The Royal family thanked the Red Arrows for “for an extraordinary finale to an extraordinary day” after they performed a flypast over Buckingham Palace.
The King and Queen appeared on the palace balcony to watch the scaled-down military flypast with the RAF display team trailing red, white and blue smoke as their Hawk jets flew over the crowds gathered on The Mall and outside the palace.
Footage of the flypast was posted on the royal’s Twitter account where they said: “Thank you @rafredarrows for an extraordinary finale to an extraordinary day!”
Thank you @rafredarrows for an extraordinary finale to an extraordinary day! 🫡🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/EGgjBRx55A
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) May 6, 2023
Red Arrows crew also posted footage from their planes showing them flying over London for the display.
Coronation flypast: This was the view of #London from our aircraft this afternoon. The #RedArrows were honoured to join others from across the Royal Air Force and Armed Forces taking part in celebrations marking the Coronation of Their Majesties the King and Queen. #Coronation pic.twitter.com/MaDRTQ1gjr
— Red Arrows (@rafredarrows) May 6, 2023
More than 60 aircraft from the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force had been due to take part in the flypast, but “unsuitable weather conditions” meant that plan had to be abandoned.
Instead, helicopters from the three services and the Red Arrows took part in the display which lasted for around two-and-a-half minutes.
The King and Queen smiled and waved to the crowds as the aircraft flew overhead.
The RAF acknowledged it was “disappointing that the poor weather prevented all of our aircraft participating in the flypast”.
In a social media post, the RAF said: “The safety of spectators and our pilots and crew always comes first and the conditions weren’t right for the other planned aircraft to join the flypast today.
“We are hoping for clear blue skies in June for The King’s birthday flypast.”
Footage from Royal Navy helicopters showed how poor the weather was in the skies above London.
Rain streaked the windshields of the aircraft as they flew low over the heart of the capital.
The flypast involved 16 Juno, Wildcat, Merlin, Apache, Chinook and Puma helicopters and nine Red Arrow Hawks.
