Pope Leo XIV's return trip to Rome from Tenerife has changed plans . The pontiff was forced to abandon the plane he was supposed to take with the Vatican delegation due to a "technical issue" : he will land in the capital on the King of Spain's plane , "kindly offered by His Majesty." The news comes from the Holy See press office, which emphasizes that the plane is scheduled to take off at 6:00 PM local time and land in Rome at 11:00 PM.

The Holy See staff and journalists on the papal flight will return in the next few hours on another plane made available by Iberia , the airline that experienced the fault.

The snag occurred as the papal flight carrying Leo XIV was about to start its engines and proceed to the runway. The pilots noticed that one of the engines wasn't working as expected, prompting the announcement: "I'm sorry to have to tell you this," the captain said, "but we've had a problem with one of the systems on board. Our staff is working to resolve the issue."

Then the decision to change planes for the return to Italy was made after the technicians verified that the fault "could not be repaired immediately".

(Unioneonline/vl)