2:05pm PST, Feb 16, 2026
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Seventy-four years ago, in February 1952, Princess Elizabeth was on a Commonwealth tour representing the crown. During a stop in Kenya, she learned that her father, King George VI, had died at age 56 at Sandringham House in Norfolk, England. Though he’d quietly been battling lung cancer, his death was unexpected, and his heir — now known as Queen Elizabeth II — had no mourning clothes with her. Upon landing in London, she had to wait on her plane for courtiers to bring a black dress aboard so she could disembark in appropriate attire.
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Optics are wildly important for the blue bloods, so now, every member of the royal family packs a black ensemble in their suitcase when traveling. This rule ensures that if King Charles III or another senior royal passes away while a family member is abroad, they can step off the plane back in the U.K. in an appropriate mourning look. But that’s hardly the only unusual travel rule Britain’s most famous family follows.
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Fears of an air accident aren’t unfounded. Three British royals have died in plane crashes in the last century. In 1937, eight-months-pregnant Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark — the sister of Queen Elizabeth II’s husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh — perished when her aircraft struck a factory chimney while flying in thick fog in Belgium. Reports indicated she’d given birth mid-flight, as a newborn’s remains were also found among the wreckage.
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In 1942, during World War II, Queen Elizabeth II’s uncle Prince George, Duke of Kent, died when a Royal Air Force Short S.25 Sunderland flying boat crashed in the Scottish Highlands, killing 14 of the 15 people on board.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.wonderwall.com ’
