The Queen’s coffin arrives at Buckingham Palace, and King Charles III pays a visit to Belfast.

LONDON — Thousands of mourners lined up for hours from England to Scotland to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth II, whose coffin was flown from Edinburgh to London on Tuesday evening, the latest leg of a 500-mile ceremonial journey that will take the late monarch to her final resting place in Windsor.

The casket of Queen Elizabeth II has arrived in London. In the late afternoon, men in feathered caps played bagpipes as the coffin was brought out of St. Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland. The coffin was conveyed by hearse to Edinburgh Airport, where it was put aboard a Royal Air Force C17 aircraft. At about 5:45 p.m., the jet took off from Edinburgh’s airport. and arrived at RAF Northholt airstrip slightly over an hour later. Princess Anne traveled with her mother on the voyage. When the coffin arrived in London, an honor guard received it beneath a gloomy sky. Mourners lined the streets as the casket made its way to Buckingham Palace, where it would spend the night.
In a statement released Tuesday, Princess Anne honored her mother. “I was blessed to experience my beloved mother’s last 24 hours,” she stated. 
Heathrow indicated that certain flights would be canceled “to maintain quiet throughout the ceremonial procession” of the queen’s coffin to Westminster Hall on Wednesday afternoon “out of respect for the time of sadness.” Heathrow said in a statement that airlines would advise customers of any flight disruptions, and that it expects modifications to airport operations on Monday, the day of the Queen’s burial. Charles and Camilla attended the queen’s memorial ceremony at St. Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast. “We apologize for the inconvenience and are working to minimize the effect on the next events,” the statement stated. In the pews, UK Prime Minister Liz Truss sat next to her Irish colleague, Micheál Martin. The Archbishop John McDowell, the ecclesiastical leader of the Church of Ireland, praised the queen for her “vocation as a Christian monarch” and her attempts to bring disparate populations in Ireland together. In a sermon, McDowell stated, “Queen Elizabeth went where Jesus led, as women frequently have, in the elusive and unfinished work of reconciliation here in Ireland.” 
When Charles arrived at St. Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast, the first four individuals to welcome him were leaders of Northern Ireland’s Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, and Chinese communities. “I never anticipated being the first in line to welcome him,” said Satyavir Singhal, head of the Indian Community Center of Belfast, which represents the 15,000 or so Hindu inhabitants of Northern Ireland. The brief meeting, organized by palace officials, reinforced Singhal’s conviction that, while Charles is a “committed Christian,” he also “respects and admires every other religion.” Speaking for the first time as monarch in Belfast, the king promised to “bring together those whom history had divided,” adding that the queen had long prayed for the people of Northern Ireland. 

The Northern Ireland Assembly speaker, Alex Maskey, a member of the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, sent his sympathies to the king. “She illustrated how a simple but meaningful gesture, a visit, a handshake, crossing the street, or speaking a few words of Irish, can make a great impact in altering perceptions and creating relationships,” he added. However, Sinn Fein delegates did not attend a ceremony commemorating the new king’s accession.
The devolved government in Northern Ireland is in disarray. However, political leaders set aside their differences to shake hands with the new monarch and sat side by side at the queen’s memorial ceremony in Belfast.
According to a YouGov poll for the Times newspaper, support for Charles has improved considerably since he became king, with 63 percent now believing he would be a fine ruler, up 24 points from March.
The Scottish government said Tuesday that 26,000 people had seen the queen’s coffin since Monday, while thousands more waited to visit the late monarch at St. Giles’ Cathedral.
Police arrested a man videotaped heckling Prince Andrew, the queen’s third child, who has been the focus of countless issues, as the king and his siblings escorted the queen’s coffin through Edinburgh. Lawyers and free-speech campaigners are concerned amid reports of similar arrests of protestors at gatherings mourning the queen’s death and Charles’ ascension in recent days.