Even popes get stuck at the gate sometimes. That’s exactly what happened to Pope Leo XIV on Friday at Tenerife Norte-Los Rodeos International Airport, the same famously foggy airport in the Canary Islands that has stranded plenty of regular travelers over the years.
According to AP reporting, Leo’s Iberia charter was supposed to fly him back to Rome after a weeklong visit to Spain that took him through Madrid, Barcelona, and the Canary Islands. But the engine failed to start after the pope had already boarded. The pilot tried to fix it. No luck. Everyone had to disembark. And just like that, the leader of the Catholic Church found himself grounded.
Enter King Felipe VI, who apparently decided that if the papal plane wasn’t going to work, the Spanish monarchy would simply provide alternatives. The king escorted Leo across the tarmac and onto his own Falcon private jet. Leo and members of his delegation boarded, and they took off more than three hours after the original scheduled departure.
It’s the first time in decades that a papal flight has had a serious enough problem to require the pope to switch planes. That’s saying something, considering the Vatican has been flying popes around the world for decades. Veteran Vatican reporters noted a few other incidents during St. John Paul II’s pontificate, including a 1986 return from India when the plane had to land in Naples due to a snowstorm in Rome, and the pope took a special train back to the capital. In 1988, bad weather forced John Paul’s plane to land in South Africa during a trip to Lesotho, a country he had specifically excluded from his African itinerary because of apartheid.
What makes this situation different is that it wasn’t weather or some external factor. It was a straightforward mechanical failure, and the solution was elegantly Spanish. Iberia, to its credit, had earlier in the trip shared videos of Leo seated in the cockpit smiling broadly as the plane carried him from Madrid to Barcelona, and then onto the Canary Islands. Spanish military aircraft provided an airborne escort in a sign of respect for the visiting dignitary. In one clip, Leo was seen waving to the escorting pilot.
These diplomatic touches matter. They signal respect, hospitality, and the carefully choreographed dance between the Vatican and host nations. The Spanish pulled out all the stops for this visit, and when things went sideways, they didn’t hesitate to offer an upgrade that probably wasn’t in the original protocol manual.
The question now is what happens next time. ITA Airways, the Italian national carrier, typically handles papal flights, with the destination country’s national carrier handling the return journey. That system worked fine until it didn’t. Iberia sent another plane from Madrid to pick up the Vatican officials and journalists who weren’t on the Falcon with the pope, so everyone got home eventually.
For all the pageantry and security surrounding papal travel, sometimes a engine just won’t start. And sometimes the king of Spain happens to have a private jet waiting on the tarmac. It’s a reminder that even the most carefully planned diplomatic trips can still come down to improvisation and the willingness of one head of state to say, “Hey, hop in mine.”
