When it comes to travelling abroad, countless rules are in place to protect King Charles and other members of the Royal Family. Whether it is bringing their own alcoholic drinks for fear of poisoning, not allowing two or more heirs to fly in the same plane or travelling with bags of spare blood in case of an emergency, all the restrictions are in place for a reason.
There is another important royal custom that was introduced after a previous experience left Queen Elizabeth II unprepared for her monumental return to the UK.
This rule now affects every member of the Royal Family whenever they travel abroad so that a similar situation doesn’t arise.
Princess Elizabeth was not in the UK when she became the Queen on February 6, 1952. She was instead at the beginning of a Commonwealth tour in Kenya when her father died suddenly at Sandringham House in Norfolk from lung cancer, aged 56.
As King George VI’s death was unexpected, the Queen had not packed a black dress for her official tour in case she needed to return quickly.
As a result, when her plane landed at London Airport the following day on February 7, a suitable dress was brought aboard for her to change into before she disembarked. Ever since then, it has become customary for royals to travel in black dress or appropriate mourning attire when someone dies while they are abroad.
It is understood that both King Charles and Prince William follow in the late Queen’s footsteps and do this as well. It is also vital that the two heirs to the throne do not travel in the same plane.
While it has been claimed that environmentally-conscious Prince William does not typically follow this rule with his son, Prince George, 12, King Charles did opt to and often travelled separately from his eldest son.
While plane crashes are thankfully rare nowadays, there have been three members of the Royal Family to die in three separate air accidents over the years.
The first horrific accident took place in 1937 when Prince Philip’s sister, Princess Cecile, died in a crash when she was eight months pregnant. She had given birth mid-flight, and a newborn baby was found among the wreckage. Cecile, along with the six other passengers and the plane crew, all died instantly.
The next plane crash occurred during World War II when the late Queen’s uncle, Prince George, Duke of Kent, died in 1942. He was aged just 39 at the time, and all but one of the people aboard the plane had died when the aircraft came down over Caithness in Scotland.
The final tragedy happened when the Queen’s cousin, Prince William of Gloucester, died while competing in the Goodyear International Air Trophy on August 28, 1972. Shortly after take-off, the wing hit a tree and flew off. The out-of-control plane flipped over and crashed into a bank before bursting into flames in front of 30,000 spectators. Prince William was identified the following day from dental records.