrows, which for the first time used a blend of sustainable aviation fuel to power their aircraft and generate their signature red, white and blue smoke trails.

Danica Kirka, The Associated Press