King Charles III sent condolences Saturday to the U.S. and the families of the Washington, D.C., plane crash victims.
“My family and I have been profoundly shocked and saddened by the dreadful news of the tragic air accident in Washington, D.C., which has led to such a devastating loss of life,” the monarch said in a memo released by Buckingham Palace and shared by multiple news outlets.
“Our hearts, and our special thoughts, are with the people of the United States, and our deepest possible sympathy goes to the families and loved ones of all the victims.”
Charles also said he wanted to pay “particular tribute to the emergency responders who acted so quickly to this horrendous event.”
On Wednesday night, 64 people were on board an American Airlines regional jet inbound to Reagan National Airport from Wichita, Kansas, when the plane collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter carrying three soldiers, sending both aircraft into the Potomac and leaving no survivors.
The cause of the collision remains under investigation.
Search crews are still recovering bodies, and both aircraft remain in the Potomac River until they can be removed in a salvage operation.
The crash is the first commercial airline accident on U.S. soil since 2009, when 50 people were killed when a Buffalo, New York-bound plane stalled after takeoff.
The king also offered condolences in December for the victims of a Dec. 29 plane crash in South Korea that killed 179 people.
“My wife and I were profoundly saddened to learn of the horrific air accident at Muan, which resulted in such grievous loss of life,” he said at the time. “As the people of the Republic of Korea mourn this disaster, the families and loved ones of all the victims are in our prayers.”
The royal family is no stranger to tragedy. Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997, and Lord Louis Mountbatten, the late Queen Elizabeth’s second cousin, was killed in an Irish Republican Army terrorist bombing in Ireland in 1979.
The late queen’s uncle, Prince George, the Duke of Kent, also died in a plane crash in 1942 while visiting troops in Iceland. And her first cousin, Prince William, the Duke of Gloucester, died in 1972 while piloting a plane in a race during an air show in Staffordshire, England.
The royal family is often in the air, flying to far-flung locations, and Prince Philip and King Charles both learned to fly in the military. Prince William and Prince Harry were also both helicopter pilots in the military.
Charles had a scary incident while piloting a small, nonmilitary plane in 1994 over Scotland’s Inner Hebrides when he popped a tire and overshot a runway.
A year later, he gave up his pilot’s license.
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