Why did the royal family wear black armbands at King Charles’ birthday parade?

At Trooping the Colour, the official parade that marks King Charles's birthday, the members of the royal family were spotted wearing black armbands. The symbolic gesture was to honour the victims of the Air India plane crash tragedy that happened this week, according to Buckingham Palace.

A minute’s silence was observed at the request of Charles after his inspection of the parade at the dais. A palace spokesman said that it was “as a mark of respect to the lives lost, the families in mourning and all the communities affected by this awful tragedy.” At royal residences and government buildings, Union flags have been at half-mast.

After the tragedy on June 12, the royal family’s account had posted a message by King Charles saying that he and his wife were shocked by the terrible events in Ahmedabad. “I would like to pay a particular tribute to the heroic efforts of the emergency services and all those providing help and support at this most heart-breaking and traumatic time.

Trooping the Colour does not celebrate Charles’ actual birthday, which falls on November 14. Instead it is an annual celebration of the monarch in the summer. The king, who usually rides on horseback, will be in an open carriage due to his ongoing cancer treatment and recovery.

The Air India flight that crashed on Thursday, 33 seconds after takeoff from the Ahmedabad airport was en route to London' Gatwick airport. Out of the 241 passengers killed on board, 53 were British nationals. The crash’s lone survivor was also a British national of Indian origin, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh. The plane crashed into a medical residency, killing 33 on the ground. The plane crash is known to be one of the deadliest in recent decades in India.