Pope Leo was forced to change his plans after Iberia plane was grounded in Tenerife due to technical fault.
Pope Leo XIV completed his week-long apostolic visit to Spain in an unexpected way on Friday, after a technical fault grounded his scheduled charter flight and King Felipe VI stepped in to offer his personal aircraft for the journey back to Rome.
The incident occurred at Tenerife North-Ciudad de La Laguna Airport, where the Holy Father was concluding his final engagements before returning to Rome.
What happened
During pre-flight procedures, crew members detected a technical issue that prevented the aircraft from departing, and as a precaution the operation was halted.
The pontiff’s scheduled flight to Rome was cancelled due to a technical malfunction on the Iberia Airbus A320 aircraft.
The pope, accompanied by his delegation and dozens of Vatican journalists, was already on board when the engine problem became known.
The Iberia pilot said the engine had failed to start after Leo had boarded. Initial efforts to fix it failed, forcing all passengers – inlcuding the pontiff – to disembark.
King of Spain to the rescue
King Felipe VI of Spain offered his private jet, a Falcon aircraft, in place of the grounded charter.
Felipe escorted Leo to the Falcon on the tarmac at the airport in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The Holy See’s press office confirmed the arrangement had been “kindly offered by His Majesty.”
The flight finally took off more than three hours behind schedule. Because of the delay, the traditional in-flight press conference that popes typically hold during international trips was cancelled.
Spain trip
Despite the disruption, Pope Leo returned safely to the Vatican late on Friday night, bringing to a close a journey defined by messages of social inclusion and solidarity with migrants, along with a historic address to the Spanish Congress and the inauguration of the new tower of the Sagrada Família basilica.
As for the journalists stranded in Tenerife, Iberia sent another plane from Madrid to take them back to Rome where they arrived in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Photo credit: OSCAR GONZALEZ FUENTES / Shutterstock.com
