“It’s a C-17 Globemaster, which is our strategic air carrier, but on this very sad occasion it will be carrying Her Majesty’s coffin from Edinburgh to RAF Northolt,” he told Sky News. “As you can imagine, a lot of planning goes into a unique project like this, and we’ve worked closely with the Palace to deliver it to their wishes, and it’s a day we all clearly hoped would never come. He added: “It’s a heavily used aircraft – it carried the majority of the 15,000 people we evacuated from Kabul last summer. “And since then, it has been involved in airlifting humanitarian aid and lethal aid nodes in support of Ukraine.” He said the Queen’s coffin would have a royal guard of honor when it was loaded onto the aircraft in Edinburgh made up of 96 gunners from the RAF regiment, the Queen’s Color Squadron. It is expected to arrive in London at 7pm. and will be received by another guard of honour, “again, the squadron of the Queen’s colours, this time with the King’s colors as well”, before entering a hearse and being taken to Buckingham Palace.
