The king and queen of Belgium remain stranded in Chile more than 16 hours after their scheduled departure due to a “tire incident” on their airplane. King Philippe and Queen Mathilde were supposed to return home on Thursday at 5 p.m. local time from Antofagasta Airport, but a tire was damaged when a tow truck moved the plane in preparation for take off, according to Belgian paper HLN. The Airbus A340-300 is operated by Hi Fly, a Portuguese carrier, the outlet reported. After spending Thursday night in a nearby hotel, the royal couple were scheduled to fly out Friday at noon, but their plans were again nixed. The two “can’t fly back today,” an HLN reporter posted on X, because the repaired tire hadn’t been cleared by safety authorities. It wasn’t immediately clear when their new estimated departure time was as of publication. Oddly, the royals began their state visit to the South American country a day late due to more plane trouble: “technical problems” on the outbound flight.
Read it at Belga News Agency
