A jet carrying members of the royal family landed in Scotland as loved ones gathered around the bed of Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle to pay their respects. The royal family has just announced the Queen is dead.
Queen Dead: Royal Family Jets Into Scotland To Be By Queen Elizabeth II’s Side
A Dassault Falcon 900LX jet, part of the Royal Air Force fleet, carrying Prince William, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex, touched down in Scotland earlier today. The royal family members joined Prince Charles and his wife Camilla as well as Princess Anne at the Queen’s beside at Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Sadly, they were too late…the Queen had passed in the presence of Prince Charles and Princess Anne before the others could make it.
In recent days, the Queen’s health has declined and there was growing fear over her condition after she was unable to attend a virtual meeting of the Privy Council last night during which Prime Minister Liz Truss was to have taken her oath as First Lord of the Treasury. Indeed, she is now dead.
I know this isn’t much of an aviation story, though the jet carrying members of the royal family gave me the slight aviation angle I was looking for to justify this story.
In reality, I am an ardent admirer of the Queen and even flew to London earlier this year to take part in her Platinum Jubilee celebration.
> Read More: My Platinum Jubilee Trip To London
I joined the Archbishop of Canterbury in praying for her health throughout the day:
My prayers, and the prayers of people across the @churchofengland and the nation, are with Her Majesty The Queen today.
May God’s presence strengthen and comfort Her Majesty, her family, and those who are caring for her at Balmoral.
— Archbishop of Canterbury (@JustinWelby) September 8, 2022
And I now join in mourning over her passing and expressing hope that she is in the presence of God and thanksgiving for her remarkable 70-year reign.
CONCLUSION
I think this story is also a reminder that when death arrives at the doorstep of a loved one, we move mountains to by her side. It was a busy week for members of the royal family, including Prince Harry, but they dropped everything to fly to Scotland to be by the Queen’s side. Sadly, they were too late. Isn’t that a remarkable thing that links all members of the human family, regardless of race, creed, or social class? What a blessing that airplanes make such family reunions possible on such short notice. Even so, death does not operate on our schedule.
The Queen is dead. Long live the King.
image: Stuart Yeates
Reptiloids live forever. Charles is in the thrall of Klaus Schwab. Pray for England. Pray for the world.
You’re in thrall to a Trump. God save the world
End of an era, for sure. Time goes by, things change, but she was one of the constants for so long. She was both a repudiation and now a reminder of that fact.
Queen Elizabeth oversaw the biggest decline of an empire, short of extinction, in history. Not exactly a resounding success.
If the Queen had real power this would be a valid point. However, given that the monarch’s role today is purely ceremonial, you will have to lay the blame for the loss of the British empire at the feet of the people themselves. They voted for the governments that gave it all up. Whether you consider losing the empire a good or bad thing is beside the point.
The same thing is happening here in the US right now…….
Her role is NOT purely ceremonial.
She can fire a PM (and did fire the Australian PM in 1975). She also has to sign any laws. Any veto and there is no option to override (she did veto laws, but did so quietly by informing the PM before debate even started that she would not provide royal assent)
Most countries would have loved to stay under the British rule as equal subjects. The problem with you colonial white f*cks was that you wanted to exploit people and their land for wealth and toss them aside. So f*ck you. And you European f*cks haven’t paid enough restitution for colonialism.
This is a travel forum. Also you’ve exposed yourself in many previous comments on previous posts the past year on how you’re basically an anti-Semitic Nazi, so it’s ironic how you’re saying this.
Debit, the language. Please.
Geme, if you measure “the decline of an empire” by the countries that were returned to independence then I think many would consider that a good thing?
A biographer of The Queen wrote that she was the first monarch to reverse 1000 years of accepted practice that a monarch’s job is to consolidate, conquer or expand territory. She came to the throne “with the specific expectation that she would hand stuff back, withdraw, reduce Britain’s footprint.”
It seems to me that she succeeded.
It is no small task to reign over a massive downsizing of an unsustainable, very expensive-to-try-to-maintain empire and yet be respected by even many of her former subjects in colonies and other territories whose peoples had been involuntarily subjected to British suzerainty.
I am no fan of royal families, but this late Queen was a dignified lady and a better head of state than a lot of the buffoons who have been heads of state or government in states with younger democratic status in Europe and elsewhere.
She did her duty and more by constitutionally and honorably serving her country, the Commonwealth and indeed the world until her end. Her institutional role and support of classic institutions is her legacy.
I happened to be in London during her 25th Jubilee and stood along with hundreds of thousands watching as she rode through the area in her carriage, I still remember the excitement I felt when I actually saw her as she passed by. There will be thousands trashing her over Diana and other events, but I’ll remember her as an amazing, sincere, remarkable woman. God bless her soul.
I think it doubtful the members of the Royal Family actually travelled together by air……Andrew certainly wasn’t with anybody else as he journeyed north to Scotland.
William, Andrew, Edward, and Sophie all flew together. It was confirmed.
Granted, this makes it an avaiation story in the most technical of ways, but hey, it’s Matthew’s blog…
Headline should have been phrased/stated differently…no mention of MMerkle in the article..by accident or design?
The Queen was the last royal to understand that the allure of the monarchy lies in mystique and constancy, not celebrity or trend.
Well said.
Agreed.
See you in London Matthew?
I’ll be there.
You may wantto reconsider this. They are facing a maasive security crisis with the crowds. It will not be pleasant.
I know it will be bad. I won’t be invited to the funeral, but I will pay my respects as she lies in state.
he who?
He who misspells, loses.
I believe the state funeral will be in 10 days.
Can’t imagine being in London now on holiday
Famous or not famous, rich or poor, we al have to go to the eye in the sky one day.
May she RIP. Looking forward to Megan Markle becoming the new Queen. I’m sure she will handle the role with grace and dignity.
I am sure she will use horses instead of private planes to save the planet.
she’s already been the queen the whole time in her mind. Since birth.
Funny that everyone focuses their hate on megan here, but not a peep about Camilla who did way more damage to the royals. There must be some difference between them… what could it be?
Still think that a political system that makes a person the embodiment of the state by who their parents are isn’t much of a political system..
Well it works just fine for me.
Harry flew in business jets. Next, he will be lecturing us on climate change at the U.N.
Thanks Matthew for your transatlantic words
Do you intend on coming to London for the coming commemorative events?
The next two weeks are very busy for me. Neverthless, depending upon when the 10-day “London Bridge” plan starts, I do plan to travel to London so I can pay my respects as she lies in state at Westminster.
Dear readers, if anyone has a way to get me into the state funeral, well, I would drop everything for that…
London Bridge plan:
https://www.npr.org/2022/09/08/1121745136/queen-elizabeth-2-death-protocol-public-ceremonies-funeral-accession
Great time to be in London now that the British Pound is almost at parity with the USD.
Also it would appear that the Queen passed away about an hour and a half before the other members of the Royal family arrived (King Charles III and the Queen Consort were already there). Prime Minister Truss was notified at 430pm BST, the rest of the Royal family arrived after 6pm BST, and Buckingham Palace made an official announcement at 630pm BST.
Do you think she was dead or they knew then she would soon go? I guess we may never find out.
The Royals are indeed different. Even to die they have protocols.
As you said, it is likely that we will never know. A quick observation:
– the approx. flight time from RAF Northholt to Aberdeen Airport is just over an hour
– It’s about an hour’s drive from Aberdeen Airport to Balmoral Castle
Based on this, they likely departed RAF Northolt around 4pm – assuming Prime Minister Truss was informed almost right away, I would surmise that Ma’am passed away while the rest of the family was enroute.
Totally jealous about your planned trip to the UK – it’s my second home, and my family and I never need an excuse to visit, but we just returned from a trip to Europe, and the kids just started school (plus, my wife and I have jobs with less flexibility than you:)).
It’s since been said that the British PM was informed of the death at around 4:30pm and that the only two senior blood relatives at Balmoral at the time of the Queen’s death were Princess Anne and Prince Charles. The other high profile blood relatives — including her son Andrew and grandson William — only arrived there after her death was already communicated to the British PM.
I feel that I should correct the post in relation to the dismissal of the then Prime Minister of Australia in 1975. The Prime Minister was dismissed by the then Governor General of Australia, not by Her Majesty the Queen. As a result of the dismissal a general election was held in which the Australian people democratically voted for a change in government.
God save the Queen
We mean it man
There ain’t no future
And England’s dreaming
I fully agree what you say on planes being a blessing in this regard. Less than a year ago I heard the saddest news in my life being 12,000km away from my loved ones. 2 hours later I was sitting in a plane and was with them the next morning during the worst time of our lives. It would only have been more devastating if that wouldn’t have been possible.
You don’t want Harry to be racing along the highway and get into an accident like his mother did.
Say goodbye by phone.
@ Matthew – did you make it to the UK? Lines are currently only about 2.5 miles long, but could stretch to 10 miles.
Live Tracker from the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport:
I will not be able to leave until tomorrow (post coming). I realize I may be too late – I am hoping for the best. Wish I was there now – send good thoughts my way!
Have a blessed trip.
My favourite part so far. Rendition of Psalm 139 as Ma’am enters Westminster Hall. I think you will enjoy it too.
https://youtu.be/mqm3iJKHpH4