Sen. John McCain has left Arizona for the last time as he makes his final flight to Washington, D.C.
An Air Force passenger plane carrying the casket of the six-term senator and two-time presidential candidate departed Thursday.
Hundreds of military service members stood in formation on the tarmac as McCain and his family left the Arizona Air National Guard base at the Phoenix airport.
McCain made the flight from Phoenix to Washington many times after first being elected to the U.S. House in 1982 and then to the U.S. Senate in 1986.
There will be a public viewing Friday at the U.S. Capitol and a service Saturday at Washington National Cathedral. He will be buried Sunday at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
He died Saturday of brain cancer at age 81.
