The plane that was supposed to transport the Pope to Rome broke down, the King of Spain gave him his

Even popes have travel delays. Fortunately for Pope Leo XIV, King Felipe VI today offered him a solution and a ride home.

The charter plane of the Iberia company, which was supposed to return the pope to Rome after a week-long visit to Spain, was unable to take off due to a technical failure, which is why the Spanish king offered the pope his private plane, which he used to travel to the Canary Islands.

Felipe escorted the Pope to his large Falcon business jet on the tarmac at the airport in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. The Pope and members of his delegation boarded and departed more than three hours later than originally planned.

The outage marked an unusual end to an otherwise successful visit that saw the pope in Madrid, where he spoke with authorities, Barcelona, ​​where he consecrated the new tower of the Sagrada Familia Basilica, and the Canary Islands, where he reiterated his humanitarian message on migration.

The Iberia pilot said he was unable to start the engine after the pope boarded. Attempts to repair the engine failed, and the pope and his entourage disembarked. Iberia said it was sending a second plane from Madrid to pick up Vatican officials and journalists who were not with the pope in the royal Falcon, but that its arrival would have to be delayed because the Canary Islands are far from mainland Spain and closer to Africa than the Iberian Peninsula.

This is the first time in decades that a pope has had to change planes during a trip.

Experienced Vatican reporters, some of whom were on the Iberia plane, recalled several similar situations from the pontificate of Pope Saint John Paul II.

During his return from India in 1986, the plane carrying Pope John Paul II had to land in Naples due to a blizzard in Rome, so the pope and his entourage continued to the Italian capital by train.

In 1988, on his way to Lesotho, bad weather forced John Paul II's plane to land in South Africa, which the pope had omitted from his African tour because of its apartheid policies. He then continued his journey by car.

The Pope is usually flown by the Italian airline ITA Airways, and returned home by the national carrier of the host country. However, ITA sometimes operates a return flight, especially for long trips or when the host country does not have a national airline.

These flights are organized as charters, with the pope, the Vatican delegation and security occupying the front of the plane, while about 70 journalists sit behind them.

Iberia had previously released a video during the Pope's visit to Spain showing Leo sitting in the cockpit and smiling broadly as the plane flew from Madrid to Barcelona and then from Barcelona to the Canary Islands. In both cases, Spanish military aircraft provided an honorary escort during the flight as a mark of respect for the high-ranking guest, and in one of the videos Leo is seen waving to the pilot of the accompanying military aircraft.