The Belgian royals have been left stranded in Chile due to a fault with their plane and were due to depart from Antofagasta Airport today. King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium were on the aircraft along with government officials, business leaders, academics, and media representatives, but the plane ‘rattled’ and fell ‘silent’ while being taxied to the runway, reports state.
Passengers were informed that the Airbus A340-300 was damaged and take-off would be delayed “by several hours”, but the flight was later cancelled with sources saying “a tire was destroyed”. The incident happened furing the first Belgian state visit to Latin America in 60 years.
The plane now needs a replacement wheel before it can attempt another takeoff, according to reports in the Daily Mail.
The outbound flight was also delayed by 24 hours due to technical difficulties. Philippe, 65, and Mathilde, 52, were due to depart from Melsbroek Airport at 9am last Sunday, but were told the night before that their plane was suffering technical issues.
They eventually took off 24 hours later on Monday morning in the 24-year-old Airbus, which had been grounded since May 18.
Queen Mathilde has previously experienced a terrifying ordeal when a plane was forced to carry out a priority landing in February. Mathilde was headed to the country for a three-day solo trip organised by UNICEF Belgium and UNICEF Costa Rica when the aircraft suffered a crack to the windshield during the flight.
However, the aircraft safely landed at San José Juan Santamaria International airport and the royal passengers were none the wiser.
Writing on X, royal commentator, Wim Dehandschutter, wrote: “The airplane with Belgian Queen Mathilde landed in Costa Rica with a cracked windshield, according to this account and local media. I was on that flight. As passengers, we didn’t notice anything, and we didn’t receive any notification during the flight or upon landing.”
He added: “Our KLM flight did leave Schiphol 20 minutes late, there was turbulence – as on many flights – and the landing was quite hard, but nothing seemed to be alarming. So I was a bit surprised when I read reports in the local media and on X about the ’emergency landing'”.
The recent trip to Chile aimed to strengthen Belgium’s ties with the country, with visits that included a tour of the European Southern Observatory, an intergovernmental astronomy organisation co-founded by Belgium, and a stop at the SQM lithium refinery in Antofagasta. Chile holds the world’s largest reserves of the mineral used in batteries.