Parkland, Fla., students and families flew to Washington, D.C., on the Patriots’ plane



Students and families from Parkland, Fla., were transported to Washington, D.C., ahead of the “March for Our Lives” against gun violence this Saturday with the help of the New England Patriots.

On Thursday, team owner Robert Kraft provided the team’s official plane to fly the families of the 17 victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and some of the students who were injured to the nation’s capital for the event, Patriots spokesman Stacey James said.

James said Kraft decided to lend the plane to those affected by the shooting after former Arizona representative Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, reached out to him and asked for the favor.