Prince William salutes fellow 'rotary crews' for leading King Charles' coronation flypast
The Prince and Princess of Wales have thanked the Royal Air Force rotary crews for doing the "heavy lifting" after the aircraft carried out a flypast during the coronation of King Charles.
"Noted the rotary crews did the heavy lifting… perfect flying conditions if you ask me!" the pair said in a tweet, alongside a winking emoji.
"A big thank you to everyone for making today happen."
During his military career, Prince William served for four months with the RAF, which helped the Duke learn to pilot helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.
After passing his exams with the Royal Air Force, Flight Lieutenant Wales joined C Flight, 22 Squadron, at RAF Valley in Anglesey in September 2010.
He then served for three years as a search and rescue pilot, which saw the Duke conduct 156 operations, take on routine operational deployment to the Falkland Islands and qualify as an operational captain.
The light-hearted post from the Prince and Princess came after Wildcat, Merlin, Apache and Chinook helicopters took part in the coronation flypast, alongside the RAF Red Arrows.
This was a reduced number of aircraft due to poor weather, with rain and low cloud.
Originally, the flypast was intended to be made up of more than 60 aircraft – with all three services to be represented.
Many members of the Royal Family looked up and pointed at the aircraft but the King and Queen smiled and waved to the crowds as they flew overhead.
The flypast lasted for two minutes and thirty seconds rather than the scheduled six minutes for the planned display.
At least 10 helicopters took part in the flypast alongside a Red Arrows squad of nine Hawk jets.
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