The British royals cannot travel without certain things, such as additional bags of blood.
Dickie Arbiter, former press secretary to Queen Elizabeth II and media manager to King Charles III and Princess Diana, made the accusation. Arbiter, who worked for the royal family between 1988 and 2000, was featured on Hello! magazine’s “A Right Royal” podcast on Wednesday.
“You’ve got to make sure that you’re covered in every eventuality,” Arbiter said, “and the aircraft-carried blood as well. Blood, yes, for in the case there was a blood transfusion.”
According to Arbiter, the late Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, as well as Charles and Diana, went with blood packs as a precaution. It is thought that the practice is still in use today.
“There’s never really a guarantee that you’re going to get the right type of blood at your destination,” Arbiter said. “So you carry it.”
In addition, it was “standard practice” to carry “a black outfit.”
“When I packed my own suitcase, there would be a black tie in there,” Arbiter said. “You always think of the worst.”
Arbiter told that Charles flying his own commercial plane was not unusual.
“If we were using the queen’s flight, invariably the Prince of Wales would pilot the aircraft,” Arbiter said. “He was a qualified pilot, commercial. He doesn’t anymore, but he used to. The late Prince Philip used to, as well. Prince Charles would fly the whirlwind helicopters of the queen’s flight. [On] occasions, I’ve been on a flight and the prince would be upfront. The RAF [Royal Air Force] crew would take off and then he would go up front.”
“Younger royals tend to take private jets, senior royals don’t,” he said. “If the late queen went to Australia with the late Prince Philip… if a plane wasn’t available, they would go British Airways, paying for it. It wouldn’t be given for free. The first-class section might be turned into bedroom quarters.”
Shannon Felton Spence, a royal specialist who traveled with Charles and Camilla, the Queen Consort, in 2015, told Fox News Digital that traveling with blood vials “makes sense.” And the black outfit rule is common operating practice.
“The late Queen Elizabeth II was caught totally off-guard when her father passed away while she was in Kenya,” Felton Spence said. “She didn’t have a black outfit to exit the plane in the U.K. Knowing that the world’s photographers would be on her, a lady’s maid had to run a black dress up the tarmac to her so she could change before she stepped out.
But it’s not just if a member of the family were to pass away. It’s any major dignitary throughout the world. Given how unpredictable that can be and the lessons learned from 1952 with the queen, they always travel with one appropriate all-black outfit.”
Other travel rules are said to be followed by the royals. Felton Spence claims that while choosing an airline or hotel, they always choose a British brand. Princes William and Harry favor The Carlyle in New York City because their mother “loved it there” and “love to feel that connection with her.” When it comes to flying, the commercial is the best option.