Air crews from RAF Brize Norton were part of an operation to fly the Queen's coffin from Edinburgh to London.

RAF Brize Norton provided the RAF C-17 Globemaster and crew from 99 Squadron that flew the late monarch's coffin, accompanied by Princess Royal and her husband, to the capital.

Witney MP Robert Courts tweeted: "Great work. You did HM proud on her final flight. Consummate professionals - civil and military aviation paying the finest tribute."

Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston told Sky News the heavily used aircraft carried the majority of the 15,000 people evacuated from Kabul last summer.

He added: "But on this very sad occasion it will be carrying Her Majesty’s coffin down from Edinburgh to RAF Northolt."

Like every flight bearing the Queen, it bore the call sign Kittyhawk, but for the last time. 

Tracking website Flightradar24 said “nearly six million people attempted to follow” the flight.

The number of people attempting to track the plane on Tuesday caused the website to run into problems.

“In the moments before take-off, nearly six million people attempted to follow the flight, causing disruption to our platform,” a statement on Flightradar24’s Twitter account read.

“We are working to ensure stability across our platform at the moment.”

A later tweet confirmed: “600k able to follow. Six million total attempts (which is what brought the site down).”

Flight KRF01R was the most-tracked flight in the world on Flightradar24 once the website recovered, with more than 350,000 watching as it moved south through the UK, having left Edinburgh at 7.42pm on Tuesday.

The plane landed shortly before 7pm in north-west London.

Westbound traffic on the A40 ground to a halt as commuters abandoned their cars to climb the central reservation and salute.

 

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