Yahoo News Kate Middleton and Prince William's Plane Turned Around by Terrifying Electrical Storm in Pakistan
Kate Middleton and Prince William encountered a scary moment during their tour of Pakistan.
After a busy day of engagements in Lahore, the royal couple were traveling back to Islamabad on a jet when a terrifying electrical storm hit. At one point, lightning could be seen over the right wing as the plane bumped and rolled side to side over stormy Islamabad.
Despite the best efforts of the pilot to land the RAF Voyager at two different airports, the plane had to turn back to Lahore. The flight was meant to take about 25 minutes, but the plane was in the air for two hours.
“Those big flashes are the RAF Voyager, carrying William, Kate and traveling media, going through [lightning] – two aborted landings at Islamabad due to the storm and we’re back in Lahore,” tweeted Press Association reporter Emma Louise Bowden.
Those big flashes are the RAF Voyager, carrying William, Kate and travelling media, going through lighting - two aborted landings at Islamabad due to the storm and we’re back in Lahore @PA pic.twitter.com/6q45Em3E53
— Emma Louise Bowden (@emmabowds) October 17, 2019
Phew. Landed! But in Lahore. A terrifying electrical storm hit as we tried to land at Islamabad. Lightning seemed to be crashing around the right wing. Despite the best efforts of the pilot of William and Kate’s RAF Voyager plane we couldn’t couldn’t land there.
— Simon Perry (@SPerryPeoplemag) October 17, 2019
After landing, experienced pilot Prince William reassured members of the media at the back of the plane — and joked that he was the one doing the flying. He suggested it was either going to be a night out in Lahore, or they would return to the capital for the evening.
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Kate and Prince William, both 37, started their day at the SOS Children’s Village, a charity in Lahore that provides a home and family structure to over 150 boys and girls. There, they celebrated the birthdays of three children — Iman, 12, Ibrahim, 6, and Daniyal, 8 — with games, music and traditional Pakistani cakes. And of course, no birthday is complete without singing “Happy Birthday.”
The couple then joined a group of children at the National Cricket Academy in playing a friendly game.
Prince William and his wife then followed in the footsteps of his late mother, Princess Diana, by seeing a mosque and cancer hospital she visited during her trips to Pakistan in the 1990s.
At the hospital, Kate and a young patient sported matching plastic tiaras as the little girl hosted a tea party for the royal couple on her hospital bed.
