Indian air crash victims remembered at King Charles's birthday parade

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LONDON - A minute's silence for victims of the Air India plane disaster was held on Saturday at a London birthday parade for King Charles III, in which some members of the royal family also wore black arm bands.

The king, 76, requested amendments to the parade, known as Trooping the Colour, "as a mark of respect for the lives lost, the families in mourning and all the communities affected by this awful tragedy", a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said.

A total 279 people, including passengers, crew and people on the ground, died on Thursday when a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London's Gatwick Airport crashed on take-off from Ahmedabad in eastern India.

The victims included 52 Britons. A sole survivor has been named as British man Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, from the central English city of Leicester.

In a written message after the disaster, Charles said he was "desperately shocked by the terrible events" and expressed his "deepest possible sympathy".

Trooping the Colour, a minutely choreographed military tradition dating back more than two centuries, marks the British sovereign's official birthday.

It starts at Buckingham Palace and moves down The Mall to Horse Guards Parade, where Charles receives a royal salute before inspecting soldiers.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the palace and along The Mall to watch the spectacle.

They included a small group of anti-monarchist protesters with yellow placards reading "not my king" and "down with the crown".

Charles, who is still undergoing weekly treatment for an unspecified cancer, was accompanied by Queen Camilla for the parade.

Also present were heir Prince William, 42, his wife Catherine, also known as Kate, and their three children: George, 11, Charlotte, 10 and Louis, seven.

British Royal Air Force's (RAF) aerobatic team, the "Red Arrows", perform a flypast over Buckingham Palace during the King's Birthday Parade "Trooping the Colour" in London on June 14, 2025. (AFP)

No Harry

Catherine, 43, whose formal title is Princess of Wales, has also faced her own cancer battle.

She announced that she had also been diagnosed with an unspecified cancer in March 2024 just weeks after Charles revealed his own cancer.

The princess said in January 2025 that she was "in remission" and she has since made a partial return to public life.

Not present at Saturday's parade, were Charles's estranged younger son Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, who both stepped down from royal family duties in 2020, and moved to the United States.

Harry's fraught ties with his family have worsened since he and Meghan made various public allegations against the royals.

Harry and his brother William are said to barely be on speaking terms, according to UK media

Although Trooping of the Colour takes place in June, the king was actually born in November.

The second birthday tradition dates back to 1748, when King George II wanted to have a celebration in better weather than at his own birthday, which was in October.

The parade comes on the same day that US President Donald Trump presides over a huge military parade in Washington on his 79th birthday.